London’s Poverty Profile

November 2011: Newly created, London’s Poverty Profile is an independent source of information about poverty and inequality in the capital using the latest official data to reveal patterns of poverty across the capital.Their latest study finds that “Housing costs are a critical factor in explaining why London has the highest poverty rates of all England’s regions. Taking account of housing costs, the poverty rate in London is 28%, compared to 22% in the rest of England, and the gap has grown in the last decade.” This provide further evidence that the number of Londoners deemed to be fuel poor will be much disproportionately higher than elsewhere in the country when, as is likely, the government correctly move to a new definition of fuel poverty (as suggested to Government in the recent Hills Report) to look at energy costs after the costs of housing are taken into account.