NEW Government figures show one in seven Tendring households were living in fuel poverty in 2022.

Fuel poverty is the term used to describe a household which needs to spend at least 10 per cent of its income on maintaining a satisfactory heating regime.

Households are judged to be in fuel poverty if they are below the poverty line and living in a house with an energy efficiency rating of D or worse.

Latest estimates from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities suggest 9,901 households in Tendring were living in fuel poverty in 2022.

This equates to 14.4 per cent of the 68,971 households in the area, meaning Tendring is 1.3 per cent above England's average of 13.1 per cent.

However, out of the 574 neighbourhoods where at least a third of households were suffering fuel poverty, none of these were in Tendring.

Nationally, 3.2 million households were estimated to be in fuel poverty in 2022, which is a similar figure to the year before.

Energy prices skyrocketed from the end of 2021 due to reduced supply and geopolitical issues putting more pressure on hard-up households.