Wolverhampton Homes
Wolverhampton Homes was established
on 1 October 2005. We are an ALMO (Arms Length Management
Organisation) managing the council housing stock of Wolverhampton on
behalf of Wolverhampton City Council.
Wolverhampton Homes, wholly owned by
Wolverhampton City Council, is tasked with managing the council’s
22,300 homes and delivering almost £400 million of refurbishment and
improvement works to bring its housing stock up to the government’s
decent homes standard by 2012.
Our overall
objective is to make sure that no-one in the households managed by us
suffers from fuel poverty, that excess winter deaths are significantly
reduced and that all residents can afford to heat their homes
adequately.
By working with
Wolverhampton City Council and her partnering organisations, key
health professionals and groups who can identify vulnerable people, we
can tackle this issue and ensure that fuel poor households get the
most appropriate assistance.
The recent fuel price
increases have reversed the previous reduction in fuel poverty rates
and highlighted the need to provide improved insulation measures and
more sustainable energy. We aim to look at all of the micro-generation
technologies that are being developed and where viable incorporate
them in our improvement schemes. All external funding from energy
providers will be accessed and maximised.
Wolverhampton Homes is
committed to tackling fuel poverty and achieving affordable warmth for
all of our people and by continually reviewing our strategy and
challenging ourselves as an organisation we will strive to play our
part in making our homes warm, efficient and sustainable.
Wolverhampton Homes
Affordable Warmth - Our Aims
Wolverhampton Homes in conjunction
with the City Council and its Partner organisations have developed an
Affordable Warmth strategy. This strategy aims to provide a continuing
framework for our partner organisations, staff, tenants and residents,
to understand the direction in which we are all working, in regard to
affordable warmth/fuel poverty, reasons for this and what the
anticipated outcomes will be.
The initial strategy covers the
period 2007 - 2008 and will be reviewed in line with decent homes
data, with an annual strategy update. This is to ensure its objectives
remain current and are updated in line with emerging legislation,
regulation and good practice. Initially, the strategy is to work
towards delivering affordable warmth to tenants and in doing so aims
to use the systematic approach advocated by the Affordable Warmth
component of the Environmental Matrix for Housing (EMH), a detailed
management system designed for the Housing Corporation, which breaks
down implementation activity into twelve areas of good practice.
In brief, the strategy
aims to;
-
Ensure that Wolverhampton Homes
incorporates affordable warmth/fuel poverty issues, in terms of high
level strategic commitment;
-
Ensure that all levels of our
organisation are aware of the need for and reasons behind the
development and adoption of an Affordable Warmth/Fuel Poverty
strategy, and that this is communicated to tenants;
-
Ensure all major improvement works
and new build projects meet published Affordable Warmth standards;
-
Survey tenants to establish
customer satisfaction levels in delivering affordable warmth;
-
Provide tenants with energy advice
and other relevant information services;
-
Consolidate details collected and
held regarding the energy efficiency of all homes managed by us, to
ensure compliance with existing and future regulatory requirements;
-
Identify all properties not
currently providing affordable warmth where tenants are at risk of
fuel poverty. Also to identify the measures and costs required to
eliminate fuel poverty.
-
Implement a full affordable warmth
and environmental management system using the EMH;
-
Develop arrangements for maximising
inward investment funds;
-
Undertake staff training to ensure
delivery of affordable warmth ;
-
Identify residents who may be
suffering from cold related illnesses through the “Health Through
Warmth” scheme in partnership with Npower and ensure a number of our
frontline staff and key-workers from other agencies are trained to
make referrals
-
Incorporate in the new tenants
‘homepacks’ information on energy efficiency
-
Incorporate energy efficient
measures within our lettable standard offering new tenants 3 energy
efficient light bulbs
-
Incorporate a letting policy where
hard to heat homes are not let to households at risk of fuel poverty
-
Endorse the ‘Wolverhampton
Declaration’ to reduce carbon emissions.
-
Ensure that Wolverhampton Homes Gas
Engineers are appropriately qualified on energy efficiency through
CORGI registration
-
Help customers to maximise their
income through welfare benefits and tax credits.
-
Promote and assist customers with
claiming winter fuel payments to the elderly and disabled.
-
Develop Financial Inclusion plans.
-
Investigate cheaper fuel options
(egg dual fuel, providers who operate ethically, and operate on a
"not for profit" and “profit sharing" basis
-
Identify multiple debt situations
and ensure that customers get the help they need.
