Interesting, particularly the comment with losing people to "fuel poverty" as you put it. For the economy to "run" home heating isn't "essential" but for health, it sure is. And to think that England gets nowhere near as cold as a good old fashioned (read: pre-global-warming) winter. Or worse, a Minnesota or Canadian winter.

To seriously reduce winter heating energy use, you'd have to take extreme measures, like wearing a snowsuit in the house, with a motorcycle helmet with heated air! Sure, you can throttle down on a thermostat, but at some point, it gets dangerous, not just uncomfortable. Also, as the house temp drops to 0C (32F) pipes freeze, causing problems that are a bane of homeowners - even if you sit in your La-Zee Boy chair in your homebrew space suit.

Why home heat isn't considered "essential" for the economy is easy to understand. That energy use does not correspond to productivity, unlike propane in a forklift or electricity in a web server for a .com store. Since that energy use doesn't directly aid and abet productivity, economists call it "non-essential" - until they can't heat their house that is! Meanwhile that propane tank on a forklift does aid and abet productivity by loading and unloading semis on a loading dock. And the web server makes the .com store possible.