Warm and Well

Background

Gloucestershire Warm and Well was developed by the Severn Wye Energy Agency (SWEA) on behalf of the local authorities in the county in 2000/01. Following a successful application for HECA action 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.

Key Achievements

Winner of the 2006 Ashden Award for Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency improvements to 14,489 Gloucestershire homes

Advice given to 27,000 Gloucestershire residents

Over £8,500,000* worth of energy efficiency measures installed

The local authorities involved in the scheme are:

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

SWEA also promotes the scheme at numerous local events and Warm and Well regularly features in local press and radio.

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.

Coordinator

Sarah Giff - Senior Project Manager

	sarah
	01452 835083

Related Projects

Gloucestershire EEAC

WISE Homes

Think BIG

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 Carbon Emissions Reduction Target commitment (CERT).

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 (not all LAs)

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 receive income related benefits.