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COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE: ENQUIRY INTO THE EXISTING HOUSING STOCK AND CLIMATE CHANGE: EVIDENCE FROM THE FUEL POVERTY ADVISORY GROUP
1. The Fuel Poverty Advisory Group is a group consisting of representatives of external organisations, set up by the Government to provide advice on the practical measures needed to meet the Government's targets of eradicating fuel poverty in England. Defra and Berr are the sponsoring Departments. A wide range of organisations is represented on the Group from energy companies to fuel poverty NGOs and broader consumer and housing groups and experts. The membership and terms of reference for the Group are set out in Appendix 1. 2. A household is defined as being in fuel poverty if more than 10% of its income is required to meet its heating and other energy needs. 3. The Fuel Poverty Advisory Group has found it very difficult to persuade Communities and Local Government to engage seriously on reducing carbon emissions and cutting fuel poverty in the homes of low income households through increased energy efficiency. In particular it could take some very simple measures to enable Local Authorities to participate more effectively in programmes to reduce carbon emissions and fuel poverty in low income households, but they have so far not been prepared to do this. They have also not been willing to face up to the implications of the poor thermal comfort (i.e. energy efficiency) provisions in the Decent Homes Standard - admittedly a more complex issue because of the resource implications. 4. As background we are attaching as Appendix 2 a description of the 2 main fuel poverty programmes, apart from the Decent Homes Standard itself. We are setting below the actions which we have, over a number of years, recommended to CLG (some of them in co-operation with other Government Departments).
§ Fuel poverty targets should be included in the new Local Authority Framework and it looks as if this will now happen (along with climate change targets). This is important as Local Authorities will have little incentive to be proactive and to devote resources to fuel poverty if it is not included as part of their performance measurement. Subsequently it will be important that Local Area Agreements should give reasonable priority to fuel poverty. § The Decent Homes Standard has been very helpful in raising energy efficiency standards in the social sector. However, the thermal comfort/energy efficiency provisions of the Decent Homes Standard are very low - on loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and heating equipment. Homes meeting the Decent Homes Standard will still, in some cases, have very significant carbon emissions and will leave households in fuel poverty. The Decent Homes Standards are lower than those of Warm Front, the Government fuel poverty programme for the private sector. Warm Front measures have to achieve a SAP rating (measure of energy efficiency) of 65 wherever practical. This standard for Warm Homes is welcome, but it is hard to understand why the social sector Standard should be lower than that in the private sector when public funds are being used in both cases. The Fuel Poverty Advisory Group proposes that in the period to 2010 a SAP of at least 65 should be achieved wherever practical if Decent Homes Standard work is in any case being carried out in a Social Housing Dwelling. For the post 2010 period all Social Housing should have a SAP of at least 65, either by a change in the Decent Homes Standard or through a duty on landlords to achieve a SAP of 65 by 2016. § Local Authorities need access to the information, which will enable them to locate those who could benefit from the fuel poverty programmes, or who might also be helped by advice on Benefit Uptake. We have been strongly urging Communities and Local Government to allow access for LAs to the energy efficiency data of the Energy Performance Certificates so that they can effectively target information on fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes. This is clearly important, both for the reduction emissions and for fuel poverty. Communities and Local Government are considering this, but have so far not been willing to agree it, which is very disappointing.
§ Some, but not all Local Authorities are unable because of legal uncertainties to access the data within their own Authority on Council Tax and Housing Benefit recipients for the purpose of targetting the fuel poverty programmes. Exactly the same arguments seem to take place about the legal issues in a range of different Local Authorities - a huge waste of time. And the answers are different in different Authorities - very unsatisfactory. This is not the fault of the Local Authorities and we are urging the Government to clarify the legal situation to allow access for Local Authorities to their own data for the purposes of the fuel poverty programmes. The forthcoming Energy Bill is likely to allow data sharing between the Department of Work and Pensions and the energy/energy efficiency companies for the purposes of targetting fuel poverty programmes and offering special services and prices to some households on benefit. This is very welcome and helpful, but if this is allowed it is hard to understand why the data sharing position for similar purposes within a single Local Authority cannot be clarified. § The Home Health and Safety Rating System and the Houses in Multiple Occupation Legislation will be important potential tools for acting on fuel poverty and energy efficiency in the private rented sector. It will be important that the legislation, especially on the energy related parts, is implemented effectively and that the necessary resources are made available for this. If a landlord refuses the offer of a free Warm Front or Energy Efficiency Commitment low income group measure, then this provides a prima facia case for an HHSRS inspection. It will be helpful for CLG to promote the use of these provisions and for them to monitor their application. § It will be useful for CLG to implement programmes for developing and installing non-mainstream energy efficiency measures (e.g. household renewables and solid wall insulation) for social housing in co-operation with Defra and Berr. It will also be important for CLG to encourage research and development into solid wall insulation so that more cost effective and customer friendly methods can be developed. § FPAG is urging the Government to take a more holistic approach to identifying, locating and referring customer in fuel poverty who could benefit from the various programmes so that the energy efficiency of their homes could be improved. Local Authorities or the Health Service or the Department of Work and Pensions will be in touch one way or another with most of these households, so we are proposing to the Government that they should adopt a proactive integrated approach, using the numerous contacts and the data available, to find and help those in fuel poverty. This is very much in line with the Government's objective to transform Government and provide a more seamless service. CLG (and Local Authorities) clearly have a key role here.
In conclusion the challenge of eradicating fuel poverty is a cross Government one. Of the key departments involved, CLG is currently the least engaged and we hope that the Committee will be able to help to change this.
Appendix 1 - Fuel Poverty Advisory Group members
Terms of Reference
The Fuel Poverty Advisory Group is an Advisory Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by Defra/DTI. Its primary task is to report on the progress of delivery of the Government's Fuel Poverty Strategy and to propose and implement improvements to regional or local mechanisms for its delivery.
The role of the Group is:
· To consider and report on the effectiveness of current policies in delivering reductions in fuel poverty and the case for greater co-ordination;
· To identify barriers to the delivery of reductions in fuel poverty and to the development of effective partnerships, and propose solutions.
· To consider and report on any additional policies needed to deliver the Government's targets.
· To enthuse, and encourage, key players to tackle fuel poverty
· To consider and report on the results of the work to monitor fuel poverty.
Appendix 2 - Main fuel poverty programmes
There are very sizeable schemes which provide energy efficiency measures free of charge for low income households and these measures can in many cases significantly reduce families' fuel bills. The schemes also provide Benefit Entitlement Checks - to assess whether households are getting all their benefit entitlements.
Warm Front
Under Warm Front, eligible customers receive energy efficiency measures e.g. insulation, central heating, long life lightbulbs, free of charge. Those eligible are households with children and pensioners on means tested or disability benefits and tax credits in private sector housing. Households can also have central heating installed - if they do not have central heating. The scheme is for the private sector not social housing.
Benefits entitlement checks are carried out for all households who want them.
Warm Front is a scheme for England, with annual expenditure of about £300-£350m pa. The devolved administrations have similar but not identical schemes. In Scotland there is also a scheme to install central heating for all pensioners not just those on means tested benefits.
The Energy Efficiency Commitment
The Energy Efficiency Commitment is an obligation on the companies supplying electricity and gas to households to secure energy savings from their household customers largely via insulation, and efficient white goods. Half the benefits of the scheme have to go to "the Priority Group" - those on low incomes i.e. those receiving means tested benefits or tax credits or disability benefits. Many of the measures are provided free of charge to the Priority Group. This scheme covers both private and social housing sectors in Britain. The scheme is a sizeable one with expenditure by the companies of perhaps £200m p.a. on the Priority Group from April 2005. This is likely broadly to double from April 2008. There are 6 major companies involved - British Gas, EDF Energy(formally London and South West Electricity), RWEnpower (formally National Power), Eon UK (formerly Powergen), Scottish & Southern, and Scottish Power. There are periods when some of the companies are not offering help under the schemes. The scheme is being expanded and renamed from April 2008. It will be called the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target - CERT. Expenditure on the Priority Group is likely to be c £400m pa
Contacts for the Schemes
More detailed information about the schemes and contact details for them can be found on the website of the Energy Saving Trust
http://www.est.org.uk/myhome/gid/
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