Fire safety and energy poverty: Tackling a hidden injustice

This project aims to investigate the relationships between domestic fire safety and energy
poverty. It starts from the premise that households who struggle to afford needed energy services
in the home are also disproportionately exposed to fire risks, due to the poor quality of their
housing and electricity installations, as well as the higher prevalence of unsafe energy
consumption practices. The studentship speaks to an emergent body of evidence (e.g. Grenfell;
urban fires of summer 2022 in Southeast England) suggesting that energy hardship is one of the
main reasons why fire is a key cause of mortality and morbidity among disadvantaged households
(Clark et al. 2015). Even if the predicament is on the rise due to increasing social inequalities
(Cauvain and Bouzarovski 2016) and the structural effects of climate change (Arnell et al. 2021),
the links between fire safety and energy poverty are poorly understood. In particular, there is a
lack of quantifiable data - in terms of geographic and demographic disaggregation - accompanied
by qualitative insights into the everyday experiences of vulnerable groups.