FOI - Warmer Homes programme [Feb 2023]

Your request

1. For each of the below (where applicable), provide data per year, for the last five years. If no works were undertaken during the pandemic, please go back seven years.

2. How long has the Warmer Homes scheme been in operation?

For each year, how many:

• Applications to the scheme are made? 
• Applications to the scheme are successful?
• Successful applications result in an installation?

3. Please list each installation type offered as part of the scheme, alongside the amount of successful installations per type per year.

4. How much public money is allocated to the Warmer Homes scheme each year?

5. How much (in real terms and as a percentage of the whole) of the total public monies allocated to the Warmer Homes scheme per year goes to:

• Administration of the scheme?
• Assessment of properties?
• Installation costs? Split out labour and materials if possible.
• Anything else not covered by the above.

6. Explain how you evaluate the scheme and determine if it is a good use of public monies.

7. If you conduct satisfaction surveys with grant recipients, can I obtain anonymised results of the surveys? 

Revised on 16 February 2023 from an amendment received by the requester:

Can I revise question 3 to:

Please list each installation type offered as part of the scheme, alongside the amount of people assessed for each type, and the amount of successful installations per type, per year.

In addition, can I also add one further question:

8. Can I have a copy of the criteria or standards used to determine when an installation type is recommended or warranted.

Our response 

The Warmer Homes programme has been in operation for 5 years.
 
We cannot provide data for previous years of Warmer Homes as we do not have this data collated.

We have had different funding parameters each year with different reporting requirements for each, and the programmes run across the following financial years:

• 2018-19 – 578 homes improved
• 2019-20 – 579 homes improved
• 2020-21 – 201 homes improved 
• 2021-22 – 704 homes improved 
• 2022-23 – 10,697 applications received; it is a live programme so applications are still being assessed, 2,928 eligible applications so far and 1,744 homes improved to date (note, this includes some from the previous scheme which was given a project extension) 

We do not have data collated regarding installation type for the previous years of Warmer Homes.

We do not collect data on people being assessed for each measure type. Each property undergoes a Retrofit Assessment which results in a unique set of recommendations for installations.

Within the recommendations from the Retrofit Assessment, we must also work to scheme’s terms and conditions. 

For 2022-23 the full list of measures included in the scheme is publicly available via our website and the Terms and Conditions. This has largely stayed the same across all programmes.
 
The breakdown of instalments by measure for the current programme to date are listed in the table below. Please note that this is a live programme with installations ongoing.

Public money allocated to the Warmer Homes scheme each year

• 2018-19 - £2,645,000
• 2019-20 - £1,925,000
• 2020-21 - £2,741,000 
• 2021-22 - £5,075,000 
• 2022-23 - £42,837,555

These figures come from a range of public funding sources

• 2018-19 - Administration £145,000 (5.5 per cent); Capital £2,500,000 (94.5 per cent)
• 2019-20 - Administration £38,000 (2.0 per cent); Capital £1,887,000 (98 per cent)
• 2020-21 - Administration £328,000 (12 per cent); Capital £2,413,000 (88 per cent)
• 2021-22 - Administration £218,000 (4.3 per cent); Capital £4,857,000 (95.7 per cent)
• 2022-23 - Administration £6,054,300 (14 per cent) this includes procurement, marketing, application processing, some staffing and other related costs; Capital £36,783,255 (86 per cent) this includes Retrofit Assessments and installations (both labour and materials). 

Please note, the programme criteria vary each year and between different funding sources, and costs are not directly comparable across programmes. In addition, some years’ administration money is spent on establishing a new programme phase launching later that year. 

This programme is aimed at supporting people living in fuel poverty who own their own home or live in privately rented accommodation (if rented, the landlord must contribute one third of the costs). We monitor enquiries, compliments and complaints, and complaints must represent less than 5 per cent of total applications. 

For the current programme we have been given the target of improving 3,205 homes with a 
grant from central government, alongside further money from the GLA to support people living in fuel poverty. We have Key Performance Indicators on our installations, carbon savings per home, energy savings per home, and energy bill savings per home. 

We have not been required to survey the applicants nor the grant recipients (which are the 
installers).

All measures are installed based upon recommendations from a Retrofit Assessment, which is PAS 2035 compliant and regulated by TrustMark.

Any recommendations from a Retrofit Assessment must then be assessed against the detailed and specific criteria of the current funding programme. These can be found in our Terms and Conditions (as linked above). 

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting 
reference MGLA150223-0204.