As part of its regional and local energy statistics publication programme, DTI has published on its website the number of domestic gas meter points in each Government office area in England, together with Scotland and Wales1. When these are compared with the latest estimates of the number of households in these areas, the following numbers and percentages are derived2.
1 www.dti.gov.uk/energy/statistics/regional/quality/page36160 .html
2 This analysis may overstate the number of households having mains access to gas because households in multi-occupancy of a property may share a gas meter. “Domestic” is defined as consumers of less than 73,200 kWh per year and will include small commercial and industrial businesses. Household estimates are those published in March 2006 for England, June 2005 for Scotland, and 2003 for Wales and are less up to date than the gas and meter statistics.
Difference between number of households and number of gas meter points Gas meter points as a percentage of the number of households England 2,700,000 87.4 North East 70,000 93.7 North West 190,000 93.6 Yorkshire and the Humber 160,000 92.4 East Midlands 220,000 88.0 West Midlands 260,000 88.5 East 470,000 80.1 London 290,000 90.9 South East 480,000 86.0 South West 560,000 74.4 Wales 170,000 85.9 Scotland 500,000 77.7 Great Britain 3,380,000 86.5
Corresponding data are not available for Northern Ireland.
A similar regional analysis based on electricity meter points is not possible because, where electricity is supplied through two-rate and three-rate meters (mainly those meters using dynamic teleswitching), there are two meter recordings per address. It is estimated that there are some 1,060,000 domestic customers with two meter point numbers in Great Britain. For Great Britain as a whole, it is estimated that 99.6 per cent. of households have mains access to electricity so fewer than 100,000 households do not. As with gas, some households may share an electricity meter.
Where a household owns more than one property, the statistics take account of meters in all properties.