600,000 households in the Netherlands live in energy poverty. The main reasons for this are rising energy costs, poor insulation and low income.
If a household has to live on minimum wage or benefits, even a small increase in energy prices can cause payment problems, and the problem is exacerbated when you add living in poorly insulated housing. In such a situation, households have to cope with “energy poverty”.
Research organization TNO published the report “Energy poverty in the Netherlands 2022”. According to the report, it was stated that more than 600,000 households lived in energy poverty last year. In other words, the energy costs of hundreds of thousands of households have increased, besides, the insulation of the houses is very bad and the people living in these houses are generally low-income.
Without the government’s support, the figure would have reached millions!
According to the figures announced by TNO, while 510 thousand households in the country had to cope with energy poverty two years ago, this figure increased to at least 600 thousand households last year. According to TNO, the increase would have been much higher had it not been for the government’s energy assistance.
TNO, who reached this conclusion by comparing the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) in 2020 with the high energy prices in 2022, states that the energy incentives given last year and the data obtained with energy savings are also used in the calculations.
Peter Mulder, one of the researchers at the institution, stated that the energy aid provided brakes on the increase in the number of energy poor houses, and said that “if it were not for the financial support of the government, the number of energy poor households would have increased by two compared to 2020 and exceeded one million.”
Two-thirds of energy-poor households belong to home offices
More than two-thirds of energy-poor households are home office-owned residences, according to TNO figures. Nearly 20 percent of energy-poor homes are private sector rentals, and around 12 percent are purchased homes.
Most residents of low-energy-label households are single-person households and single-parent families. 19 percent of those living in an energy-poor house in 2020 and 33 percent in 2022 consist of families with children.
According to the study, most of the households affected by energy poverty are located in the eastern and northeastern parts of the country and in major cities. Energy poverty is particularly prevalent in Noordoost-Groningen, Zuid-Limburg, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Arnhem and its environs, as well as in Almelo and Enschede.
Mulder explains that “there are relatively many low-income households in these areas and their homes are poorly insulated. This is not a good combination at all with high energy prices.”
Costs increased
Energy poor households spent an average of 12.7 percent of their income on energy costs last year, up from 9 percent in 2020, according to the TNO study. In other words, while energy-poor households paid 65 euros more than the monthly average in 2020, they had to pay 190 euros more than usual in 2022. It is estimated that the increase in the cost of the invoice could reach an average of 260 euros without government support.
The researchers noted that in the Netherlands overall, households spent 4.2 percent of their income on energy costs in 2020, but last year, the bill paid for energy increased to 7.8 percent of income.
The only solution is to increase sustainability
According to researcher Peter Mulder, the only way out of this situation is to increase the sustainability of residences, especially rental homes with low energy labels.
According to the researcher, there are 415,000 energy-poor houses with F and G labels. These houses can only be heated at great cost. He states that insulating these houses will enable the person living in that house to save money, improve his health, and thus reduce the health costs.