Modelled heating cost per dwelling in every local authority, from £469 to £1448 a year.
Every EPC carries a modelled running cost for heating, lighting and hot water. Averaged across an area, those figures show something the national energy debate mostly misses: where you live changes the cost of staying warm by a factor of three.
| # | Local authority | Heating | All three | kWh/m² | Below C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Derbyshire Dales | £1448 | £1813 | 241 | 59.2% |
| 2 | Powys | £1435 | £1861 | 220 | 56.7% |
| 3 | Cotswold | £1432 | £1838 | 215 | 57.8% |
| 4 | Ceredigion | £1419 | £1878 | 234 | 60.4% |
| 5 | Westmorland and Furness | £1411 | £1788 | 247 | 58.3% |
| 6 | Gwynedd | £1366 | £1773 | 248 | 61.0% |
| 7 | Rutland | £1360 | £1744 | 209 | 49.6% |
| 8 | Staffordshire Moorlands | £1352 | £1714 | 246 | 62.4% |
| 9 | North Yorkshire | £1316 | £1690 | 222 | 54.3% |
| 10 | North Norfolk | £1312 | £1734 | 236 | 63.6% |
| 11 | West Devon | £1286 | £1682 | 212 | 58.5% |
| 12 | High Peak | £1285 | £1626 | 244 | 51.1% |
| 13 | Ribble Valley | £1284 | £1650 | 210 | 57.3% |
| 14 | Pendle | £1277 | £1610 | 251 | 53.6% |
| 15 | Rossendale | £1273 | £1600 | 251 | 46.1% |
| 16 | Conwy | £1271 | £1638 | 231 | 55.4% |
| 17 | Sevenoaks | £1262 | £1652 | 210 | 51.3% |
| 18 | Stroud | £1250 | £1615 | 208 | 55.2% |
| 19 | Cumberland | £1239 | £1593 | 227 | 54.0% |
| 20 | Waverley | £1238 | £1626 | 199 | 54.4% |
This is the off-gas premium, and it is brutal. Derbyshire Dales, Powys and Cotswold are rural authorities where a large share of homes burn oil or LPG, or run on electric heating, and where the housing is older, bigger and more often solid-walled. A home there is modelled to spend £504 a year more on heating than the national average, before anyone has turned a thermostat.
| # | Local authority | Heating | All three | kWh/m² | Below C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 310 | Manchester | £682 | £1023 | 176 | 28.7% |
| 311 | Barking and Dagenham | £673 | £966 | 165 | 45.0% |
| 312 | Newham | £663 | £961 | 168 | 39.0% |
| 313 | Greenwich | £653 | £948 | 161 | 34.6% |
| 314 | Islington | £647 | £958 | 187 | 30.8% |
| 315 | Hackney | £636 | £938 | 179 | 25.6% |
| 316 | Lewisham | £628 | £908 | 184 | 34.1% |
| 317 | Southwark | £590 | £902 | 160 | 29.6% |
| 318 | City of London | £519 | £884 | 184 | 30.0% |
| 319 | Tower Hamlets | £469 | £785 | 143 | 18.9% |
Nine of the ten cheapest are London boroughs, and the reason is geometry rather than virtue. A mid-floor flat is surrounded on most sides by other heated homes, has very little exposed external wall, and is small. Tower Hamlets models at £469, less than a third of Derbyshire Dales.
High modelled cost and a poor band travel together, which is the useful part: the same fabric problems drive both. If you are in one of the authorities at the top of this table, the sequence that pays is almost always loft insulation first, then walls, then heating. Our insulation payback calculator will price that for your property, and the grant checker will tell you whether any of it can be funded.
If you are off the gas grid, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is worth checking before you replace like for like. It pays £7,500 toward a heat pump and, until March 2027, an extra £1,500 for homes currently on oil or LPG off the gas grid.
“The cost of staying warm varies by a factor of three depending on where you live. Homes in Derbyshire Dales are modelled at £1448 a year for heating against £469 in Tower Hamlets. The expensive end of the table is rural and off the gas grid, and those same areas are furthest from the proposed 2030 efficiency standard.”
BetterHomeEnergy Research Team. Free to quote with attribution and a link to this page.
Underlying figures: MHCLG EPC live tables, Open Government Licence v3.0, data to 30 June 2026. Our processed dataset: CSV download · JSON. Media contact: contact page.