There are 53,800 households in the Constituency of Bridgwater and West Somerset, which is predominantly rural.
The median weekly wage for full time employees is £544.80 (it is £611.30 in the South West Region and £640.00 in the UK).
Home energy performance
There are 32,700 homes with an EPC rating lower than C, which therefore need improvement to meet the Government's home energy efficiency target for 2035 – which the EEIG recommends bringing forward to 2030.
Bridgwater and West Somerset ranks 423/573 England and Wales Constituencies for the share of homes – 21,100 – rated C. This is worse than the UK average.
It ranks 546/573 for the share of homes – 5,100 – rated F or G (lower ranking is worse). This is worse than the UK average:
In Constituency
UK-Wide
Home energy investment
32,700 homes below an EPC C rating means 4,700 need to be improved each year to meet the EPC C target for all homes by 2030.
3,211 households have received assistance with energy efficiency measures over the nine years of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) to the end of 2022. That's 6.0% of households in Bridgwater and West Somerset, lower than the Great Britain average of 8.6%.
In 2022, 299 households were supported by ECO with a total investment of £2,470,000.
Number of households supported with ECO
Getting all homes up to EPC C requires investment of £245.25 million by 2030 – £35.0 million per year.
Alongside regulation of minimum energy efficiency standards for the rented sectors, Government should contribute around £80.2 million of this total (£11.5 million per year to 2030). Some of this will continue to come from the Energy Company Obligation. More may come from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grants committed to for this Parliament, to address social housing and some of the 5,100 homes in Bridgwater and West Somerset rated EPC F or G.
The remainder needs to come from able-to-pay homeowners incentivised by a step-change in government support for energy efficiency investment. Critically, this support is currently missing from existing policy and manifesto commitments.
For example, varying the rate of Stamp Duty to take account of the EPC rating alongside the sale price could incentivise investment by homeowners and help to embed good energy performance in property values.
In Bridgwater and West Somerset over the last five years, the average number of residential property transactions subject to Stamp Duty was 2,300.
If the properties transacted reflect the Constituency-wide composition of EPC ratings, then 1,400 properties rated D or worse change hands each year and homeowners could – with a Stamp Duty incentive in place – be motivated to improve them.
This could therefore make a significant contribution to the 5,000 properties that need to be improved in Bridgwater and West Somerset each year to meet the EPC C target by 2030 – alongside rented sector regulation, a properly funded and locally led scheme (potentially supported with Home Upgrade Grants), the ECO, and other incentives.
Fuel poverty and excess winter mortality
Using the government's low-income, low energy efficiency indicator, 8,000 households are in fuel poverty in 2023: 14.8%, higher than England's average level of 14.4%. This ranks it 305 out of 533 English Constituencies (higher rank is better).
However, to give a better sense of households' exposure to higher energy prices during the cost of living crisis, an additional measure is used. This looks at how many households would need to spend over 10% of their disposable income, after housing costs, to keep adequately warm. Under this measure, 24,500 households are in fuel poverty in 2023: 45.5%, lower than England's average level of 49.0% This ranks it 241 out of 533 English Constituencies (higher rank is better).
Excluding the impact of Covid, there were 340 excess winter deaths over the last 5 years for which data are available, of which:
102 can be attributed to cold housing conditions
68 can be linked to the coldest 25% of homes in Bridgwater and West Somerset
34 can be directly attributed to fuel poverty
The vulnerability of Bridgwater and West Somerset to excess winter mortality in 2020-21 ranked 167 out of 573 (lower is worse) Constituencies for which data are available.
Cumulative excess winter deaths 2016-17 to 2020-21 (excl. impact of Covid)
Wider impacts
Getting all homes up to a good level of efficiency would save each household on average £500 per year on their energy bills at current energy prices. This would amount to £16.4 million per year across Bridgwater and West Somerset once all homes are improved.
The number of economically active people in Bridgwater and West Somerset is 52,000, of whom 3,000 work in construction. 1,760 economically active people aren't employed. Of these, 330 are young – aged just 16-24. Energy efficiency investment could support employment of 580 people to 2030.
The annual net gross value added (GVA) from an energy efficiency infrastructure investment programme in Bridgwater and West Somerset would be £14.0 million. The present value of GVA over the duration of a programme to 2030 would be £85.6 million.
Other benefits not quantified here include increased tax revenues, the avoided (including hidden) costs of unemployment, better health from improved housing, more spending power, and the latter's impact on the Bridgwater and West Somerset's economy.
