News

From www.bbc.co.uk/news/business
Thousands of people die each year from illnesses linked to fuel poverty, according to an independent report

Professor John Hills has called for a new definition of the problem, which focuses on people with low incomes driven into poverty by high fuel bills.  

His report found that in 2004, fuel-poor households faced a shortfall of £256 to heat their homes and avoid
poverty, but in 2009 it was £402.

Recent bill increases may make the problem worse this year, he warned. The government commissioned Prof Hills, director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, to examine how serious a problem fuel poverty is and how it should be measured. 

He argues that fuel poverty poses serious public health and environmental issues.  His report is the first to measure the shortfall that some households face in heating their homes, which he calls the fuel poverty gap. 

Further increases in bills since then are likely to have widened this gap, he warned.  Heating 'hardship' The report argued this shortfall had serious implications for health.  There are 27,000 extra deaths in the UK each winter compared to other times of year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The report found most of this was due to cold weather. 

That figure is one of the highest in Europe and worse than Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway and France. 

The main cause of these deaths is respiratory and cardiovascular illness brought on by the cold, with lower outdoor and indoor temperatures each accounting for about half the total number of deaths. See the full story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15359312 Download the report http://www.mea.org.uk/files/fuel-poverty-review-interim-report.pdf  

Have a go using this excellent tool on the DECC website.

Design your own virtual 2050 future by going to http://my2050.decc.gov.uk/

An interesting article that referred to this tool highlighted how adverage in door temperature has risen over the last few decades [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12606943] encouraging people to accept a reversal in this trend was one of the options available in the tool.

The "Keep Shropshire Warm" scheme run by the local charity Marches Energy Agency, brings good news for householders struggling financially to heat their homes as the Warm Front scheme recommences with grants available to help make homes more comfortable and energy efficient.  

Warm Front is targeted at people on certain income-related benefits and living in properties that are poorly insulated and/or do not have a working central heating system.  Householders must own their home or rent it from a private landlord.  Those eligible may benefit from insulation and heating improvements based on a surveyor visit identifying those most appropriate to the home, up to a value of £3,500 (£6,000 for properties off the gas mains network).  Shropshire will particularly benefit now that LPG boilers will be available in rural areas as a new system.  Measures available include insulation, draughtproofing, new heating systems and conversion of solid-fuel open fires to glass-fronted. 

Robert Saunders, Keep Shropshire Warm adviser, said: 

"We have been waiting for this good news since last December.  Now Keep Shropshire Warm can provide more help to those struggling with their heating and insulation.  Warm Front provides assistance to those eligible but we continue to offer wide ranging energy advice to all householders in the Shropshire Council area." 

Keep Shropshire Warm delivers energy advice and support on behalf of Shropshire Council.  Advice is available on 01743 277123. 

Those wishing to contact Warm Front directly can call 0800 316 2805 (or textphone 0800 072 0156).  Lines are open Monday to Friday 8.00am to 6.00pm and Saturday 9.00am to 5.00pm.

For up-to-date information see the webpage www.warmfront.co.uk  

Climate change is recognised as being one of the most important issues to be addressed over the next decade. Scientific opinion is almost universally agreed that we must cut man made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to prevent irreversible damage to the ecosystem of the earth. The cuts required are big, and will need every person and organisation to make their contribution.  The Shropshire Council has pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by 35% over the next 5 years with the help of organizations including the Marches Energy Agency.

Voluntary Sector Organisations are leaders on acting for the greater good and within these organisations there is a willingness to act to minimise the effects of climate change and to lead in their communities in a better use of energy and in the use of renewable technologies. Material exists but those in Voluntary Sector Organisations often don’t know the best way to interpret all the various options for their particular building(s) and with respect to their organisation.  Energy audits provided by consultants are an effective way to recommend to the organisation what they should do, although often these recommendations are not taken up and stay as just that, recommendations.

Wesave.org.uk supplies the Voluntary Sector with the tools to perform their own energy audit through the http://www.wesave.org.uk interactive website, accompanied by its help screens and guide book (http://www.wesave.org.uk/downloads/BVSC%20guide%20v6%202%203.pdf).  This process gives the organisation ownership of its carbon descent, increasing the involvement of those within the organisation and resulting in large impacts on the organisation’s or group’s carbon descent.  Wesave.org.uk then continues to interact with the organisation, showing them how their energy consumption decreases over time and assisting them with any future changes. In addition the tool incorporates various behavioural change elements which can then be disseminated to the members of the organisation and those who visit their premises.

This resource is intended to enable a person who is not an energy expert to work through a step by step process to build up an action plan to be used by their organisation. The work can be carried out in manageable chunks, and the workbook and online tool are linked together so that you can keep track of what stage you have reached.

WeSave aims to be a bit different; to be inspiring, to be empowering. But more importantly it seeks to help all that use it to get from aspiration to planning practical action. There is certainly no shortage of information on sustainable energy and climate change, although there does seem to be a sizeable amount of carbon illiteracy. As the English Romantic painter John Constable said in the year before his death “We see nothing truly till we understand it.”  WeSave helps you and those around you truly see the challenge and the opportunity of sustainable energy and climate change.

One way or another, this generation - that’s you and me - have this awesome responsibility of delivering low carbon lifestyles in our communities. So log on to the website (www.wesave.org.uk), read the workbook and spend an important hour or so as a carbon accountant and low carbon building planner & engineer.  This isn’t a guidebook to read, it is a workbook to do and an interactive tool to use – so get reading, entering, and planning – the future is in your hands.

Marches Energy Agency