Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) Report 2015 · and the Energy Company Obligation to improve the energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions ... as described in the 2012 HECA

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Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) Report

2015

Northamptonshire Warm Homes

Northamptonshire Councils working together

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Introduction The 1995 Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) required local councils to report on the activities

they undertake to improve energy efficiency in housing of all tenures within their areas.

Northampton Borough Council recognises that there are many advantages in working in

collaboration on these activities with other energy conservation authorities. To this end the seven

district councils across Northamptonshire have worked together since the inception of the act.

This partnership, Northamptonshire Warm Homes (NWH), has collaborated on many energy

efficiency and renewable energy projects including:

Boiler Magic

o Offering high efficiency boilers at a comparable price to conventional boilers. Over

3500 boilers were installed, attracting over £1million of subsidy

Healthy Homes

o A programme seeking to engage with the health service to identify households at

risk of living in cold homes

Hot Properties

o Focussed on offering a range of incentives to private sector landlords to improve

their properties in this key target market for housing improvement

Chillout

o Latterly branded the Northamptonshire Warm Homes Insulation Scheme. Referrals

to the scheme are offered cavity wall and loft insulation at competitive market

prices. To date over 15,000 lofts and 12,000 cavities have been insulated at a cost of

nearly £10 million, with around £6 million being provided under the obligation on

fuel suppliers to support energy efficiency

Since the last HECA Report in 2013, the Northamptonshire Warm Homes partnership has been

identifying opportunities to continue its work and to position its member councils, including

ourselves, to work closely with utilities and other partners to enable residents to access Green Deal

and the Energy Company Obligation to improve the energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions

in the housing stock. The group remains open to novel approaches and collaborative projects that

can reduce the energy costs of our residents.

Why do we produce a HECA Report and what is it? The Government recognises that Local Authorities are uniquely placed to assess the needs of their

local residents and areas and to work with local partners to deliver improvements. There are two

drivers for action by central and local government to improve the energy efficiency of residential

accommodation across the country - to reduce fuel poverty and lower carbon emissions.

i) National Fuel Poverty Targets

The Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000 led to the publication of the UK Fuel Poverty

Strategy in 2001 and set the target for the Government to eradicate fuel poverty in England, as far as

reasonably practicable, by 2016. A recent review of that strategy has led to a number of revisions

since our previous report in March 2013.

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Firstly, the original fuel poverty target, as described in the 2012 HECA Guidance, has been

replaced with a new statutory target to “ensure that as many fuel poor homes in England

as is reasonably practicable achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of a Band C by

2030”. In addition to the 2030 statutory target, the Government consultation, “Cutting the

cost of keeping warm” also proposed the following interim milestones:

• As many fuel poor homes in England as is reasonably practicable to Band E by 2020

• As many fuel poor homes in England as is reasonably practicable to Band D by 2025

These targets and milestones reflect the Government’s new understanding of fuel poverty,

which is based on the low income high costs indicator developed by Professor Hills in his 2012

independent review of fuel poverty1, and adopted by Government in 2013. A new Fuel Poverty

Strategy will be published in due course, setting out the Government’s approach to delivering

the target and milestones. However, the Government is keen to stress that the new Strategy

will not be static. The process of finding new and improved solutions, better support and better

ways to deliver that support will be continual.

ii) National Carbon Emissions Targets

The Climate Change Act 2008 sets specific targets for reductions in carbon emissions and the Carbon Plan 2011 sets out how the Government aims to achieve these reductions:

reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 29% by 2017, 35% by 2022, and 50% by 2027 (from 1990 levels)

insulate all cavities and lofts, where practical, by 2020; by 2030, between 1 – 3.7m additional solid wall installations and between 1.9 - 7.2m other

energy efficiency installations; by 2030, 1.6 - 8.6m building level low carbon heat installations such as heat pumps

(Government modelling suggests that 21 - 45% of heat supplies to buildings will need to be low carbon); and

by 2050 emissions from UK buildings to be “close to zero”. To support the ambitions in the Carbon Plan there are several drivers for action in the residential sector:

the Green Deal and the new Energy Company Obligation will provide new sources of finance; ongoing support under the Feed in Tariffs scheme; ongoing support through the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive requirements for all new homes to be built to a zero carbon standard from 2016; Energy Performance Certificates (‘EPC’), required on the sale, rent or construction of a

building, which provide an assessment of the energy efficiency of the building and recommendations on how to improve this;

minimum energy efficiency standard for private rented sector housing from 2018;

Smart meters to be installed in every home by late 2019.

1 Fuel Poverty Review by John Hills www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-of-the-fuelpoverty-

review

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How are we currently performing? Northampton is one of seven districts within the county of Northamptonshire. The borough is

predominantly urban with a population of 216,700 based on Office of National Statistics mid-year

estimate 2013, with 94,630 households.

Housing stock

From January 2015 Northampton Partnership Homes will be responsible for the management of over 12,000 council homes. Following a 15 year strategic plan that includes improvements to energy efficiency and the installation of renewable energy technologies, this will be a new start for tenants, delivering a financially sustainable way to update the Council’s housing stock and provide local people with decent homes and improvements in service. Under this management organisation the housing stock will still be owned by the council and tenants will remain as council tenants, with all their current rights protected. Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH) will focus solely on managing and improving these homes while the Council will still be responsible for the wider, strategic issues.

Our 2013 HECA report notes the top 20 wards with the highest number of households in fuel poverty in Northampton are: Castle, Abington, St James, Headlands, Parklands, Old Duston, Boughton Green, St Crispin, St David, Thorplands and Kingsthorpe. These wards have been, and continue to be targeted as they are likely to be the groups in most need of assistance. The 2013 report identified 4 priorities for action to 2016 Priority 1: Help tackle fuel poverty and improve health and well-being amongst the most vulnerable groups in the town Priority 2: Improve the energy efficiency of Northampton's private and social housing stock Priority 3: To establish and maintain effective partnerships to deliver the strategy aims and objectives Priority 4: To access funding and other resources to deliver our aims and objectives.

These continue to be our overarching priorities

64% of the districts’ households are homeowners. Of the remaining households the main change from the 2001 Census results is that privately renting is now more common than social renting, accounting for 19% of the total properties in the district, compared with 17.1% for social rent. The majority of the borough is on-gas with around 8,000 council properties having an A rated boiler.

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Household Tenure

Source: 2011 Census Each year the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) publishes a variety of data sets

reflecting changes in fuel consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, fuel poverty and the uptake

of energy efficiency measures. It is not the intention of this report to reproduce these statistics

which may be found on the Government website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-energy-

climatechange/about/statistics.

However we are including some data to illustrate progress.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions

Owner occupied Social ALMO Social other Private rental

% 64% 12.80% 4.30% 19.00%

Northampton housing % by tenure

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Domestic Co2 (Tonnes) Per Capita

Corby

Daventry

East Northants

Kettering

Northampton

Sourth Northampton

Wellingborough

Northants

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The latest data, 2012, shows a reduction in emissions per person from housing across

Northamptonshire. There was a slight increase in 2010 reflecting the severity of the winter and a

further increase in 2012. Nationally coal power overtook gas in that year to become the biggest single

source of UK electricity in 2012. Now we know what the consequences show the UK's greenhouse gas

emissions rose 3.5 per cent in 2012, reversing a longer downward trend.

t CO2 per person Domestic Data from: Local and Regional CO2 Emissions Estimates for 2005-2012

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Corby 2.6 2.5 2.4 2.3 2.1 2.2 1.9 2.1

Daventry 2.7 2.7 2.6 2.6 2.3 2.5 2.2 2.4

East Northants 2.6 2.6 2.5 2.4 2.2 2.3 2 2.3

Kettering 2.6 2.6 2.5 2.4 2.1 2.3 2 2.2

Northampton 2.5 2.4 2.3 2.3 2.0 2.2 1.9 2.1 South Northamptonshire 2.7 2.7 2.6 2.6 2.3 2.5 2.2 2.4

Wellingborough 2.5 2.4 2.4 2.3 2.1 2.2 1.9 2.1

Northants 2.6 2.5 2.4 2.4 2.1 2.3 2 2.2

East Midlands 2.6 2.6 2.5 2.5 2.2 2.4 2.1 2.3

Uptake of energy efficiency measures The most recent data available shows installations of measures under the earlier energy company

obligation the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT). This scheme enabled householders in the

district to install loft and cavity wall insulation with grants supported by the energy suppliers.

Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation In 2013 CERT was replaced with the Government’s flagship energy efficiency offer, the Green Deal.

The Green Deal is a new way to pay for energy-saving home improvements. Households can take

out Green Deal finance to pay for measures such as loft, cavity or solid wall insulation, double

glazing, a new boiler or even a 'micro-generation' system such as solar panels. The loan is repaid

through savings made on electricity bills, therefore bills shouldn't be any higher than usual. The

Green Deal is supported by a new obligation on energy suppliers, the Energy Company Obligation

(ECO).

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Provisional data relating to Green Deal and Eco indicate that Northampton benefitted from a good

take up of ECO measures at 30.1 per 1000 households a higher proportion than most other

Northamptonshire councils but broadly comparable to the East Midlands as a whole. This is likely to

be a reflection of the predominantly urban nature of the borough.

The Green Deal has been slow to gather momentum since its inception and early discussions with

Green Deal Providers gave the council cause for caution in this emerging market. In order for the

council to access best value/low risk support in this area an installer framework has been established

in partnership with Northamptonshire Warm Homes. The framework seeks to identify suitably

qualified and accredited installer partners and is managed by a managing agent, Flourish

Partnership, to ensure quality control. It has the ability to respond to fluctuations in what remains a

volatile marketplace thereby ensuring residents have access to up to the minute advice and referrals

tailored to their individual circumstances.

Number of Green Deal assessments by region, 30th June, 2014

Green deal assessments Green Deal assessments per 1,000 households

England 211,115 9.6

East Midlands 22,671 12

Northamptonshire 2108 7.3

Corby 281 11.1

Daventry 194 6.1

East Northamptonshire 243 6.8

Kettering 326 8.2

Northampton 609 6.9

South Northamptonshire 275 7.9

Wellingborough 180 5.6

Provisional number of ECO measures by ECO obligation by region and total number of unique properties benefitting from ECO, up to 30th June 2014

Total numbers of ECO measures delivered

ECO measures per 1000 households

England 737,111 33.4

East Midlands 57,915 30.6

Northamptonshire 7,025 24.4

Corby 1,100 43.6

Daventry 304 9.6

East Northants 684 19.2

Kettering 993 25.0

Northampton 2,669 30.1

South Northamptonshire

536 15.4

Wellingborough 739 23.1

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Fuel Poverty Fuel poverty in England is now measured by the Low Income High Costs definition, which considers a

household to be in fuel poverty if:

they have required fuel costs that are above average (the national median level)

were they to spend that amount they would be left with a residual income below the official

poverty line

The key drivers behind fuel poverty are:

The energy efficiency of the property (and therefore, the energy required to heat and power

the home)

The cost of energy

Household income

The nature of the district presents challenges when seeking to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock. The borough is predominantly urban with high numbers of “hard to treat” properties with solid wall construction. The latest data shows good progress in overcoming the incidence of fuel poverty in the district.

% Households in fuel poverty

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Corby 11.8% 16.4% 18.6% 16.2% 8.7% 9.6%

Daventry 12.7% 17.0% 19.2% 13.9% 10.6% 10.6%

East Northants 12.6% 17.4% 19.9% 14.8% 11.6% 11.0%

Kettering 11.3% 16.5% 19.9% 16.5% 13.3% 11.9%

Northampton 9.8% 15.3% 18.1% 16.2% 12.1% 11.8%

South Northants

12.7% 16.9% 20.0% 13.5% 11.2% 10.1%

Wellingborough 12.4% 17.1% 20.0% 16.3% 11.7% 11.8%

East Midlands 12.9% 14.8% 19.2% 21.4% 18.2% 13.3% 13.2%

England 21.2% 18.4% 15.6% 18.4% 14.9% 11% 10.4%

Northampton Borough Council has worked closely with the voluntary sector and other statutory

bodies, such as the police and fire authorities and local health care groups through a number of

programmes including:

Safe and Sound

Northamptonshire Energy Saving Service

Wrapped Up

These projects sought to bring together disparate agencies to ensure a “joined up” approach to

tackling financial inclusion, health inequalities and the problem of living in cold, damp housing.

These projects combined access to advice, community outreach events and referral to insulation and

heating installers to enable residents to live safely and comfortably within their homes. Alongside

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these programmes Northamptonshire Warm Homes and our installer framework enables access to

accredited and quality assured installers. Through that framework we were able to work with the

other Northamptonshire councils to deliver a £500,000 capital measures programme funded by the

Department of Energy and Climate Change. This fuel poverty programme utilised address level

housing data to identify those households most likely to benefit from energy efficiency

interventions. This resulted in a high volume of well-informed referrals, speeding up the referrals

process and leading to a more rapid response. As a result, the programme had by June 2013

assisted around 100 vulnerable households across the county to access capital measures such as

replacement boilers and heating systems, loft, cavity wall insulation and solid wall insulation.

Lifetime cost savings are estimated at around £1.2million.

Plans for the future

Ambition Northampton Borough Council currently emits 2.1t CO2 per person and has 11.8 % of its households

in fuel poverty. These figures are in line with the regional and national averages and we continue to

make good progress to support the national target of a 29% reduction on 1990 levels by 2017 and

we will aim to continue our overall downward trajectory.

With the stock transfer of around 12,000 properties the newly established Northamptonshire

Partnership Homes (NPH) has ambitious plans in relation to energy efficiency and renewables. An

Environmental Strategy is due for release late spring/early summer and represents a partnership

approach with tenants to deliver the “Northampton Homes Standard”. The plan follows a Lean,

Mean and Green model that will see NPH set to deliver:

Over 3000 PV installations, with the majority installed over the next 2 years.

100% double glazing by 2017

100% A rated gas boilers by 2020

100% 300mm loft insulation by 2020

100% cavity wall insulation by 2025

Heat pumps for c200 properties by 2025

A tenants’ Energy Focus Group to influence residents lifestyles to enable them to reduce

their energy costs and understand how to maximise the benefit from their refurbished

homes and new renewable energy technologies

Action Plan The annual excess winter deaths figures in relation to fuel poverty are just the tip of the iceberg.

Cold weather also causes a massive spike in associated health problems, particularly heart attacks,

strokes and respiratory illnesses. These lead to an increase in winter hospital admissions, while GP

consultations for respiratory infections can increase by as much as 19 per cent for every one degree

drop in the mean temperature below 5°C.

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Recognising the importance of engaging social and health care professionals in tackling this problem

the council has, with its Northamptonshire Warm Homes colleagues, put in place an annual action

plan linking actions to health priorities and social care outcomes. An extract is shown below:

Activity Actions Public Health

England Outcome

County Health & Wellbeing

Strategy Priority

Impact

Reduce Fuel Poverty

Work with partners to deliver #HHCRO, CSCO and CERO schemes to vulnerable households

**Indicators 1.01, 1.03, 1.09, 1.17, 1.18, 2.23, 2.24, 4.03, 4.04, 4.07, 4.11, 4.14, 4.15

Vulnerable adults and elderly people are safe and successfully access services and supports that maximise their independence

Increased economic and health wellbeing of vulnerable households. Reduced carbon emissions. Increased employment in energy efficiency installation sector

Improve energy efficiency of private sector housing

Work with partners to deliver CERO, Green Deal and able-to-pay energy efficiency measures

**Indicators 1.01, 1.03, 1.09, 1.17, 1.18, 2.23, 2.24, 4.03, 4.04, 4.07, 4.11, 4.14, 4.15

Vulnerable adults and elderly people are safe and successfully access services and supports that maximise their independence

Increased economic and health wellbeing of householders and reduced carbon emissions from the domestic sector.

**Public Health England Indicators 1.01ii – Children in poverty (under 16s) 1.03 – Pupil absence (children living in cold damp homes have more health problems) 1.09 – Sickness absence 1.17 – Fuel poverty 1.18 – Social isolation (don’t want to invite people into a cold damp house) 2.23 – Self-reported well-being 2.24 – Injuries due to falls in people aged 65 and over (cold leads to circulation problems and stiffness in older people, leading to risk of falls) 4.03 – Mortality rate from causes considered preventable 4.04 – Under 75 mortality rate from all cardiovascular diseases 4.07 – Under 75 mortality rate from respiratory disease 4.11 – Emergency readmissions within 30 days of discharge from hospital 4.14 – Hip fractures in people aged 65 and over (see 2.24) 4.15 – Excess winter deaths

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Building on this overarching action plan Northampton Borough Council has set out the following plan in order to deliver its HECA ambitions over the forthcoming reporting period 2015-2017.

Scheme Action Timeframe

GREEN DEAL AND ENERGY COMPANY OBLIGATION (ECO)

We will use available data to identify homes that may be eligible for ECO funding

Data was obtained under Warm Homes Healthy People to analyse opportunities for targeted interventions

NPH continues to build on its understanding of the stock following a Stock Condition Survey undertaken in 2012

Data analysis and mapping exercise completed June 2013 We will continue to utilise the data to target interventions

Work with Green Deal Providers to offer funding to eligible households

Due to the slow momentum in Green Deal and the volatility of the ECO market we have established, with our NWH partners, an installer framework to minimise the risks associated with Green Deal and offer best value to our residents

Ongoing Framework established May 2014 Referrals for Green Deal and ECO We will continue to explore and promote incentives to take up Green Deal e.g. Green Deal Home Improvement Fund

Where appropriate we will seek to work with Green Deal Providers to offer financial support and ECO funding on an area-based approach Data analysis has identified areas that were likely to be at greater risk of fuel poverty and/or “hard to treat”

Ongoing Undertake targeted marketing to specific geographic areas and demographic groups to maximise draw down of available funding

We will work with local social housing providers to ensure their tenants also benefit from Green Deal and ECO

Ongoing NPH will work with NWH in the private sector to ensure that all residents understand and can benefit from housing improvements such as external wall insulation

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COLLECTIVE PURCHASING We will investigate the potential for collective switching to help residents reduce their fuel bills

Ongoing consideration of options. In the meantime we will continue to promote the benefits of fuel switching to our residents e.g. by collaboration with DECC’s Big Energy Saving Network

FEED -IN-TARIFF (FiTs) We will continue to promote the uptake of FiTs through our NWH and council websites NPH has under consideration up to £11million PV programme

Ongoing Installation of 3,360 PV systems to social housing stock with the majority installed over the next 2 years

RENEWABLE HEAT INCENTIVE We will promote the Renewable Heat incentive through our NWH and council websites NPH will consider the introduction of heat pump technology into its housing stock where appropriate

Ongoing

COMMUNITY ACTION We will continue to encourage communities to work together reduce their carbon emissions

Ongoing Support for communities to access funding to support their activities e.g. Rural Community Energy Fund Continue to develop our links with the third sector e.g. NACRE, Community Law, Age UK March – June 2015 We will support the development and adoption of Northamptonshire County Council’s Community Energy Strategy

PRIVATE RENTAL SECTOR In recognition of the growing importance of this sector we will provide advice and support for private sector landlords in compliance with the new sector regulations As of 3 November 2014, all houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) consisting of two storeys in the designated area

By April 2016 when tenants may request energy efficiency improvements we will explore opportunities to strengthen this sector through advice and promotion We will explore opportunities to bring empty properties back into use

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will be subject to additional licensing

Support private sector landlords through a Landlords’ Forum

NEW BUILD All new builds to be built to CSH level 4 or above

On-going

Glossary Green Deal The Government’s flagship energy efficiency initiative designed to help

businesses and households to install energy efficiency and renewable measures at no upfront cost. The cost of the measures is recovered through their energy bills and should be no greater than the savings achieved

Energy Company Obligation

Linked with the Green Deal ECO will support:

Vulnerable households

People living in hard to treat homes, i.e. those off the gas grid or with solid walls

Feed in Tariff Guaranteed payment for renewable electricity generation

Renewable Heat Incentive

Guaranteed payment for the installation of renewable heating systems, e.g. heat pumps and biomass

Collective Switching When a large group of people get together and use their collective buying power to negotiate a better deal from energy suppliers. The more people who are involved in a switch, the bigger the buying power and the better the deal is likely to be

Northamptonshire Warm Homes (NWH)

Comprising officers responsible for energy efficiency from all 7 districts in Northamptonshire, the partnership sees to promote the take-up of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in the private sector

Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH)

From January 2015 Northampton Partnership Homes will be responsible for the management of over 12,000 council homes. This will be a new start for tenants, delivering a financially sustainable way to update the Council’s housing stock and provide local people with decent homes and improvements in service. Under the ALMO, the housing stock will still be owned by the council and tenants will remain as council tenants, with all their current rights protected

Framework Together with our partner Northamptonshire councils we have established a local installer framework. The framework seeks to enable our residents to access advice and referral to an installer best suited to their needs, based on property specifics, timescales and access to funding.

Signed off

Chief Executive Northampton Borough Council