The table
Each figure is the share of households in the council area using that type of central heating and nothing else, as reported to the census in March 2021; the renewable column also counts homes with renewable heating alongside another type.
| Council | Mains gas | Oil | LPG (tank or bottled) | Electric | Renewable | None |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Ribble | 84.0% | 0.8% | 0.7% | 4.1% | 0.61% | 1.3% |
| Hyndburn | 82.7% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 3.7% | 0.31% | 1.9% |
| Rossendale | 82.7% | 0.8% | 0.5% | 3.8% | 0.53% | 1.1% |
| Burnley | 81.8% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 4.4% | 0.36% | 1.7% |
| Chorley | 81.3% | 1.2% | 0.5% | 4.5% | 1.25% | 1.2% |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 80.8% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 4.4% | 0.52% | 1.7% |
| Pendle | 80.2% | 1.5% | 0.8% | 3.2% | 0.61% | 2.2% |
| Wyre | 79.2% | 2.4% | 1.6% | 5.6% | 0.63% | 1.2% |
| West Lancashire | 78.4% | 3.3% | 2.3% | 4.5% | 0.64% | 0.9% |
| Blackpool | 78.2% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 9.4% | 0.21% | 2.3% |
| Fylde | 78.1% | 1.2% | 1.0% | 9.8% | 0.53% | 1.2% |
| Preston | 77.3% | 1.2% | 0.6% | 8.1% | 1.01% | 1.7% |
| Lancaster | 76.3% | 2.4% | 1.2% | 7.5% | 0.63% | 1.9% |
| Ribble Valley | 71.9% | 7.1% | 2.6% | 4.0% | 1.47% | 1.1% |
| England and Wales | 73.8% | 3.5% | 1.0% | 8.5% | 0.94% | 1.5% |
A gas county
Gas is the default almost everywhere. South Ribble, Hyndburn, Rossendale, Burnley, Chorley, Blackburn with Darwen, Pendle all had more than four households in five on gas alone. These are the towns of the cotton valleys and the suburbs south of Preston, where terraces and semi-detached houses were built along the gas mains. For most homes in these councils, a heat pump replaces a gas boiler and gets the standard grant band.
Gas still dominates even where it is lowest. In Ribble Valley, the most rural council, 71.9% of households used gas alone. The off-gas homes are a minority everywhere, but in some councils a sizeable one.
The electric coast
Electric heating is the main alternative to gas in the towns. Fylde (9.8%), Blackpool (9.4%), Preston (8.1%), Lancaster (7.5%) had the highest shares, against 8.5% nationally. Across the 14 councils, 37,326 households heated with electricity alone, usually through storage heaters or electric radiators.
For these homes a heat pump is a change in how electricity is used rather than a change of fuel. A heat pump moves heat from outside air into the home, so it usually needs much less electricity for the same warmth than a heater that turns electricity directly into heat. The catch is the plumbing: a home with storage heaters often has no radiators or pipes, so an air-to-water system means installing a wet heating system, while some flats look at air-to-air units instead.
The oil valley
Oil heating is uncommon in most of the county but not in the Ribble Valley, where 7.1% of households used oil alone, roughly double the England and Wales figure of 3.5%. West Lancashire (3.3%), Wyre and Lancaster follow. These are farms, villages and scattered houses beyond the gas mains, and they are where the higher grant band for oil and LPG homes matters most. The oil and LPG page covers them.
Renewable heating in 2021
The census gave households an option for renewable energy, with solar thermal and heat pumps as examples. Across the 14 councils 4,220 households, 0.7%, had renewable heating, either alone or alongside another type. The highest share was in Ribble Valley (1.47%), followed by Chorley and Preston. These figures predate the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which opened in May 2022, so they are a snapshot of the starting point, not of today.
Homes with no central heating
10,280 households across the 14 councils reported no central heating at all, 1.6%. Blackpool had the highest share at 2.3%. A home with no central heating faces the biggest change of all, since a heat pump needs pipes and emitters too. For lower-income households in that position, Cosy Homes in Lancashire is one route once its funding reopens.
Limits of the census
The census recorded what households reported in March 2021. It does not say how efficient the heating was, whether a home was well insulated, or what has changed since. Households with two or more types of heating are counted separately and not shown here, and the government's separate off-gas estimates count properties without a gas meter rather than households by fuel. Used together, the two give a fair picture of a district; neither describes a particular house.