Homes in the United Kingdom tend to be less energy efficient than in Germany, the Netherlands and Nordic countries. This results partly from the high proportion of houses relative to flats -houses account for 86% of the fuel poverty gap - and the age of the housing stock -properties built before 1945 represent over a third of the housing stock and account for two thirds of the fuel poverty gap (Hills, 2012). In addition, energy efficiency standards appeared as late as 1995 in UK building regulations, compared to the late 1950s or early 1960s in Scandinavian countries (Laustsen, 2008).