Warmer Homes Scotland: annual review 2017 to 2018

Part 7: Recommendations from 2016/17 Annual Review

Recommendation 1 - In light of the proposed changes to the fuel poverty definition, review the eligibility criteria to ensure Warmer Homes Scotland continues to meet its stated objective to reduce fuel poverty.

During 2017/18 a number of changes to the eligibility criteria of the scheme were introduced in order to ensure that the support available through the scheme is targeted at those that need it most as set out at Part 2: Objective 1

The eligibility criteria of the scheme will be kept under review to ensure that the scheme continues to help those living in or at risk of living in fuel poverty.

Recommendation 2 - Carry out an in-depth analysis of the reasons why applications that do not qualify post-referral are being referred to Warmer Homes Scotland and make recommendations as to how these numbers can be reduced.

This recommendation will be carried forward to 2018/19 and we will work with Home Energy Scotland to establish, where feasible, processes to be adopted to reduce the number of applications that do not qualify post referral.

Recommendation 3 - To identify if there are any noticeable changes in rates or anomalies by region or year, the 2017/18 review should carry out a trend analysis of rates of fuel poverty by region and analyse this when compared to Warmer Homes Scotland installations data from launch in 2015 to end of Year 3.

We have investigated the feasibility of this recommendation and this is not achievable at this point in time. The Scottish House Condition Survey fuel poverty data cannot be broken down into individual years, as the sample size for the survey is such that that it can only produce meaningful estimates by combining 3 years' worth of data. Consideration will be given to undertaking this analysis at the end of Warmer Homes Scotland when there will be sufficient data to enable analysis of trends of rates of fuel poverty since the scheme commenced.

Recommendation 4 - Continue to monitor cancellations rates to identify any emerging trends and use lessons learned from other related projects to make any necessary improvements in managing the Warmer Homes Scotland customer journey.

New renewable measures to include ground source heat pumps, micro-wind, micro-hydro and micro central heating programmes will be introduced to the scheme in 2018. These will be of particular benefit to those households in rural areas not served by the gas grid. Additional enabling measures will also be introduced including asbestos removal and the installation of fuel storage tanks and low energy lighting. The cost of the provision of these additional enabling measures will be covered under the scheme.

The addition of new and enhanced measures has the potential to reduce cancellation rates as a result of customers no longer being interested due to fuel/measure choice or the perceived upheaval/preparation works required before an installation can proceed.

Recommendation 5 - Given some of the measures are deemed to be more suitable for new builds and that it was suggested that the design of some of the measures, for example flexible thermal linings and water efficient taps, could be redesigned to increase their suitability, the existing list and design of the measures available under the scheme should be reviewed and updated to reflect the on-the-ground experience and insights of surveyors and their understanding of the suitability of the measures when taking the circumstances of customers, sensitivities around property type and need for any associated educational activities due to installation of unfamiliar technology.

Warmworks considered this suggestion, in particular the design of flexible thermal lining and water efficient taps and found that although flexible thermal linings are included as a measure in the contract, the design and maintenance of these does not make them an attractive option for customers. In addition, where a customer already has secondary glazing installed in the property, flexible thermal linings are not a recommended measure. Where an eligible customer has single glazing in their property, they will be offered secondary glazing under the scheme. While Warmworks consider that this measure is no longer required it has been kept as part of the scheme offer in case the need to fit it in a property should arise.

Warmworks also partnered Scottish Water to establish a new pilot scheme running in the Scottish Borders and Dumfries to help homes save water and energy. The pilot enabled Warmworks surveyors to support and advise Warmer Homes Scotland customers on water efficiency as well as fitting water flow restrictors, water aerators and new screw-in shower heads that are fitted to existing taps and shower heads. This enables existing taps and shower heads to be retrofitted at minimal cost. Through the pilot, 164 devices were fitted and 52 households received in-depth advice on how to save water and increase energy efficiency in the home.

Warmworks reviewed the "water efficient taps and showers" as set out in the technical specification of the contract and found that these are very different in terms of the works involved and the costs when compared to the smaller level interventions being fitted under the pilot with Scottish Water. Warmworks consider the retrofit approach to provide more value for money under the contract but will keep this under review.

Recommendation 6 - Consideration should be given to building on current training provision for surveyors and establishing a formal programme of annual refresher training for them to ensure any gaps are identified and addressed. Due to their pivotal role in the customer journey, this should include engagement with Scottish Government officials on the contract requirements relevant to the survey process. As part of this engagement, Scottish Government should provide Warmworks with details of the scenarios where some of the more underutilised measures were deemed suitable for use during the schemes development. All current surveyor training and manuals should be updated to reflect the outcome of this review.

Warmworks has introduced a training plan for all staff including scheme surveyors. This includes a standard matrix of the mandatory industry standard training that surveyors are required to undertake such as asbestos awareness, and health and safety training etc, in addition to training that is not mandatory but is desirable.

The Warmworks' staff training plan is subject to independent audit by Pennington Choices.

Recommendation 7 - Agree an appropriately robust process to enable suitable measures to be suggested, appraised and tested for future inclusion in the scheme by either Warmworks or the Scottish Government.

A process is in place which allows both the Scottish Government and Warmworks to suggest, appraise and test new measures for inclusion in the scheme. This includes agreement by the Warmer Homes Scotland Strategic Board, that the proposed measures meet the scheme's objectives. Proposed new measures are assessed by Pennington Choices and their prices benchmarked to ensure the measures suggested by either party are in line with market value and will deliver value for money to the scheme and the Scottish Government in advance of obtaining Ministerial consent. When approved, new measures are added to the scheme by means of a CVN.

Recommendation 8 - To identify any gaps or areas for improvement in the customer journey, a review of the handling, follow up, recording and action taken on any comments provided by surveyors in completed household surveys should be conducted.

This recommendation is to be carried over to 2018/19 to enable Warmworks to undertake a review on how comments provided by the surveyors are followed up, recorded and actioned.

Recommendation 9 - An evaluation of the corresponding action taken, monitoring and audit process followed by Warmworks and its sub-contractors in response to remedial work identified by Pennington Choices should be undertaken. The outcome of this evaluation and any resulting actions should be reviewed in the 2017/18 Annual Review.

Warmworks has put in place a process to review all remedial works identified by Pennington Choices during the monthly inspection process.

Pennington Choices reports all identified remedial works to Warmworks on a monthly basis and a meeting is subsequently held between a Warmworks Field Manager and Pennington Choices to discuss these. This meeting is held in advance of the Warmer Homes Scotland monthly Operational Board meeting. The Warmworks Field Manager is then responsible for liaising with the necessary contractors to rectify the remedial works identified. This can either involve the contractor returning to a property to remedy the work or in the case of a Health and Safety related issue, the Field Manager will hold a tool box talk with the contractor with a view to all remedial works being undertaken in advance of the Operational Board meeting where progress is reported.

This process works well but will be kept under review.

Recommendation 10 - An appraisal of the strategies, processes or protocols Warmworks has in place to leverage additional financial support into Warmer Homes Scotland should be undertaken.

This should focus on challenges faced in leveraging additional funding and how these can be overcome, seeking opportunities for leveraging funding from new sources and making any recommendations for improvement where required.

This should also include an assessment of how this funding is being used on the ground i.e. what are the most common 'enabling' activities, the least common, the most expensive, any regional variations in activities, etc.

This recommendation is to be carried over to 2018/19. The current ECO scheme (ECO 2, including the ECO2t transition period) ends on 30 September 2018 and a new ECO 3 scheme is due to commence on or after 1 October 2018, to run to 31 March 2022.

Given the regulatory challenges that ECO2t created for Warmworks in 2017/18, a review in 2018/19 will allow Warmworks to consider and report on the challenges of leveraging in finance to the scheme since it commenced in September 2015, with particular focus on ECO.

Recommendation 11 - A review of Home Energy Scotland Loans should be undertaken to establish if their purpose should be widened to include enabling measures for Warmer Homes Scotland.

A review of HES Loans was completed during the period of this review and enabling measures are considered on a case by case basis.

Recommendation 12 - The outcome of the Community Benefits audits should be evaluated as part of the 2017/18 review.

The process to implement these audits was longer than anticipated. One full audit of Warmworks was carried out in 2017/18 and the outcome has been evaluated in Part 5 of Section 2 - Community Benefits of this Review.

Recommendation 13 - The progress being made on the Community Benefits requirement under the Warmer Homes Scotland contract should be a key focus of the 2017/18 Review.

For varied reasons progress on the auditing of the Community Benefits requirements of the Warmer Homes Scotland contract has not progressed as quickly as the Scottish Government would have liked, however the first full annual year of auditing will be carried out in 2018/19 and the results of these audits should be evaluated as part of the 2018/19 Review.