Methodology — Gera Cost-of-Living-at-Home Index

The formula

annualTotal = energyNational + waterCompanyBill + councilTaxBandD   (£/yr)
GCLHI       = round( annualTotal / nationalAvgTotal × 100 )

energyNational  = £1,862/yr  (Ofgem cap, national, flat)
nationalAvgTotal= £4,897/yr  (mean across 66 included authorities)

GCLHI = 100 is an exactly-average area to run a home; below 100 is cheaper than average, above 100 is more expensive.

Data sources

All four datasets are Open Government Licence v3.0.

The water join — and why some areas are excluded

England’s water + sewerage company boundaries follow river catchments, not local-authority boundaries, and several areas are served for the water portion by a separate water-only company. An area is included only where a single appointed company supplies both water and sewerage across the whole authority, so the published combined bill genuinely applies. Currently 66 authorities qualify — across the North West (United Utilities), Yorkshire (Yorkshire Water), the North East (Northumbrian Water) and the West Midlands metropolitan area (Severn Trent Water).

London, the South East, the South West, the East of England and the East Midlands are not ranked at LA level because their water + sewerage coverage is genuinely mixed and cannot be attributed to a single combined bill per authority without guessing. Two further authorities are explicitly excluded:

• Hartlepool — Water supplied by a separate water-only company (Hartlepool Water), so a single-WaSC combined water+sewerage bill is ambiguous.
• Shropshire — Border area split between Severn Trent and Hafren Dyfrdwy (Welsh Water); single combined-WaSC bill is ambiguous.

What we deliberately do not do

• We do not split energy by region. Ofgem’s 14-region cap table is an interactive widget not present in the source page text, so energy is the national typical bill for every area — stated openly.
• We do not invent a per-area broadband price. No clean per-area price exists in open data, so broadband is shown as real Ofcom coverage and excluded from the £ total.
• We do not guess a water company for mixed-supply areas — they are left out rather than attributed to one company.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Gera Cost-of-Living-at-Home Index measure?

It measures the total annual cost to run a home in an English local authority — the national Ofgem energy price cap typical bill, the area's water + sewerage company average bill, and the Band D area council tax — expressed against the average across all included authorities (100 = average).

Are any numbers estimated or invented?

No. Every component is a real published figure read verbatim from its source dataset. The only computed value is the index itself (each area's total ÷ the average total × 100). Where data could not be obtained cleanly — a per-area energy regional split, a per-area broadband price, or a single water company for a mixed area — we omit rather than fabricate.

Why is broadband excluded from the total?

Ofcom Connected Nations publishes broadband coverage, not price, per area; no clean per-area broadband price exists in UK open data. A single national broadband price would not change any area's ranking. So we show each area's real broadband connectivity (the Gera Broadband Index) for context but do not add an invented price to the £ total.

How often is the index updated?

Quarterly, in step with its sources: the Ofgem cap changes quarterly, water bills annually (April charging year), council tax annually (April), and Ofcom broadband annually. Each page is version-stamped with its as-of date (currently June 2026).