Wyre Forest District Council Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) Report

Last updated June 2024

The Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) 1995 requires local authorities to publish reports outlining their plans to promote improved energy efficiency in their areas. The data submitted through these reports helps to inform policy thinking on energy efficiency and build an ongoing picture of local and national energy efficiency policy delivery. The latest report covered the period from 1 April 2021- 31 March 2023 and was submitted as required using the government’s online form. Full details of what had to be in the report can be seen in the Government’s HECA guidance for Local Authorities. Below is a summary of the key information from the Wyre Forest District Council HECA Report 2023.

Contents

Introduction

This is a summary of the Wyre Forest District Council HECA Report 2023. The contact for this report is Jenny Moreton, Principal Health and Sustainability Officer.

Headline and overview

Wyre Forest District Council’s Climate Action and Carbon Reduction Plan outlines plans for carbon reduction and energy efficiency for domestic properties.

The total cost of running and administering energy efficiency and/or carbon reduction initiatives, schemes and services during this period was £41,553 (excluding capital costs). This was funded through government schemes including the Local Authority Delivery Scheme and Home Upgrade Grant.

The main outcomes these schemes aimed to delivery were energy savings, carbon savings, alleviation of fuel poverty and improved health outcomes.

Consumer advice and information

Wyre Forest District Council has a service level agreement in place with Act on Energy to provide advisory services to consumers on how to save energy. Act on Energy provide a free helpline for Wyre Forest residents (0800 988 2881) and regularly provide impartial energy advice in person at events at community venues in the district, for example at local Warm Welcome Spaces.

Information on current energy schemes are also provided on our Greener Living Energy Efficiency page, with regular items included in our residents newsletter Wyredin and promotion through our social media channels such as Facebook.

Local retrofit supply chain

Wyre Forest has taken part in assessments to understand the existing capacity in the local supply chain to support the decarbonisation of buildings by 2050. These have been carried out at regional and county level and can be viewed on the Midlands Net Zero Hub website.

Advice about how to pick an installer business or how to avoid being mis-sold inappropriate improvements is art of Act on Energy’s holistic advice service, and their advisors provide information relevant quality schemes such as Trustmark and Gas Safe.

There has not been any Trading Standards activity against energy efficiency or home retrofit businesses in the area due to mis-selling or otherwise poorly advising consumers about retrofit measures as resourcing constraints have curtailed potential activity.

Social housing decarbonisation

Wyre Forest District Council does not own any social housing and therefore did not bid into the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. Locally, social housing provider Community Housing were successful in their bid for this funding.

Domestic Private Rented Sector (PRS) Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards

Wyre Forest District Council do enforce the Domestic Private Rented Sector (PRS) Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) Regulations in domestic properties and do use the PRS MEES Exemption Register. We have also used the PRS MEES toolkit for supporting local authorities.

In the two years of this reporting period, Wyre Forest District Council has engaged with 156 properties in respect to enforcement of the PRS MEES regulations. During the same period, 97 Compliance Notices were served for non- compliance of the PRS MEES Regulations. 31 properties received Penalty Notices (some received several due to multiple offences). Following this engagement, 25 of the 31 receiving Penalty Notices now have compliant Energy Performance Certificates.

Green home finance

Act on Energy provide advice on any current schemes available for energy efficiency improvements. This includes advice for residents who do not meet eligibility criteria based on income related benefits, as well as those who do. We do not currently promote any private financing options or refer homeowners interested in energy efficiency to retail lenders offering green finance products.

Fuel Poverty

Our activity on tackling fuel poverty is included as part of our overall climate change action plan under the theme of Warmer, Healthier Homes. Progress on delivery is reported through our committee process as part of our annual Climate Change Action Plan report.

In delivery of schemes to tackle fuel poverty, fuel poor households are identified using a range of local data sets on energy, housing and household income. Actions to help reduce fuel poverty have been carried out through various schemes including the Home Upgrade Grant, Household Support Fund and fuel poverty training for front line workers.

Local Authority Delivery and the Home Upgrade Grant

We successfully applied for funding from the Local Authority Delivery scheme during this period, with £123,441 of capital delivered. Home Upgrade Grant funding was awarded but delivery was outside of the reporting period for this report. We do not have access to good quality housing data for on-gas properties. Our high-level data is sought from the census. Our detailed data is built from the energy performance of buildings data. We are lacking information on properties heating source that do not have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). 

The Energy Company Obligation (ECO)

Wyre Forest District Council did have a published Statement of Intent for ECO flexibility eligibility under ECO3, during 2022, as part of the Worcestershire countywide Statement of Intent. The income cap in our Statement of Intent was £33,129, the average income for Worcestershire.

In 2022, in Wyre Forest in ECO3, 43 declarations were issued for low-income vulnerable households in Wyre Forest during ECO3 and 27 declarations were issued for Fuel Poor households. No declarations were issued for in-fill under ECO3. No charges were made for declarations to be signed.

A Worcestershire Statement of Intent for ECO flexibility eligibility under ECO4 was not published during this reporting period, due to capacity issues for the required work involved. We do not engage directly with energy suppliers either for ECO Flex or other domestic energy efficiency schemes. For ECO4 Flex, we envisage submitting referrals under routes 1, 2 and 4.

For more information on Energy Company Obligation schemes, visit the OFGEM website.

Smart Metering

Act on Energy provide advice on Smart Metering as part of their impartial, holistic energy advice service.

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