Warm and Well

01594 545360

Background

Gloucestershire Warm and Well was developed by the Severn Wye Energy Agency on behalf of the local authorities in the county in 2000/01. Following a successful application for HECAction funding from EST the scheme was launched in October 2001, in conjunction with the launch of the Affordable Warmth Strategy for Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire. The scheme continues to be closely linked with this strategy and is key to achieving many of its aims.

The local authorities involved in the scheme are:

Cheltenham Borough Council (lead)
Cotswold District Council
Forest of Dean District Council
Gloucester City Council
South Gloucestershire Council
Stroud District Council
Tewkesbury Borough Council

Aims

Gloucestershire Warm and Well aims to improve energy efficiency and reduce the levels of associated health risk through:

Raising awareness of the issues and appropriate action, both physical and behavioural

Providing specific and appropriate advice to each household that comes into the scheme

Enabling physical measures to be installed through referrals to grants and discounts

The central issues addressed are the link between energy efficiency and affordable warmth, cold living conditions and health, for example through:

cardiovascular illness
condensation damp
respiratory illness and allergic conditions
ventilation and carbon monoxide risk

The target group for the scheme is defined as:

Owner occupiers and tenants of private rented housing in Gloucestershire with members of the household who are vulnerable to health problems associated with, or exacerbated by low indoor temperatures

Owner occupiers and tenants of private rented housing in Gloucestershire likely to be living in fuel poverty, and unable to afford adequate heating in the home.

The general public in Gloucestershire, to promote awareness of energy efficiency and the related issues of adequate ventilation, the avoidance of condensation damp and the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning

Activities

Awareness and advice

Gloucestershire Warm and Well seeks to integrate all available funding in order to offer advice, home visits and energy efficiency measures to as many households as possible.

Advice and home visits are an important part of the scheme which is available to everyone in Gloucestershire regardless of the type of home in which they live.

Outreach and referrals

At the core of Warm and Well is the development of the referral network of local statutory and caring agencies, trained and encouraged to identify those who would most benefit from the scheme and refer them for assistance.

The Active Warm and Well programme has been developed to support the scheme. This is a training session developed with Health Promotion Gloucestershire for health and social care professionals and others, focusing on physical activity, falls prevention, healthy diet and the health impacts of cold, damp homes.

SWEA also promotes the scheme at numerous local events and Warm and Well regularly features in local press and on BBC Radio Gloucestershire

As well as installing energy efficiency measures the contractor is required to bring in leads to the scheme. They achieve this by using a door-to-door canvassing operation, following a strict code of conduct following local authority guidelines. Canvassers carry a letter of introduction from the scheme explaining the involvement of the local authority and including the freephone telephone number.

Energy efficiency measures

The local authorities contribute funding for measures through the Gloucestershire Energy Efficiency Grant (GEEG) while also making use of funding from Warm Front and fuel suppliers via their Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC).

Warm and well provides energy efficiency measures to those living in privately owned or privately rented homes. The measures available under GEEG are as follows:

Loft insulation
Cavity wall insulation
Draught-proofing
Hot water tank jackets
Boiler replacement (mains gas only)
Full central heating systems (Cheltenham Borough Council only)

The successful development of the programme has enabled the addition of other measures periodically such as:

solar water heating (with grants from local authorities to enhance the grants available nationally)

heat recovery extract fans, for homes of asthma sufferers, with funding from the health authority

The linked Rent Warm, Rent Well programme targets private sector landlords and offers them grants in order to encourage installation of energy efficiency measures.

The scheme is governed by a steering group made up of representatives from each of the local authorities involved and representatives from the health sector locally. This group meets regularly throughout the year and decides on the grant eligibility criteria and future focus. The criteria are deliberately set to fill the eligibility gap by helping people on low incomes who are excluded from other schemes because they do not received income related benefits.