Decision details

A report was presented to Cabinet proposing to allocate £480k or remaining funding from the previous Regional Housing Board backed schemes to create a new Heating Assistance Scheme as part of the Housing Assistance and Disabled Facilities Grant policy adopted in 2019.

The scheme will sit within the Housing Assistance and Disabled Facilities Grant policy, and assist households with repairs and replacements of boilers, which are not eligible for the Urgent Repair Grants and Disabled Facilities Grants.

Cabinet agreed the following:

1.  To the allocation of the remaining Regional Housing Board funds to create a Heating Assistance Scheme to enable households who are experiencing fuel poverty to access funding.

Of the 68,400 homes in Thanet, 19.2% (13.000 homes ) are in fuel poverty. This is against 12.9% for the rest of South East.  Fuel poverty is the condition by which a household is unable to afford to heat (or cool) their home to an adequate temperature. Since the winter period of 2020/21 energy prices have soared to an average £1,042. It is predicted gas and electricity bills for British households will rise to £2,500 a year in 2022 as a result of high wholesale gas and power prices and jump further to more than £5,000 in January.

Alternative options considered were to allocate the remaining Regional Housing Board funds to other private sector housing renewal initiatives, inline with the original objectives of the funding, as set out in the executive summary or to not allocate the remaining Regional Housing Board funds.