Off Grid Homes in Northumberland — A Call from Community Action Northumberland (CAN)
10th Dec 2025
There are corners of Northumberland where the hum of the national electricity grid has never reached. These homes – steeped in rural history, remote geography and sometimes sheer isolation – are largely invisible in the data, but their stories are woven through the hills, valleys and moors of our county.
The Reality of Off‑Grid Living in Northumberland
- According to a recent analysis by Northumberland County Council in collaboration with CAN’s Off‑Grid Taskforce, there are at least 189 properties in the county confirmed as having no grid connection, and a further 276 properties possibly off‑grid, but unconfirmed.
- That said, other local reporting puts the number of off‑grid households in Northumberland much higher. One article from 2025 cites “more than 400 households” still without mains electricity (Northumberland Gazette, 3 September 2025).
- Many of these households rely on diesel generators – a fallback that is expensive, unreliable and environmentally damaging. CAN estimates that some off-grid households pay £8,000-£12,000 per year just to get around four hours of electricity a day.
- For many families, this means sacrificing basic comforts: power for freezers, washing machines, heating, warm water – even for a bath – can be unaffordable or simply unworkable.
Why So Many Homes Never Got Connected
The off-grid situation in Northumberland is not accidental – it is the product of decades of systemic oversights and structural barriers:
- During the major electrification push decades ago, many remote rural homes were simply skipped because it was prohibitively expensive to run lines to remote farms, cottages or valley dwellings.
- Sometimes the geography – hills, valleys, streams – or environmental protections (e.g. national park regulations demanding underground cabling) made connection either too difficult or prohibitively costly.
- As a result, even when residents wanted a connection, they were presented with bills of £60,000 or more – essentially placing a permanent block on mains access.
The result: a patchwork of neglected homes, many in working farms, often relying on diesel – a fossil fuel – in precisely the places that might benefit from renewable or low‑carbon alternatives.
The Wider Problem: We Don’t Even Know How Many Homes Are Off‑Grid
This is not just a Northumberland issue. As a recent blog from NICRE highlights, we don’t know how many homes nationwide are off the electricity grid – despite this seeming like a simple question.
- The energy data collected by government agencies does not reliably record which homes are unconnected. Meters, address records and household registers are mismatched, misclassified or incomplete.
- In their joint “Powering People” project, NICRE and CAN try to piece together who lives off‑grid – but even after months of research, a definitive figure remains elusive.
- Without that information, it’s extremely difficult for policymakers, funders or local authorities to read the scale of the issue – let alone plan a fair, just solution.
In short: there are entire communities effectively “lost” in the system – and that invisibility perpetuates inequality.
Read more about the “Powering People” project here: Why is it so difficult to find out how many homes are off the electricity grid in the UK? - NICRE
Why This Matters – And Why Action Is So Important
The existence of off-grid homes in 2025 raises fundamental questions:
- Equality of access: Electricity is not a luxury, but a necessity. People farming remote hillsides or living in remote valleys deserve the same basic services as urban households.
- Cost and carbon: Diesel generators mean unaffordably high energy bills and significant CO₂ emissions – hardly aligned with national efforts toward net-zero or clean energy.
- Rural resilience: Families, farmers and communities being unable to rely on a stable power supply affects livelihoods, quality of life and the sustainability of rural living.
- Justice in energy transition: As we push toward renewables, we risk leaving behind the most remote and hardest-to-reach communities – the very places where clean, local solutions could matter most.
Spotlight on Research & Public Debate – Why It’s Getting Harder to Ignore
A recent 2025 blog by NICRE examined the national challenge of even knowing how many homes are off-grid. That report cites work led by CAN and the Rural Design Centre to highlight Northumberland as a case study – yet, even here, data remains patchy and unclear.
At the same time, rural voices gathered by CAN’s “Powerless People” campaign speak of daily hardship. As one off‑grid resident told CAN: when the diesel runs out, there’s no freezer, lights or bathroom.
Moreover, recent campaigning and coverage by local and national press show small wins – such as a plan to bring mains electricity to remote homes in the Coquet Valley – but emphasise how many more are left behind.
Watch the “Powerless People” campaign video here: Powerless People
Read the coverage here: Off-grid living 'not a dream, it's a nightmare' - BBC News
What Needs to Happen – A Roadmap for Justice, Sustainability & Inclusion
From the perspective of CAN and the communities we support, here’s what we believe needs to be done:
- Comprehensive mapping and registration – Local authorities, energy providers and community organisations must cooperate to create a full register of off-grid properties, their locations and their needs.
- Financial support for connection – Costs of connection (sometimes tens of thousands of pounds) should not be borne solely by residents. Grant schemes or subsidies are essential.
- Support for renewable off-grid solutions – For some homes, connection may remain prohibitively expensive or unfeasible. For them, renewable energy (solar, micro-hydro, wind) and battery storage and community microgrid models could offer long-term sustainable alternatives.
- Policy recognition and protection – Off-grid households must not be overlooked in national energy strategies or rural funding plans. Their needs, and their rights, to affordable energy deserve formal recognition.
- Community-led support and advocacy – Organisations like CAN (working with partners such as ACRE, NICRE and Rural Design Centre) should lead in outreach, registering off-grid households, raising voices in parliament and building grassroots momentum.
Better together: this work is strengthened by a wider Task Force of partners – including Northern Gas Networks, Northern Powergrid, Northumberland National Park Authority and Northumberland County Council – whose combined mapping, research, outreach and regional expertise is needed to secure lasting change for off-grid households.
A Note on National Debate – What the Big Picture Shows
The struggle of off‑grid communities is gaining broader relevance. As debates about the national grid backlog, delayed renewable connections and infrastructure bottlenecks intensify, the plight of rural households without electricity becomes part of this larger story.
A recent high‑profile report from NICRE – co-authored with CAN via the “Powering People” initiative – underlines how little is known about off‑grid households at national level. That lack of data does not just hamper policy — it perpetuates neglect.
How You Can Help – Get Involved, Raise Your Voice
If you live off‑grid (or know someone who does), please consider reaching out to CAN’s “Powering People” project and get in touch with our Off-Grid Energy Advisers – the more accurate our data, the stronger our case when negotiating with councils, energy companies or government bodies.
If you care about rural justice, clean energy, fair access – please share this post. Talk to neighbours, local councillors, MPs, journalists. Off‑grid lives shouldn’t be invisible.
In 2025, we cannot allow the notion of “off-grid” to mean “out of mind.” The people of Northumberland deserve electricity, dignity and a fair shot at a modern, sustainable rural life.
At CAN, we remain committed to making that change – but we can only succeed together.
Get in touch with our Off-Grid Energy Advisers:
John Bogue - T: 07460 523198 E: johnbogue@ca-north.org.uk
David Richardson - T: 07460 531376 E: davidrichardson@ca-north.org.uk