Agenda item - Fuel Poverty & Affordable Warmth Strategy for Brighton & Hove

Report of the Acting Executive Director, Environment, Development & Housing (copy attached).

1)       That the contents of the report and the NICE guidelines and recommendations be noted.

2)       That the ongoing work to develop a wider Fuel Poverty and Affordable Warmth Strategy be noted.  A draft of the strategy will be brought to a future meeting for approval.

28.1   The Committee considered the report of the Acting Executive Director Environment, Development and Housing which informed Members that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) released guidelines in March 2015 entitled ‘Excess winter deaths and morbidity and ill health associated with living with cold homes’.  The guidance provided evidence based recommendations on how to reduce the risk of death and ill health associated with living in a cold home.  The guidelines proposed that year round planning and action by multiple sectors was needed to reduce these risks.  In response to the NICE guidelines and the recent national fuel poverty strategy for England, ‘Cutting the cost of keeping warm’, a Fuel Poverty and Affordable Warmth Strategy for Brighton & Hove was being developed with an associated action plan. The action plan in response to the NICE guidelines was attached as appendix 1.  The report was presented by the Housing Sustainability Contracts Manager.  The draft strategy would be presented to the Committee in January 2016.

28.2    Councillor Mears found the report very interesting.  She referred to paragraph 7.7 relating to travellers and gypsies.  She was concerned about the safety issues raised by having calor gas canisters in vehicles on the highway and was not sure interventions would work with travellers.  The Housing Sustainability Contracts Manager agreed to send Councillor Mears information on this subject.

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28.3    Councillor Atkinson considered the report to be very important and stressed that it was vital to give people the best advice.  He asked how the council would evaluate whether the strategy was a success or not.  The Housing Sustainability Contracts Manager replied this would be from looking at the numbers of excess winter deaths but this would vary from year to year.  Officers were reliant on national statistics but there was an 18 month time lag.  There would be interventions and an action plan.  For example, there would be a number of interventions with regard to financial advice.  A key consideration would be to properly manage, review and decide how outcomes were reported.

28.4    Councillor Gibson found it a useful report.  He stressed that there were two sides to fuel poverty.  One was poverty and the other was hard to heat homes.  With regard to the poverty there was now a living wage but there was a need to see what more could be done.

28.5       RESOLVED:-

(1)      That the contents of the report and the NICE guidelines and recommendations be noted.

(2)      That the ongoing work to develop a wider Fuel Poverty and Affordable Warmth Strategy be noted.  A draft of the strategy will be brought to a future meeting for approval.