Action / Details / TIMING
(Where relevant)
Our performance on CO2 emissions / CO2 emission (kt CO2)from Domestic Use - Estimates / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / % Reduction
Sandwell / 578 / 618 / 543 / 582 / 568 / 477 / 17.47
West Midlands / 11,686 / 12,529 / 10,940 / 11,700 / 11,393 / 9,562 / 18.18
England / 111,285 / 119,575 / 104,259 / 112,171 / 109,260 / 91,411 / 17.86
National / 135,913 / 146,011 / 127,142 / 136,485 / 133,045 / 111,987 / 17.60
Per capita emissions (t) Domestic / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / % Reduction
Sandwell / 1.91 / 2.02 / 1.76 / 1.87 / 1.81 / 1.51 / 20.94
West Midlands / 2.11 / 2.25 / 1.95 / 2.07 / 2.01 / 1.67 / 20.85
England / 2.13 / 2.27 / 1.96 / 2.10 / 2.03 / 1.68 / 21.13
National / 2.18 / 2.33 / 2.01 / 2.14 / 2.08 / 1.73 / 20.64
Figures for reduction of CO2 emissions in Sandwell are in line with regional and national statistics between 2009 and 2014.
*all data sourced from Dep’t for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (March 2017)
Our performance on fuel poverty / The table below compares the percentage of households considered to be in fuel poverty for Sandwell against similar figures for the West Midlands and England.
Households in Fuel Poverty * % / 2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / LIHC**
2011 / 2012 / LIHC**
2012 / LIHC**
2013 / LIHC**
2014
Sandwell / 23.9 / 29.0 / 24.1 / 17.5 / 14.0 / 15.8 / 18.0 / 16.4 / 12.8
West Midlands / 18.2 / 26.2 / 21.6 / 16.8 / 13.8 / 16.7 / 15.2 / 13.9 / 12.1
England / 15.6 / 18.4 / 16.4 / 14.6 / 10.9 / 13.92 / 10.4 / 10.4 / 10.6
**LIHC – Low income, high cost definition
Our 2013 HECA report set an aim of reducingoverall fuel poverty in the borough by 10% on 2010 levels (24.1%) by 2020. In fact,statistics show that we have already exceeded this (using definition prior to Hill’s Review).
The aim of our 2015 HECA Reportwas to ensure that by 2020:
- Sandwell has no LSOA’s within the highest 1% of fuel poor in England
- We would reduceoverall fuel poverty in the borough by a further 10% on 2012 levels (LIHC definition).
*all datasourced from Dep’t for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (March 2017) / By 2020
Reducing Fuel Poverty / We aim to continue to reduce fuel poverty by the following actions:
a)Specifically targeting promotion of home energy initiatives towards LSOA’s that fallwithin thehighest 5% of fuel poor in England as at 2014 (E01010048, E01010055, E01010059, E01010060, E01010049, E01009943, E01009986, E01010052, E01009921, E01010061, E01009965, E01009924, E01009927).
b)Working with our partners (including energy companies, Registered Social Landlords, NHS, Age UK, Public Health England, The RiversideGroup, National Energy Action, Warm Zone, Wates Living Space, Lovell’s and Vinci) toattract inward investment and complement our existing capital projectsin areas of fuel poverty.
c)In addition, we will work with our partners to ensure that energy advice is targeted towards those residents who will benefit most. The council is associated with 3 schemes:
- Energy Extra –scheme administered via a local social housing provider (Black Country Housing Group) providing advice to both Council and other social housing tenants.
- Warm Zone, based locally in Oldbury focussed on the private sector, although can provide cross-tenure advice.
- Sandwell Consortium – this is a community benefit company operating in association with the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and the Sandwell Advice Providers’ network to provide advice to residents in the private sector.
Working with our partners to deliver energy measures / By working with ourpartners we have attracted investment from various funding sources including:
- Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) - including external wall insulation.
- Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) – including free cavity wall and loft insulation.
- Energy Company Obligation (ECO) - including external wall insulation.
- Private Finance Initiative
- Warm Zone
- Warm Front
CESP funding - In the private sector the North Smethwick Development Trust have successfully engaged with residents to help alleviate fuel poverty in a particularly deprived part of the borough. Working with a local contractor the Trust obtained CESP funding to undertake significant improvements to homes at no cost to residents. A total of 68 solid wall properties have benefitted from measures including external wall insulation, loft insulation and draught proofing. The Trust estimate total fuel bill savings of approximately £20,000 per annum and average household savings of around £300 per year.
Scottish Power Energy Peoples’ Trust – using funding from Scottish Power (£9400), North Smethwick Development Trust targeted 238 dwellings for energy advice and energy switching. This scheme also provided benefits advice resulting in total extra benefits of around £69,000 for those taking part.
A recent partnershipbetween the Council and Warm Zone has completed a pilot project resulting in the installation of external wall insulation to a run of 12 properties, including 3 owned by the Council and 4 private dwellings. Charitable funding has meant that the homeowners have benefitted from the upgrade at no cost to themselves. / 2013-14
2013-14
2016-17
Energy Companies Obligation
& Green Deal / We will continue to investigate new partnerships with energy companies and others to deliver projects funded by the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). Our priority will continue to be the targeting of measures towards LSOA’s with the highest levels of fuel poverty in the borough.
Wecurrently have in place a Joint Working Agreement with Wates Living Space to deliver energy efficiency measures across the private sector housing stock in Sandwell. We recognise the expertise, resources and funding opportunities that working with this national company can provide. Unfortunately, the closure of Green Deal and theGreen Deal Home Improvement Fund,has had a negative impact on the effectiveness of this arrangement. The realities of Green Deal have proven to be less than appealing or helpful to those in need. Bureaucratic procedures and high borrowing rates have resulted in poor take up of the scheme.
The new Flexible Eligibility Rules should help us to work with our partners towards developing a more integrated delivery method for energy efficiency measures. We await further Government guidance concerning this. / 2015-18
2017-19
Supply chain opportunities / We will aim to ensure that materials used for enhanced energy performance and renewable energy are sourced locally and installed by local labour where possible. / 2017-19
Public Sector
Investment Plan. / Our plans for investment in the council’s own stock will aim to address energy efficiency measures using the council’s Affordable Warmth budget as well as any available ECO funding. The aim is for a co-ordinated approach to energy efficiency where work in the public sector can complement and encourage that in the private sector. / 2017-19
Fuel switching / Commencing during 2013, we have now taken part in 12 fuel-switching rounds utilising a national framework supported by iChoosr. People who registered an interest in the February 2017 auction can make potential average savings of £140 with 70% of people able to realise a saving. Total savings realised by participants since 2013 are in the region of £185,000. We will continue to promote this scheme for the foreseeable future. / 2017-19
Domestic Photovoltaic (PV) Installations / As at December 2016cumulative domestic photo-voltaic (pv)installations for Sandwell totalled 1,998*(1.6%). This compares with rates for other Black Country boroughs as below:
- Wolverhampton 1587* (1.5%)
- Walsall 1894* (1.7%)
- Dudley 2530* (1.9%)
* data sourced from Dep’t for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (March 2017) / 2017-19
Renewables / Most dwellings in Sandwell are connected to mains gas. Within this in mind, the take-up rate for renewable energy schemes is likely to be limited to solar thermal and air/ground source heat pumps. Where opportunities arise, particularly with regard to new-build and refurbishment, we will investigate and consider the practicalities of installing new technology including biomass heating appliances for district heating systems. / 2017-19
New Homes / Gov’t policy requires all new homes from 2016 to mitigate, through various measures, all the carbon emissions produced on-site as a result of the regulated energy use. This includes energy used to provide space heating and cooling, hot water and fixed lighting, as outlined in Part L1A of the Building Regulations. Emissions resulting from cooking and ‘plug-in’ appliances such as computers and televisions are not being addressed as part of this policy.
This policy is well aligned with European Policy, specifically the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (recast) which requires all new buildings to be nearly Zero Energy Buildings from 2020 (nZEB), as described in Article 2 of the EPBD.
Our Building Consultancy section will help developers who use the Local Authority consultancy service to achieve this target for all new homes.
Policy ENV7 in the Black Country Core Strategy identifies the use of renewable and low carbon energy as increasingly important. During the monitoring period 2014/2015 period 49 qualifying applications were determined. Of these, 22 were conditioned to comply, 2 proposals were inappropriate to apply ENV7 to and 1 site was of such an unviable nature due to ground conditions that no planning obligations were imposed.
Several other major sites had other valid reasons not to apply the policy. These included: being a change of use only, another was a listed building which made compliance unviable, one proposal was a care home and technically did not trigger the policy, while yet another application complied with different energy efficiency regime-BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology).
The industry has a stated preference for a 'Fabric First' approach, as seen in the recent Housing Standards Review consultation.
Government policy and appeal decisions have limited the future scope of this policy as energy conservation, rather than energy generation is now considered acceptable / 2017-19
EPCs / There are over 129,000 dwellings in Sandwell, of which 23%(29,600) are council-owned, 4% (5,260) owned by Housing Associations, 13% are in the Private Rented Sector and 60% (77,200) privately owned.
There are 81,119 EPCs logged on the domestic register for Sandwell of which 7% of domestic properties were awarded an Energy Efficiency rating of either A (the highest) or B. A further 67% were awarded a Rating of either C or D while the remaining 26% were awarded a Rating of E, F or G (the lowest).
Our Trading Standards Team will continue to ensure that landlords, agents and those selling or letting their homes are aware of their legal obligation to provide and make available Energy Performance Certificates (EPC’s). This information is included within our Letting Agents’ Packs that have been widely distributed.We will continue to take appropriate action if we are notified of failure to meet this obligation.
With regard to the Council’s own stock, we now produce EPC’s in-house using trained building surveyors. Currently we have completed reports for approximately 33% of dwellings managed by ourselves (total stock of 30,000 properties with 1052 of these managed by the Riverside Group under a PFI agreement). we will continue to advise prospective tenants of the importance of obtaining and considering EPCs before they decide to accept a tenancy as it can have a major impact on their future wellbeing (health and costs). / 2017-19
Minimum standards in the private sector / The Energy Act 2011 proposes that from April 2018, all private rented dwellings should be brought up to a minimum energy efficiency standard rating, likely to be set at EPC rating “E”. We will work with landlords and their prospective tenants to:
• Highlight the benefits of energy efficiency works
• Secure improvements to their homes / properties when external funding grants / loans etc areavailable.
• Ensure that all new tenants are provided with EPC’s by their landlord before sign-up so that they understand the potential heating and energy costs of a property
• Investigate new partnerships with energy companies and others to deliver Energy Company Obligations (ECO) to assist private sector tenancies. /
2017-19
Affordable Warmth Scheme / Sandwell’s Affordable Warmth Scheme aims to help vulnerable residents in the private sector whose homes are heated by out-dated or inefficient heating systems. Recognising the clear links between housing conditions and health this project is funded by Public Health.
In order to qualify residents must be on a low household income and be:
- over 60 or
- disabled or have
- chronic health issues or have
- children up to the age of nineteen.
Measure / Number of installations
Central heating installation / 299
Heating repairs / 86
Loft insulation / 89
Cavity wall insulation / 2
External wall insulation / 11
In addition, Warm Zone have carried out 137 energy advice visits. / 2017-19
Smart meters / National roll out of smart meters is underway with the aim of all households receiving them by 2020.
We will work with energy companies to ensure they provide meters at no cost to residents.
Whilst the benefits of smart meters are clear, there are issues with the type of smart meters currently being fitted and the ability for customers to switch providers. Second-generation smart meters (SMETS2) are expected to resolve these issues and these will be rolled out mid-late 2017. / 2017-20
Establishment of an energy services company / We have considered establishment of an energy services company with potential to purchase energy at preferential rates for residents, generate energy and attract inward investment to the borough. Whilst this has not been progressed to-date, we will continue to explore opportunities in this area. / 2017-20
District Heat Networks / During 2017 we were successful in gaining access to Government funding for a Heat Mapping and Energy Masterplan study of the borough. This having been completed, we are currently in the process of procuring a feasibility study to look in more detail at opportunities that have emerged.The feasibility study will consider all aspects of prospective schemes and look in particular at inclusion of proposed new housing developments. / 2017
Abbreviations
CERT / Carbon Emissions Reduction Target DECCDepartment of Energy and Climate Change
CESP / Community Energy Saving Programme ECOEnergy Company Obligations
CSH / Code for sustainable homes EPCEnergy Performance Certificate
LSOA / Lower Super Output Area FiT Feed inTariff
PFI / Private Finance Initiaitive
[IL0: UNCLASSIFIED]
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Report in accordance with the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995- CompletedMarch 2017