Fuel poverty: The £77k question

The chair of the Committee on Fuel Poverty has shared his concerns that energy efficiency projects are still being not being effectively targeted at those most in need.

David Blakemore pointed to local authority guidance that households with an income of up to £77,000 are eligible for assistance under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, as “out of kilter with tackling genuine fuel poverty”.

He told Utility Week that he was keen to work with the utilities sector to improve the accuracy of the next iteration of the ECO initiative and to ensure associated programmes are better targeted.

Longer term he said it was vital that the health impacts of fuel poverty were embedded within wider NHS and Public Health England (PHE) policies and that health workers were given the power to grant access to energy efficiency support directly rather than referring patients.

Reflecting on Boris Johnson’s speech earlier this week, in which energy efficiency did not warrant a mention, Blakemore said the lack of detail was disappointing. However, he pointed to firm commitments in the Conservative manifesto and said he remained positive that further announcements would follow.

Blakemore spoke to Utility Week following the publication of the committee’s latest annual report, which predicted that targets for upgrading the energy efficiency of fuel poor homes will be missed this year – as well as in 2025 and 2030 – because available funds have not been effectively targeted.

The committee supported a “sharper focus” approach to ECO, which would have resulted in a pool of c3.5 million eligible homes. However, Blakemore said concern within government around the finding costs of this narrower method had led them to select a much wider band – of six million addresses.

He said: “We are keen to work on the successor to ECO3, the Home Energy Efficiency programme and to build into that programme tools like artificial intelligence, so we can get a much sharper focus on fuel poor households without the energy companies incurring the resultant high search costs.”

Digital drive

He said the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) had started modelling machine-based learning for energy efficiency programmes but that “we need a push to get that up the priority within  BEIS and then get the other government departments comfortable that we could use AI to get a very sharp focus without a high cost”.

There is also clear need for government to tighten controls around flexible eligibility for local authorities, Blakemore said. He stressed that a level of flexibility was to be welcomed and that fuel poverty should not just be based on receipt of benefits. However, he said there was a lack of data to show the current approach was working.

“There are some local authorities introducing eligibility criteria which are way above low income level. We quote one that sets it at up £77,000 gross income. That is clearly out of kilter with tackling genuine fuel poverty.”

He declined to name the authority but Utility Week has identified that Leicester City Council does consider a household with three or more adults and at least four children, if falling into certain vulnerability groups, could be eligible for ECO if they have a combined gross income under £77,000.

Blakemore pointed to a number of health initiatives where government issues much more stringent guidelines to councils as an example that there is precedent.

Health policy

The Public Health England Cold Weather Plan has identified “strong evidence” that some of the c30,000 annual excess winter deaths in England are related to cold temperatures and living in cold homes. However, Blakemore points out that this understanding of the issue is not being backed up by action.

He said: “We are trying to push a concept of HealthFlex. There are lots programmes in the NHS and PHE that recognise the impact of cold homes on ill health and the impact on excess winter deaths but we are trying to get more action on those and then ideally some direct referrals from the health sector and social care to a successor programme to ECO.”

However, he stressed that the pressures of Covid-19 on an already stretched NHS meant there would be no quick solutions to this issue.

Aligning with net zero

The committee is currently working with BEIS to understand how energy efficiency schemes can best complement the wider task of decarbonising homes. Ensuring a property is “net zero ready” may involve installing larger low flow temperature radiators, for example, and possibly require improving energy efficiency levels beyond Band C.

This raises the question as to whether it is preferable to carry out multiple projects in a single visit or in stages.

Blakemore said: “To the extent there’s a limited budget it would seem sensible to stick with an incremental approach.”

But we remain open-minded to the fact that you don’t want the incremental energy efficiency upgrades to not be in step with the net-zero goals. We don’t want six inches of loft insulation and then five years later find it should have been nine to accommodate a heat pump.

“Whether you do incremental or whole house it has to be consistent with making a fuel-poor home net-zero ready.

“There is a similar debate on an area-based approach or pepperpot.”

Blakemore said after promising signs in the Conservative manifesto that the government was willing to make up for the energy efficiency underspend of previous administrations, Covid-19 had “understandably” hijacked the agenda. He said he remained confident that the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s update next week would provide more details.