3S researchers Tom Hargreaves and Noel Longhurst led a research programme in this 2-year (2016-2018) UK Energy Research Centre funded research project, based in UEA’s Centre for Competition Policy, which explored Equity and Justice in Energy Markets. As a whole, the research project was multi-disciplinary, drawing together research teams from a range of disciplines including: economics, law, human geography and political science.

Our role within the project was to explore the lived experience of energy vulnerability among social housing tenants. To do this, we worked with Broadland Housing Association to interview 15 of their tenants about their everyday energy use and management. We also spoke with Broadland staff about how they measured, monitored and intervened to try and improve energy vulnerability among their tenants.

So far this research has resulted in an open access journal paper on The Emotions of Fuel Poverty: The lived experience of social housing tenants in the United Kingdom. For more information on the project as a whole, see the project report ‘Fairness in Retail Energy Markets?’