Volume 64

Clustering England’s and Wales’s Housing Stock: From EPC Data to Energy Poverty Insights Aaron Tesfa Tsion, Wei He

Abstract

This paper presents a novel data-driven framework that integrates the analysis of household energy poverty vulnerability with the assessment of technological pathways for the net-zero transition, creating an integrated basis for equitable transition planning. Using the Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for England and Wales, we apply K-Prototypes clustering at the LSOA scale to jointly analyse numerical and categorical housing features. Clusters are ranked by a composite “energy poverty transition” score, capturing efficiency, demand, emissions, heating costs, and fuel type. The results reveal pronounced spatial variation in energy poverty transition risk across regions and settlement types, highlighting localised concentrations of vulnerability embedded within the housing stock. The method provides local authorities with a scalable and transparent tool for identifying priority areas for targeted intervention, supporting more equitable and context-sensitive net-zero strategies, while underscoring the need for complementary datasets to inform delivery strategies.

Keywords energy transition, energy poverty, renewable energy, household energy consumption, sustainable technology, energy data clustering