This document discusses strategies to address fuel poverty and its health impacts in the UK. It summarizes a fund called Warm Homes Healthy People that provided £20 million over two years for local authorities to collaborate with voluntary organizations on initiatives like home assessments, winter packs, and benefit assistance. Feedback was positive but it was a one-time program. Most local health strategies acknowledged fuel poverty and excess winter deaths but few made them priorities. Collective energy switching programs have potential but many do not reach vulnerable people. A new national fuel poverty strategy is being developed with proposals for improved data sharing, advocacy, and targeting the flagship Green Deal and ECO programs locally through health board leadership.

1. Warm Homes and the Health
Context – Partnerships and
Strategies
Mervyn Kohler
Special Adviser, Age UK
16 July 2013

2. A growing engagement from DH and
PHE
Public Health Outcomes
Framework:
• Indicators of the
incidence of fuel
poverty in 2010
(Domain 1.17)
• Excess Winter Deaths
(Domain 4.15)
The Chief Medical Officer’s
annual report (2011)
noted that if a sufficient
level of warmth in the
home is not maintained,
there is a risk to health,
which would have a
negative effect on hospital
admissions

3. Warm Homes Healthy People
Fund
Two years (2011/12 and 2012/13) – a
prize pot of £20m to be bid for
• Upper tier LAs leading the bid
• Must show involvement and
collaboration with the Voluntary and
Community Sector

4. WHHP – a remarkable success
Feedback from participating Age UKs
• Raised awareness of the health risks of cold
• Enabled more home energy and safety
assessments
• Supported the provision of energy saving
measures
• Expanded the distribution of winter packs
• Provided more benefits advice and assistance

5. Specific activities
• Electric blanket testing (and free replacements)
• Proactive phone calls during periods of extreme cold
• Printing and distribution of localised information
booklets
• Free carbon monoxide detectors
• Emergency shopping service
• Stock of emergency food parcels for prolonged periods
of cold weather
• Cold weather alarms to warn when living temperatures
fall below 21 degrees

6. “A highlight of the WHHP funding
criteria is the demand for co-operation
across the voluntary sector.
There is a danger that if funding
ceased and was not available next
winter, these bonds would break as
there would be no more need for co-
operation. Competition over limited,
local resources would become the
norm.”

7. WHHP – the downside
 A ‘one-off’ offer
 The bidding arrived very late to plan
for the winter
 The plans submitted perforce built
on work already in hand, and there
was no time to innovate

8. Joint Health and Wellbeing
Strategies
• An analysis of the 122 Strategies (of
the potential 150) available in March
2013
• Made an empirical assessment of the
weight given to fuel poverty and the
problems of living in cold homes

9. 60 acknowledged the influence of fuel
poverty in their local community
25 made fuel poverty a priority

10. 32 acknowledged excess winter deaths
as an issue
7 aimed to make excess winter deaths
a priority

11. 51 (42%) mentioned neither fuel
poverty nor excess winter deaths

12. 5 prioritised both fuel poverty and
excess winter deaths. What were
they doing?
• Bespoke programmes to offer housing advice
• Promoting the development of new housing
suitable for older people
• Access to energy advice
• Help with fuel debt – debt advice services
• Helplines

13. What were they doing? (continued)
• Working with energy supply companies (and
companies offering insulation packages)
• Emergency help: repairs, emergency
heaters, electric blankets, warm clothes
• Solihull – Home Energy Efficiency and
Affordable Warmth Strategy 2009, addressed
to social and private landlords, consumers and
developers

14. Collective Switching
Collective switching schemes provide local
residents power to act as a collective
force, tapping into community spirit while
helping to reduce fuel poverty. 25 local
authorities have set up or are in the process of
developing such schemes, but many do not
reach numbers of vulnerable people due to lack
of internet access which is often needed to sign
up.

15. Fuel Poverty: a Framework for
Future Action (July 2013)
• ‘work in progress’
• A rehearsal of current programmes in
hand
• Strong recognition of fuel poverty and
cold homes as a serious health issue
• For the future:
 Data sharing
 Local advocacy

16. The proposals
• A new definition of fuel poverty
• New targets
• New timeframes
• A new fuel poverty strategy

17. The blindingly obvious
Green Deal and ECO is the flagship to deliver
improved energy efficiency in homes
• Local involvement is the key to improving
homes, but the Green Deal and ECO are
market-led
• Local involvement works – see WHHP
• Leadership from Health and Wellbeing Boards
is essential