Fuel poverty in Coventry

This is a report summarising the progress we have made in developing home energy efficiency measures in the city over the last 2 years. Local authorities must produce this report under the requirements of the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995. The report provides responses to the questions prescribed in guidance issued by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Below are our responses for the most recent report, published in February 2024.

Home Energy Conservation Act 2024 Responses 

Headline and Overview 

• Q1. Does your Local Authority have a current strategy on carbon reduction and/or energy efficiency for domestic properties? Yes 
• Q2. If yes, please provide a link.  https://www.coventry.gov.uk/draftclimatechangestrategy 
• Q4. In the last 2 years, what has been the cost (or estimated cost) of your energy efficiency and/or carbon reduction initiatives, schemes and services? Please consider the total cost of running and administering the scheme(s). 
• Local Authority Delivery 2 - £946k Government grant (capital and admin) 
• Sustainable Warmth Competition - £1,709,400 Government grant (capital and admin) 
• Home Upgrade Grant 2 - £2,810,500 Government grant (capital and admin) 
• Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 1 – £1,084,013 Government grant alongside partner match funding (capital and admin) 
• Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2 – £23,855,688 Government grant alongside partner match funding (capital and admin) 
• ECO4 – £0 grant. Est. £15-£20k in officer time to administer.  
• Keeping Coventry Warm 22/23 - £451,200 funding from Coventry City Council Public Health department, Better Care Fund and discretionary Disabled Facilities Grant (capital and admin)  
• Keeping Coventry Warm 23/24 - £451,200 funding from Coventry City Council Public Health department, Better Care Fund and discretionary Disabled Facilities Grant (capital and admin) 
• Note: These schemes are specific to residential retrofit / energy efficiency. A number of other carbon reduction schemes have been delivered additional to these.  
• Q5. Which, if any, of the following outcomes have been achieved through your energy efficiency and/or carbon initiatives, schemes and services? - Energy savings, Carbon savings, Job creation, Increased business competitiveness, Alleviation of fuel poverty, Improved health outcomes, Other - transform local communities, Grow supply chain, Build expertise in the area. 
• Q6. Do you provide or promote any advisory services to consumers on how to save energy? Yes - Local Authority website, Local advisory service, Social media 

• Local Retrofit Supply Chain 

• Q8. Have you conducted any assessment or analysis to understand the existing capacity in your local supply chain to support the decarbonisation of buildings by 2050? - Yes 
• Q9. If you answered yes to question 8, please summarise any specific bottlenecks - There’s only been a basic level of information and analysis taken so far. Working with our Green Skills Group we aim to draft a green skills report, which should provide more clarity on specific bottlenecks and how to move forward on the skills agenda.  
• Q10. Which, if any, of the following actions are you taking to upskill and/or grow your local retrofit installer supply chain? - Supporting training provision at local training providers, Supporting FE colleges to improve facilities or train trainers or otherwise enable better delivery of retrofit training, Providing installer networking opportunities or other business support for growing companies, Careers advice or similar involving local businesses doing schools outreach to encourage young people into the sector. 
• Q11. Do you provide advice for your residents and small businesses about how to pick an installer business or how to avoid being mis-sold inappropriate improvements? - Yes 
• Q12. Has there been any Trading Standards activity against energy efficiency or home retrofit businesses in your area due to mis-selling or otherwise poorly advising consumers about retrofit measures? - No – we are not aware of any issues 
• Q13. If you received funding under Local Authority Delivery, Home Upgrade Grant or Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, did availability of PAS 2030:2019 or MCS certified and TrustMark registered supply chain affect your ability to deliver? - Yes 
• Q14. If you answered yes to question 13 please can you tell us, which parts of the supply chain were particularly affected? - Retrofit assessors, Retrofit coordinators 
• Q15. If you answered yes to question 13 please can you tell us, what actions did you take to overcome those barriers? - Supporting training and upskilling more generally, Using a main contractor and requiring them to source suitably certified supply chain (either through contracting or training up their own staff) 

• Social Housing Decarbonisation 

• Q16. Did you apply to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) Wave 2.1? - Yes, and successful in securing funding 
• Q17. Which, if any, of the following motivated you to apply for SHDF Wave 2.1? - Financial support for retrofit, Tenant needs, Expectations of future energy performance regulations. 
• Q19, Have you carried out/planned to carry out any retrofit work in absence of SHDF funding? - Yes 
• Q20. If yes, how is this funded/how would this be funded? - Internal funding, Funding from other Government schemes 
• Q22. How many of your social housing partners are you aware applied for the SHDF? - 3 

• Domestic Private Rented Sector (PRS) Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) Regulations 

• Q23. Do you enforce the PRS MEES Regulations in domestic tenancies? - Yes 
• Q24. Do you use the PRS MEES Exemption Register? - Yes 
• Q25. Are you aware of the PRS MEES draft toolkit for supporting local authorities? - Yes, and I’ve used it 
• Q26. In the past 2 years, how many domestic private rented properties have you engaged with in respect to enforcement of the PRS MEES Regulations? - 139 
• Q27. In the past 2 years, how many domestic private rented properties have you found to be non-compliant? - 29 
• Q28. In the last 2 years, how many non-compliant properties have been improved to EPC Band E after you have engaged with them? - 78 
• Q29. How many compliance notices have you issued in the past 2 years for non-compliance of the PRS MEES Regulations? - 29 

Green Home Finance 

• Q30. What programmes, if any, do you have to promote domestic energy efficiency improvements for those who are able to pay? - N/A – Looking at this as a next step.  
• Q31. Do you take any steps to raise awareness of the availability of private financing options (such as green mortgages) to fund retrofit works? - No, but we have plans to do this in the future 
• Q32. Do you refer homeowners interested in energy efficiency to retail lenders offering green finance products? - No 

Fuel Poverty  

• Q33. Does your Local Authority have a Fuel Poverty Strategy? - No – But tackling fuel poverty is a key aim of other Council strategies.  
• Q34 How do you identify fuel poor households? - Used local data sets on energy efficiency/housing, Used local data sets on household income, Campaigns to encourage potential households to reach out 
• Q35. What actions are you taking to reduce fuel poverty in your area? - Delivery of government wide schemes such as the Home Upgrade Grant or Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Actions to increase financial support to low income or vulnerable households. Coventry City Council also commissions the Keeping Coventry Warm service. This affordable warmth scheme is run by a local energy charity and provides free impartial information, advice and guidance to all residents of energy efficiency, fuel bills, fuel bill and debt support payments and tariff switching. The service also provides grants for emergency boiler/heating repairs and replacements and insulation for low income and vulnerable households. The scheme is funded by the Council’s public health department, Better Care Fund and discretionary Disabled Facilities Grant. Last year Keeping Coventry Warm supported 2465 residents with information, advice and guidance and provided 46 households with physical interventions. 
• Q36. Does fuel poverty interlink with your local authority’s overall Carbon Reduction Strategy? - Yes - Coventry City Council’s One Coventry Plan aims to both improve outcomes and tackle inequalities within our communities and tackle the causes and consequences of climate change; both of which support a reduction in fuel poverty across the City. 

Local Authority Delivery 

• Q38. Does your local authority have access to good quality housing data for on-gas properties? - No 
• Q39. If no, please specify what is lacking? - As schemes are set up around EPC levels, we currently have to rely on EPC data to target and inform retrofit schemes however we have often found this data to be unreliable due to the age and incompleteness of the data and the fact that EPCs do not get updated when home upgrades occur.  

Home Upgrade Grant 

• Q41. Does your local authority have access to good quality housing data for off-gas properties? - No 
• Q42. If no, please specify what is lacking? - As schemes are set up around EPC levels, we currently have to rely on EPC data to target and inform retrofit schemes however we have often found this data to be unreliable due to the age and incompleteness of the data and the fact that EPCs do not get updated when home upgrades occur. This has been a specific issue for HUG when EPC data advises a property is off gas however large numbers of residents have installed gas central heating in recent years making targeting and promoting the scheme difficult. This is impacting our ability to maximise the grant funding awarded and deliver the scheme in the timeframes given due to spending time and funds on contacting ineligible households. 

The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) 

• Q43. Did your local authority have a published Statement of Intent (SoI) for ECO flexibility eligibility under ECO3, during 2022? - Yes 
• Q47. What was the highest income cap published in your SoI? - £43,200 (3 or more adults and 4 or more children) 
• Q48. If you have used an income over £30k gross, what reason did you give? - In a small number of cases income over £30k has been used as part of the ECO3 low income criteria because we recognise that households with larger numbers of children and in some cases adults will sometimes have higher incomes but will also have higher outgoings. In the majority of cases, low income is defined by a figure below £30k. Coventry City Council’s full Statement of Intent, published for ECO3 on 12 September 2019
• Q49. Did you charge for declarations to be signed? - No 
• Q51. ECO4 commenced in July 2022, has your local authority published a Statement of Intent (SoI) for ECO flexibility eligibility under ECO4? - Yes 
• Q53a. Do you directly engage with energy suppliers either for ECO Flex (or other domestic energy efficiency schemes? - Yes 
• 54b. If yes, please provide the name of the scheme and indicate whether this is an LA, Supplier, DESNZ or other organisational run scheme? - Part of our ECO4 Flex scheme is run directly through an energy supplier. 
• Q55. Which route(s) do you envisage submitting referrals through under ECO4 Flex? - Route 1, Route 2, Route 3 

Smart Metering 

The following questions refer to smart metering advice. Please provide any additional details where possible. 

• Q56a. Do you provide smart metering advice when implementing energy efficiency improvements (including through grant schemes such as the Energy Company Obligation and the Home Upgrade Grant) in residential accommodation? - No 
• Q57b. If no, please explain why not, and what plans will be put in place to implement this? - The Council are not directly involved in the installation of measures for the ECO scheme therefore we do not provide smart meter advice as part of this scheme. Smart meter advise could be provided through our other retrofit schemes such as Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2 and Home Upgrade Grant 2. 
• Q58a. Do you encourage landlords to promote smart meter uptake, e.g., landlord licensing schemes? - No.  
• Q59b. If no, please explain why not, and what plans will be put in place to implement this? - It is not a duty for us to enforce this or a matter of safety for tenants, although it may help them to monitor and use energy more efficiently we would not have the capacity to assist further if they wished to change to a smart meter. Landlords can call our Keeping Coventry Warm advice line if they are looking for further information on smart meters. 
• Q60a. Do you arrange for smart meters to be installed by energy suppliers in vacant social housing premises? - No 
• Q61b. If no, please explain why not, and what plans will be put in place to implement this? - Coventry City Council do not own their own housing stock apart for a small number of temporary accommodations.