Research & Reports

2024 West Sussex Fuel Poverty Research

Published September 2024

This report provides a comprehensive overview of fuel poverty in West Sussex, using the latest release of official fuel poverty statistics for England by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. This is our second annual report analysing this data, the first of which can also be found on this reports page.

The fuel poverty rate has increased markedly in all West Sussex local authority districts since 2019. The rates increased in every consecutive year from 2019 to 2022 in Chichester, Horsham and Mid Sussex. Of all West Sussex districts, Crawley has the lowest regional rate of fuel poverty at 7.3%, while Worthing and Chichester have the joint highest rate of fuel poverty at 10.8%.

See full report

The Impact of Benefit Sanctions

Published August 2024

Our new report on the impact of benefit sanctions aims to add to the already sizable literature on the negative impacts of sanctions, in order to lay bare the flaws of this system. The report assesses the effect of benefit sanctions on a variety of areas, such as employment outcomes, wages, crime, mental health, food security and homelessness, and highlights the disproportionate rate at which young claimants are sanctioned compared to their older counterparts.

Overall, this report argues that benefit sanctions are not fit for purpose and are, in fact, having a detrimental impact on the lives of the very people the system is designed to support. We propose several reforms that will hopefully better the sanctions system and improve the lives and experiences of welfare recipients.

See full report

The Local Private Rented Sector - A Crisis of Supply and Affordability

Published May 2024

Over the past 18 months, Arun & Chichester Citizens advice has been examining the supply and affordability of homes to buy and rent in the local area. As part of this work, the Research and Campaigns team have carried out several ‘snapshots’ of the local private rented sector, with the help of data from the Rightmove website.

Our new report analyses and compares the details of these housing snapshots, using the information to draw conclusions on the state of the rental market in the Arun and Chichester districts. Please click the link below to access the report.

See full report

Arun & Chichester Cost of Living Survey 2023 Results

Published March 2024

We are pleased to share our second cost of living report, based on the findings from our recent cost of living survey.

Our survey received responses from 411 Arun and Chichester residents, 32% of whom left additional comments giving us further insight into how people in our communities are coping with the cost of living.

The conclusions to this year’s survey are, in many ways, very similar to those of our previous survey. The general trends of which costs are causing people most concern – such as energy and food prices – have remained consistent across the two surveys, demonstrating that the same cost-of-living issues have persisted in spite of efforts from the government and local authorities to help those who are struggling.

This year’s report also takes a deeper look at the experience of people with disabilities and long-term health conditions, and how they are disproportionately affected by the rising prices.

See full report Executive Summary

West Sussex Fuel Poverty Research May 2023

Between 2019 and 2021, the fuel poverty rate has increased in all local authority areas. In Chichester, Horsham and Mid Sussex it peaked in 2020 before falling again in 2021. The largest increases between 2019 and 2021 were in Arun (1.6 percentage point increase), Adur (1.5 percentage point increase) and Chichester (1.4 percentage point increase).

See full report

Arun & Chichester Private Rental Sector Research, January 2023

The cost-of-living crisis is affecting housing costs, whether that is increasing mortgage costs for owner occupiers caused by rising interest rates, or increasing rents for local authority, social housing or private sector tenants.

We have undertaken some research in the Chichester and Arun District council areas and this paper looks at the private rented sector, to identify trends in the rent levels and availability of private rented homes, to compare rent levels with the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates and to look at how Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are being used to cover shortfalls between LHA payments and rent levels.

See full report

Arun & Chichester Cost of Living Survey 2022 Results

We are delighted to share that our Cost of Living Survey Results and Analysis Report is now finalised and available for all.

As you can see, we had a great response to it with 528 people completing it and of those almost 50% left extra comments for us to read through which gave us some valuable insight into the thoughts of the people of our community.

Some of the highlights were that energy costs and food costs were concerning people the most and 92% of people said they had changed their spending habits due to rising costs. 90 people have skipped meals and 23% of all respondents with a disability said they had skipped a meal compared to 14% of those with no disability or long-term health condition.

In all the questions, it was noticeable that people who considered themselves having a disability said the cost of living was effecting them more than those without a disability, whether either physically or on their mental health.

See full report