Better use of data and AI in delivering benefits to the fuel poor: research report and CFP’s recommendations
Research report by Deloitte LLP and the Committee on Fuel Poverty (CFP)'s recommendations.
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Policies aimed at assisting the fuel poor are currently constrained by their inability to efficiently identify the location of fuel poor households. The Committee on Fuel Poverty therefore commissioned research, undertaken by Deloitte LLP, to study if the use of data and advanced statistics / machine learning (termed broadly as AI) could help improve the identification of these households. The research identified that there is potential for significant financial benefits from using AI in the Energy Company Obligation and it listed the challenges to implementation, together with potential mitigating actions.
Based on the research, the Committee’s recommendations are that the combined use of AI with the improved access to government data from the Digital Economy Act should be used to improve the identification of individual households in fuel poverty. Further, that structured governance as well as resources should be committed to taking this forward as a matter of urgency, and that the report should be shared widely across government and stakeholders.