A grant of £160,000 improve the health and well-being of residents during the cold winter months has been awarded to Oxford City Council.
The Warm Homes, Healthy People Group grant, from the Department of Health, will be used to provide practical support to those who are most vulnerable to cold weather related illness and mortality during winter months. These include children, the elderly, the disabled and those with long term health conditions, such as heart or lung complaints.
A total of £50,000 will be spent on providing practical refurbishments such as lining curtains and installing thermostatic radiator valves to Oxfordshire residents’ homes to help them keep them warm. And £25,000 will go towards fuel vouchers, while £10,000 will be spent on providing free membership to oil schemes. Another £5,000 will be spent of food boxes, and £10,000 on providing a telephone helpline issuing advice on how to stay warm and healthy.
The remainder of the grant will be spent on roadshow events to raise awareness of the campaign, staffing costs, volunteer training and benefit checks to ensure that people receive the correct benefits. Mark Saunders, from Witney-based charity United Sustainable Energy Agency, which helps to deliver carbon reductions and tackle fuel poverty, has been appointed project coordinator for the roadshows.
He said: “Through the Warm Homes, Healthy People project we have effectively been able to get hold of some Department of Health funding in order to put in place a more formal referral network, so that any one of those organisations can refer people who might be potentially vulnerable to fuel poverty to the right kind of help. Hopefully residents will get a better service, they should get referred to the right people. For example, if you are paying too much for oil delivery, part of the project is making sure that people can bulk purchase oil as a group and cut some of the costs that way.
“Or if you have issues to do with health then you can be referred directly to speak to a GP or if it is an issue to do with installation or home heating other organisations as part of a network can help. We have lined up all of the agencies so that everyone can help. It is unusual to have so many agencies involved so that any question asked can be answered by one of the partners involved. That is what is new.”
The council won the grant as part of a team of organisations, including West Oxfordshire District Council Council, NHS Oxfordshire and Oxford Citizens' Advice Bureau. The groups have set up a helpline to answer people's questions, 08448 870005.
Mark Saunders said: “In the past when people have had issues to do with fuel poverty all they have been told to do is to ring the Warm Front Scheme, the government’s flagship home installation scheme for people who are vulnerable in terms of their age or income.
“Warm Front was only ever about providing free installation to people, it wasn’t to do with providing advice on cheaper fuel or better tariffs or health advice. You would have had to have gone separately to each organisation, hopefully what will happen now is that residents can ring up the central phone line and they will get the right advice or be signposted to exactly the right organisation to help them.”
