Purpose of Report
To seek approval from the Executive of the new Affordable Warmth Strategy.
Decision
That the Affordable Warmth Strategy 2022-27 be approved.
Alternative Options Considered and Rejected
(1) To progress the Affordable Warmth Strategy and deliver the actions set out to address fuel poverty which delivered the Council’s Vision 2025 ambitions.
(2) To reduce the scale and ambition of the Affordable Warmth Strategy and deliver the actions over a longer timescale to relieve pressure on Council resources.
Reasons for the Decision
The Council had adopted the previous Affordable Warmth Strategy in 2009, which set out a plan for reducing the negative impact of fuel poverty on the City. The strategy was in place until 2016 and since then the Council’s affordable warmth and fuel poverty agenda had not been reviewed or updated in line with more recent Government and City of Lincoln Council policies.
The Affordable Warmth Strategy brought together the success of the Council’s partnership approach to ensure that all sectors were working together to tackle fuel poverty effectively. The strategy reflected the objective of the Council’s Housing Strategy 2021 – 2026 to improve housing standards for all and contributes to the Council’s ongoing work to achieve a net zero carbon target by 2030.
Key objectives of the Lincoln Affordable Warmth Strategy 2021 – 2027 included:
· To reduce the number of Lincoln residents that were in fuel poverty, targeting those with the highest fuel poverty gap.
· To improve processes for identifying residents who were in fuel poverty or at risk of ill health due to a cold home.
· To increase the number of homes in Lincoln with domestic energy efficiency ratings of C, one of the key ways in which the City could tackle the Climate Emergency.
The Strategy also set out priorities to deliver affordable warmth over the next five years, which were detailed in the report.
The latest data available for Lincoln had shown that the City had the second highest level of fuel poverty of all districts in Lincolnshire. In 2019, the total estimated number of households meeting the government’s fuel poverty criteria was 6568. The implications of the Covid-19 pandemic and the significant rise in global, wholesale gas prices were likely to have pushed more households in Lincoln into fuel poverty.