Agenda item

[To receive a report on the energy efficiency of the housing stock and fuel poverty]. 

The Temporary Director for City Housing and Transport introduced a presentation on the energy efficiency of the housing stock and fuel poverty.  It was a most timely presentation given the national situation and the costs of energy rising.  The interim Service Manager for Housing Strategy and Policy commented that in 2015 the Paris Climate Agreement agreed to cut carbon emissions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade.  The UK had committed to becoming net zero by 2050 and to reduce the nations carbon on 1990 levels by 78% by 2035.  The West Midlands Combined Authority had committed the West Midlands to be net zero by 2041.  In 2019, Wolverhampton Council had declared a Climate emergency.  Around 35% of the City’s carbon footprint was produced from domestic buildings though electricity and heating.  The Council’s: Our City: Our Plan supported the climate agenda in the delivery of good homes in well-connected neighbourhoods and healthy, inclusive communities.  The Housing Strategy 2019-2014 also committed to delivering, “Better Homes for all”. 

The Interim Service Manager for Housing Strategy and Policy stated there were national issues impacting local affairs.  There were rocketing energy prices, inflation at a 14 year high and households choosing whether to “eat or heat”.  To address the current cost of living crisis, the Council had launched the Financial Well-being Strategy.  This was a multi-agency approach with a long-term vision to support households in need.  As part of workstream 2, “Tackling Food and Fuel Poverty” there was an objective to tackle inequalities by reducing the number of residents in fuel poverty by tacking the causes and helping to meet the needs of people in crisis. 

The interim Service Manager for Housing Strategy and Policy stated that there were 112,202 homes in Wolverhampton.  21,816 were owned by the Local Authority, 6,765 by a private registered provider and 83,621 were in the private sector.  She presented a table showing at Ward level the deprivation score, the % of fuel poor households, gross/net annual income levels, stock tenure and the numbers of EPC ratings D to G.  There were a number of households in Wolverhampton which had low EPC (Energy Performance Certificates) ratings.  In Wolverhampton there were 24,845 households which were classed as poor fuel. 

The Interim Service Manager for Housing Strategy and Policy presented information on what the Council was doing to support people living in privately owned properties.  The Private Sector Team worked proactively to improve the quality of privately rented homes.  This allowed them to live in a safe and healthy environment and addressed hazards such as damp and mould.  The Council worked with the minimum “fitness” standards defined by the Housing and Safety Rating System.  The Home Improvement Service delivered grants/loans for essential repairs and maintenance, including energy efficient works for owner occupied properties.  Disabled Facilities Grant were offered to support any private property with adaptions to meet the needs of the disabled occupied, including new heating systems if required. 

The Interim Service Manager for Housing Strategy and Policy referred to the Local Authority Delivery Phase 3 (LAD3) where up to £1.364M was being funded to support low-income households heated by mains gas in Blakenhall Ward.  Homes Upgrade Grant Phase 1 (HUG1) was funding up to £456,500 to support low-income households which did not have gas fuelled heating in Blakenhall Ward.  The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) 4 – BEIS grants for energy suppliers to deliver energy efficiency and heating measure to low income and vulnerable households was running until March 2026. 

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes presented a slide detailing the 21,816 homes owned by the Council.  The information was as follows: -

High Rise (6+ Storey) – 36 Tower Blocks and 11 Deck Access Blocks

Medium Rise (3-5 Storey) – 402 Blocks

Low Rise (1-2 Storey) – 1528 Blocks

Houses – 10,868

Bungalows – 1,013

98% of the stock was built between 1920 and the early 1980s.   The buildings built in the 1960s and 1970s were very poor on energy efficiency.   Completed improvements to the Council owned stock included the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP), the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and more recently the Energy Company Obligation (ECO).  External wall insulation had been fitted to 2,000 traditional solid wall properties, which often raised the energy profile of the property to a level D or C.  Cavity wall insulation had been installed in around 11,250 properties and loft insulation to approximately 14,750.   More recently external wall insulation had been installed with new windows (A++ rated) and roofs and walkway insulated to 511 deck-access properties as part of the Heath Town Regeneration Programme. 

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes stated that current programmes included works on City wide high-rise properties, which included fire safety enhancements and improvements to thermal performance.  This included new windows, external wall insulation and new heating.  This was the second phase of the regeneration of the Heath Town estate which incorporated 8 tower blocks over the next three years, improving 511 properties.  The boiler/heating replacement programme benefited around 800 properties per year.  Further improvements to high rise properties on the Vauxhalls, Boscobel and Chetton Green estate would be taking place over the next four or five years. 

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes commented that over 900 non traditional properties would be improved from April 2023 to March 2025.  Attention would then be focused on solid wall and partial solid wall properties.  Nearly 2,000 of these still had to have insulation fitted.  Some of these flats, such as those at Merridale Court, Princess Court and Queen’s Court architecturally presented specific challenges.  Work had also commenced on a medium-rise improvement programme and finally there would be a low rise improvement programme.

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes remarked that New Park Village would see the replacement of around 200 homes with high quality, thermal efficient new homes.  There was also going to be the replacement of 120 poor thermal performing non-traditional properties (Tarrans) across three wards.  In Heath Town, 400 properties were being built to the latest standards in energy performance following the demolition of the shopping precinct and two blocks of maisonettes (34 units).  Wolverhampton Homes had been carrying out some small site developments, since 2015 an additional 133 homes had been delivered on 32 small in-fill sites across the City.

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes stated that the drive to deliver retrofit solutions to decarbonise the social housing stock would cost hundreds of millions of pounds.  Some elements, such as introducing more energy efficient heating solutions or windows could be incorporated without significant implications for the capital budgets, although there would be an increased revenue liability to maintain increasingly complex heating systems.  Major enhancements to the fabric of the buildings would create a significant pressure on the available resources.  This was because improvements of this nature were not included in the HRA Self Financing settlement.  Some of the increased burden could be mitigated by grants and robust asset management such as SHDF (Social Housing Decarbonisation Funding).  Robust asset management would be needed to divest the unsustainable stock. 

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes remarked that work was ongoing to deliver new strategies to continue to support existing commitments to ensure Wulfrunians lived longer and healthier lives.  There were draft strategies currently on Carbon Reduction 2022-2024, the Asset Management Strategy 2022-2026 and Fuel Poverty (Housing). 

The Temporary Director for City Housing and Transport stated that there were two questions they wanted panel feedback on.  These were as follows: -

1.     Is the Panel happy to support the existing programmes and proposed schemes to address poor energy performing homes both in the social and private housing Sector?

2.     Can the Panel advise on any innovative methods of engagement with eligible households in order to promote any future grant funding opportunities?

A Panel Member referred to the Chetton Green Estate.  There was a need to educate existing residents on the equipment they currently had installed, particularly in the three tower blocks, as it would be some years until all the improvement works had been completed.  It was clear that some residents did not understand how the storage heaters worked.  He asked if an education programme of support could be implemented on how to use the equipment and to utilise any Government support that was available to mitigate the current financial issues. 

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes responded that there was a member in his team who provided energy advice, particularly on the operation of storage heaters.  She completed visits 2-3 days every week throughout the year.  He could certainly ask her to contact residents on the Chetton Green Estate to provide advice. 

A Panel Member asked about a resident who was in private accommodation whose windows were really poor.  The lady was struggling financially.  She asked if there was any help she could receive to have her windows improved.   The Interim Service Manager for Housing Strategy and Policy responded that it would depend on the lady’s circumstances and if she had any vulnerabilities.  If the Member was to pass on the details of the lady they could look into the possibilities which could possibly include the home improvement service if she did have any vulnerabilities.  There was also a caretaking scheme which potentially could be utilised. 

A Panel Member stated that he felt there was a lesson to be learnt on how the Council Tax rebate scheme was handled. It had only been given to those that had applied via the correct systems and were eligible, rather than rolled out to everyone who was eligible.  Community engagement was essential, Officers needed to be out in the community giving advice and information.   He also raised the matter of equitability.  When large scale improvement works were taking place in some places but not others, how could this be explained to residents who believed their rent was contributing to projects for which they had no direct benefit. 

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes responded that he could provide a breakdown of the expenditure on improvement works by Ward level.  He recognised that Heath Town had received a large share of funds for improvement works.  Heath Town had however received very little funding in the thirty years before this time.  Life cycles of properties had to be taken into account and so a long term view was required.  

A Member referred to the importance of talking to lease holders and informing Councillors early on about initiatives taking place.   She also raised the importance of using formal stationary on letters, so people were less likely to be concerned it was a scam letter.  Information had been sent recently which was not on official paper.  The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes assured the Member that he would prevent this from happening again.

The Vice-Chair raised the importance of good communications, as people were acutely aware of the prevalence of scams and were less trusting.  There was a risk that people would miss out on grants available such as insulation if they thought they were scams.  The Temporary Director for City Housing and Transport agreed with the comment.  He added that flyers often were ignored and there was no substitute for reaching communities in person. 

A Panel Member raised the idea of adding information to Council Tax information that was sent out.  A schedule of grants available could be put in with the Council Tax information.  She added that Council representatives could attend PACT meetings to talk about grants that were available to improve homes. 

A Panel Member referred to Safe and Well Visits on people’s homes carried out by the Fire Service.  He asked if the Council could work in partnership with the Fire Service to give out information on the improvement works that were available to them.  He suggested that Officers could have a separate meeting with a representative from the Fire Service to discuss a potential initiative.  Data sharing had been an issue in the past, but he suggested the Council could send information to vulnerable residents on behalf of the Fire Service.

He asked if Wolverhampton Homes were using the most fire retardant rated materials in their improvement and construction works, as per the recommendation of the Council’s Fire Safety Scrutiny Working Group. 

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes stated that he had positive news in that a data sharing agreement with the Fire Service was on the verge of being agreed.  On the point of safe and well visits, he wanted the Fire Service to report back to Wolverhampton Homes what they had done and if any further remedial works were required by them.  This was partly why there had been a delay in finalising the data sharing agreement.  He thought giving them an additional leaflet could be done.  Wolverhampton Homes were oping for non-flammable materials rather than fire retardant and so were going even further than the Scrutiny recommendation.  The expectation was that this would be rolled out to low rise properties as well as the high rise.  A considerable amount of work was taking place on systems to ensure the golden thread of data.  

A Member of the Panel commented that engaging with Councillors to help spread the work about grants available to residents was critical.  Councillors knocking on doors were more likely to be recognised and therefore trusted when talking to residents about improvement works available.  The places of warmth hubs being launched soon were the locations to spread the word about what the Council could do to help people improve their properties.