The Affordable Warmth Scheme: Development of the 2018 targeting algorithm and associated technical reports
Paul McKenzie, Christine Liddell, Christopher Morris · Ulster University Research Portal (Ulster University) · 2018
The Affordable Warmth Scheme (AWS) is Northern Ireland's Domestic Energy Efficiency Programme for vulnerable low income households.It is administered by the Department for Communities (DfC).In order to locate households most in need of assistance from AWS, the Department commissioned an area-based targeting tool which was developed by a team from Ulster University (UU), and first trialled in 2012.Versions of this tool have been in use since that time, through various phases of AWS.The algorithm is the main means by which households are initially identified as being potentially suitable under the AWS eligibility criteria.Running in parallel to a Consultation Paper concerning a new Fuel Poverty Strategy for Northern Ireland, and in recognition of many other changes in the local fuel poverty landscape 1 , UU was commissioned to: develop a revised algorithm; prepare a variety of technical documents associated with the algorithm; transfer the algorithm database to a GIS team at DfC.The aims of the revised algorithm remain broadly the same: to identify small geographical areas in which the greatest concentration of need and vulnerability is located, vis-à-vis the prevalence and depth of fuel poverty.Focus remains on owner-occupied and privately rented properties.This report provides details of how the algorithm was developed, along with a broader contextualisation of the status of fuel poverty in Northern Ireland and further afield.