How the world is tackling the cold homes health crisis

A couple admitted to hospital with hypothermia because they couldn’t afford heating.

A man who spent hours a day lying in bed, covered in blankets.

A woman who said she had stopped noticing it was cold—because if she allowed herself to, everything got more difficult.

“It’s harrowing,” says Danielle Butler, senior research and policy officer at the UK charity National Energy Action. She and her colleagues from the University of Salford heard these stories four years ago while researching energy poverty in the Outer Hebrides, a storm lashed archipelago off the west coast of Scotland.

Butler says that the predicaments afflicting some in the Outer Hebrides pre-pandemic are now “commonplace” across the UK. Because of covid-19 and the energy price crisis, energy poverty has become more prevalent, including in less remote and better resourced parts of the country.

There were nearly 5000 excess deaths in the UK last winter caused by cold homes, according to the End Fuel Poverty Coalition. And nearly one in four British social housing households experienced energy poverty in this period, says energy analytics firm Switchee.

The skyrocketing price of fossil fuels, caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has hit people on every continent. A cold home can be deadly—and even if it doesn’t kill you, frigid accommodation can cause severe psychological stress1 and exacerbate chronic conditions such as respiratory illnesses or sickle cell disease.

It is possible to intervene. In the Outer Hebrides, the housing and energy agency Tighean Innse Gall, were able to offer insulation, adjustments to heating systems, and advice about bills and benefits. In total, 199 households received support between 2018 …