Warmer Homes Scotland - first annual review

Introduction

Warmer Homes Scotland is the Scottish Government's flagship national fuel poverty scheme. It is part of the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland framework and is a key driver in efforts to tackle fuel poverty in Scotland. It is centred on the installation of insulation, heating and micro-generation measures in homes of customers identified as living in or at risk of fuel poverty.

The contract for the delivery of Warmer Homes Scotland was awarded to Warmworks Scotland LLP, a joint venture partnership between the Energy Saving Trust, Changeworks and Everwarm, in May 2015. Warmworks is responsible for managing the end-to-end customer journey from referral, through the survey, installation and inspection phases to a follow-up and after-care service 12 months down the line.

Following a brief period of mobilisation, Warmer Homes Scotland was formally launched by the First Minister in September 2015. By 31st March 2016, Warmworks had helped 1372 customers and installed more than 8000 measures in their homes.

The Warmer Homes Scotland stated objectives are to:

• reduce fuel poverty by reducing heating costs to vulnerable households;
• contribute to a reduction in the emissions of carbon dioxide from Scottish homes;
• improve Scotland's housing stock;
• offer good value for money by leveraging additional funding into the scheme; and
• provide benefits to the wider community through vocational training and employment opportunities.

It also impacts on four of the Scottish Government's five National Objectives and our overarching purpose of sustainable economic growth (see Figure 1).

Alongside these objectives, Warmer Homes Scotland was developed with several guiding principles in mind:

• It should be customer focussed and provide a first class service to customers regardless of where they live;
• It should set high standards in terms of quality and health and safety even going beyond industry norms;
• It should encourage the involvement of local SMEs as far as possible;
• Its impacts should be long term and sustainable.

The Scottish Government has committed to reviewing Warmer Homes Scotland in each of the five years the scheme will operate to ensure it continues to meet its objectives and delivers according to its guiding principles. The reviews will also be used to identify resulting areas for improvement.

Figure 1: Overarching national objectives ^[1]