Glasgow Housing Association Takes the Lead in Tackling Fuel Poverty

Fuel Poverty

Despite government targets to eliminate fuel poverty from vulnerable homes by 2010 – and all households by 2016 – fuel poverty has been exacerbated in recent months by soaring energy bills, plummeting incomes and energy inefficient properties.

To tackle the problem, housing associations are helping to educate their residents in creating a more fuel-efficient home to reduce their energy bills while maintaining comfortable living conditions.

Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) has already seen 1,500 people sign up for its Winter Ready scheme, which provides free housing checks for residents who are over 60 or disabled. Tenants are visited by a plumber who checks boilers, pipes and taps, bleeds the radiators and informs residents how to set their heating and turn off water in an emergency.

GHA is also working with an advisory service to help vulnerable tenants claim all the benefits to which they are entitled, to meet the cost of heating in winter. In six months partnering with GHA, the Older People's Advice Service (OPAS) has assisted more than 270 elderly residents to secure £200,000 towards their cost of living.

This initiative will come as welcome news to pensioners as an Age UK survey finds that up to half of their elderly respondents have turned heating down when they are not warm enough, in an attempt to save money, while almost 90% of people over 60 are worried about rising fuel bills. Worryingly the study also reveals that around 2 million elderly people are so desperately cold that they are going to bed when they are not tired and a similar number have moved into one room, in an attempt to keep their energy bills down.

The Government has a statutory obligation to eliminate fuel poverty by 2016, but this seems to be increasingly unlikely.

The Affordable Warmth Dividend is a scheme operated by Glasgow City Council to assist residents of the city who are 80 years of age and older with additional costs associated with winter.

Tags: Fuel Poverty, Glasgow News, Housing