A fall in the number of Bradford families too poor to heat their homes is “very encouraging”, the Government says.

A total of 35,662 households were living in ‘fuel poverty’ in 2011 – spending at least ten per cent of their income on energy bills – official statistics show. That was down from 37,507 families the previous year. The numbers in fuel poverty fell from 19.2 per cent in 2010 to 17.9 per cent a year later.

There were similar falls in Calderdale (from 19.5 per cent to 18.8 per cent), Kirklees (from 18.9 per cent to 17.6 per cent) and Leeds (17.2 per cent to 16.3 per cent), the figures revealed.

In the pattern across the UK, the number of households in fuel poverty fell from 4.75 million in 2010 to 4.5 million in 2011.