Support for Affordable Warmth

Glasgow City Council's Affordable Warmth Dividend is a progressive policy and one of various actions needed to address fuel poverty. It is a scheme which can assist residents over 80 years of age and older with their increased costs associated with the winter months.

The approach of providing an Affordable Warmth Scheme was recommended in the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge Glasgow Report. It lists a total of 60 recommendations which support council's activities to reduce fuel poverty including appointment of an Affordable Warmth Champion, to create a city-wide energy literacy strategy, develop Sustainable Glasgow, and promote sharing of information with energy companies.

The pressure on household budgets, and on fuel bills in particular, remains a major concern for elderly people. We should not just be concerned about relieving their financial hardship through the scheme, but also improving their health.

In 1986, the UK Medical Research Council published a paper, Low Indoor Temperatures and Morbidity in the Elderly, which established clear links between cold indoor temperatures and health risks to the elderly in the UK.

This was backed up in a April 2002 report, The Raised Incidence of Winter Deaths, where the key points to emerge were:-

1. Mortality rates are markedly higher in winter months than summer months.
2. 'Excess winter mortality' is particularly pronounced for the elderly.
3. Additional winter deaths are particularly associated with respiratory and circulatory diseases.

The Council has to work closely with our colleagues in health services and home care services supporting the most vulnerable elderly with coronary heart disease, stroke or lung problems to assess their energy requirements and take action to support the introduction of home energy efficiency measures.

We can acknowledge some progress when reading the statistics from the report on "Winter Mortality in Scotland - 2011-12, which shows fewer deaths were registered in Scotland during winter 2011/12 than during any winter since records began more than 60 years ago. Figures released by the National Records of Scotland indicate there were 19,119 deaths registered in Scotland in the four months to March 2012. This was 507 fewer than the number registered during the same period in 2010/11; and is the lowest number of winter deaths registered in Scotland since records began in 1951/52.

 

We can be positive about the work being carried out to reduce winter deaths and schemes to  support elderly people pay their fuel bills, but there is a still much more to be implemented as part of tackling fuel poverty.

Useful Link:

Affordable Warmth - http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/YourHome/CouncilTax/Affordable+Warmth+Dividend.htm