Hypothermia cases in England rose sharply during the winter of 2022, according to figures reported by the Daily Mirror and carried by the End Fuel Poverty Coalition. The coalition said the statistics showed an 82 per cent increase in hypothermia cases in December 2022 compared with December 2021, and a 36 per cent increase across 2022 as a whole compared with 20211.
The coalition, an independent campaign body, said the figures followed the inquest of an 87-year-old woman who died in December 2022 after reportedly refusing to turn on her heating for fear of rising energy costs1. The coalition's statement named Awaab Ishak and Barbara Bolton as cases that had made the impact of living in cold damp homes clear in recent months1.
"The energy bills crisis is now a public health crisis and without additional support for those in fuel poverty we will continue to see thousands of excess winter deaths caused by people living in Dickensian conditions."
The coalition also said the Government must step in to speed up the roll out of insulation measures and reform Britain's energy system, adding that without this, hypothermia cases would soar again the following winter1. The figures as reported do not give a total number of cases, a regional breakdown within England, or an age breakdown, and no further detail on how the statistics were compiled has been reported1.
Why it matters for households
The reported rise points to the point at which a bills price cap stops being a line on a statement and becomes a health outcome. A household that keeps heating off to hold down a bill is making a decision about warmth, and the figures reported here describe what happens when that decision is made across a winter. The coalition's own framing is that the cost of energy has become a public health matter rather than only a matter of household budgeting1.
For a home's energy independence, the practical link is between the price of a unit of gas or electricity and the temperature a household is willing to maintain. Insulation measures, which the coalition called on the Government to roll out faster, reduce the amount of energy needed to hold a given temperature, so they change the terms of that trade-off rather than the price alone1. Where a household is already carrying energy debt, the routes available differ by nation, with separate arrangements in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
What happens next
The coalition said the Government must speed up the roll out of insulation measures and reform the energy system "this summer", warning that otherwise hypothermia cases would soar again next winter1. No further dated commitments from Government have been reported1.
Sources1 cited
- Hypothermia cases in England surge during energy bills crisis, endfuelpoverty.org.uk