To receive Report No. 25/2017 from the Director for People.

Report No. 25/2017 was received from the Director for People. 

Fuel Poverty was identified as an issue by the Housing and Homelessness Strategy, it was agreed that this panel would consider fuel poverty as part of the Scrutiny Poverty Project.

During discussion the following points were noted:

a)    Many properties and some villages in the county were wholly without a mains gas supply.  Spire Homes, who manage social housing stock in the County, worked with the Council to install gas and subsequently central heating in some properties in Oakham.  Where this was not possible they had upgraded the existing electric heating provision.

b)    Improvements to insulation could be limited where a property had listed building status or was in a conservation area.

c)    Members asked if installing gas in villages with no supply was possible.  Mr Faircliffe advised that Government policy was for expansion of the gas network but the degree of inconvenience and difficulty in doing so may be an issue.  It was agreed that this would be followed up by Scrutiny Commission who were taking the project forward.

d)    Mr Loran advised members of a scheme being piloted by Peterborough City Council (PCC) at no cost to the authority.  The scheme was being funded by energy companies and the pilot runs to June 2017. It was looking at alternative ways to share advice on energy switching amongst other issues.  If PCC made 600 referrals to the scheme it would secure government funding for the scheme to continue for a further four years, at this time other authorities could join the scheme and share the benefits.  Mr Loran had expressed an interest on behalf of Rutland.

e)    Members asked if grants would be available as a result of referrals through the PCC scheme.  Mr Loran advised that the schemes aim was to advise on efficient use of energy and identifying the right supplier, if a referral identified a household issue such as damp then that household could be referred for funding, possibly from the Better Care Fund, to reduce the impact of fuel poverty.  Other grants may be available as a result of legal obligations on energy suppliers to create such schemes.

f)     Members noted that publicity surrounding initiatives and help around energy switching, fuel poverty and other issues was mainly internet based.  It was felt that this was not sufficient as not all households had access to the internet.  Officers were reminded of the Energy Action for Rutland scheme which had offered households and energy audit to identify potential areas of cost saving.  Miss Waller advised that she had promoted this service and households who had taken part praised the service highly and reported that as their houses were warmer, they were now more comfortable.

g)    That the statistics on fuel poverty could be flawed, for example: a well-insulated, energy efficient property with a low household income could still be in poverty but would not be included in the statistics due to the energy requirements being low.  Conversely, rural solid wall properties would fall into the statistics possibly having high energy requirements but many have a higher household income and fuel bills would not result in residual income being below the poverty line.

h)   Members asked the representative from Spire Homes if he could provide numbers of those in social housing in fuel poverty.  Mr Faircliffe advised that statistics from work on the Housing and Homelessness Strategy showed that 92% of Spire Homes properties were in energy performance band D or above.

i)     Mr Wright from Spire Homes advised members that although Spire Homes could ask tenants for information there was no obligation on tenants to supply it.  Without knowledge of household income or fuel costs it was not possible to ascertain any properties in fuel poverty.  He also advised members that if officers visited a property which was in poor condition and there were particular concerns, then Spire had a safeguarding procedure which would be invoked, a report would be given to him as manager for review and if necessary he would refer to the Council.  If money was the issue then Spire had an officer to provide guidance in this regard.  Energy costs did not attract financial assistance from government sources in the same way as council tax might.

j)      Members requested details on properties that Spire still thought required energy upgrades to see if a way of assisting the project could be sought through the Scrutiny Poverty Project.

k)    Mrs Stephenson expressed concerns on how concerns could be raised with Spire by tenants.  When the housing stock was transferred from the Council to Spire the Rutland Housing Board was formed to enable information to be shared and issues raised, she asked for consideration to be given for this to be re-instated.

-----oOo-----

Mr Parsons left the meeting at 9pm

-----oOo-----