- Sustainable Home Energy Strategy and Acton Plan 2005 - 2008
- The Kent Health and Affordable Warmth Strategy
- Home Energy Survey
- Home Energy Conservation and Fuel Poverty Survey 2009
- Targeting properties benefiting from energy efficiency measures
- Renewable Energy Seminar 2008
Sustainable Home Energy Strategy and Action Plan 2005 - 2008:
An action plan to take forward the Sustainable Home Energy Strategy 2005 - 2008 was developed following a workshop held in September 2005.
Download Sustainable Home Energy Strategy 2005 - 2008
Download Action Plan 2005 - 2008
The Action Plan contained a variety of activities covering raising awareness, schools and education, gathering information, influencing policy, providing information, improving housing stock, engaging with partners, planning and monitoring activities, identifying new resource and future development eg. renewable energy.
The Sustainable Home Energy Strategy and Action Plan 2005 - 2008 was adopted and endorsed at the General Assembly of the Council on 5 June 2006. The Strategy and Action Plan set out the Council's key actions and targets for the coming years. The Action Plan was monitored and reviewed annually and included activities that the Council could provide from within existing resources and budgets and through working in partnership with other organisations.
A Sustainable Home Energy and Fuel Poverty Strategy and Action Plan is currently being developed in partnership with the Energy Saving Trust.
The Kent Health and Affordable Warmth Strategy:
The Kent Health and Affordable Warmth Strategy set out a series of objectives to help fuel poor households in the area move into affordable warmth. It was produced in 2001 by a partnership including all the Kent Local Authorities, the Pensions Services, the NHS, NEA (the National Fuel Poverty Charity) and a wide variety of other local and national organisations.
The Strategy and its objectives were reviewed in 2005 and the new Action Plan for 2005 - 2008 was produced.
Home Energy Survey:
The Home Energy Conservation Act 1995 (HECA) required every UK Local Authority with housing responsibilities (energy conservation authorities) to prepare, publish and submit an energy conservation report identifying measures to improve the energy efficiency of all residential accommodation in their area by 30% between 1995 and 2005 and to report on progress made in implementing the measures. Copies of the Energy Conservation Reports submitted by the Council and comments received can be downloaded from the following links:
Home Energy Conservation and Fuel Poverty Survey 2009:
During 2009 the Council undertook several surveys to collect data on energy efficiency measures in the Borough. Several different areas were targeted including properties in the wards of Joydens Wood, Joyce Green, Sutton at Hone and Swanscombe. Other properties were randomly selected to obtain an energy assessment of their property to monitor properties with a Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) rating below 35 or greater than 65. Properties identified as having a SAP rating below 35 were contacted later with details around energy efficiency measures being in the category of the most energy inefficient homes.
A total of 1473 forms were returned.
The SAP or Standard Assessment Procedure has been devised as a simple and easy to understand method of measuring the overall efficiency of a property or dwelling. It is the Government's recommended system for producing an energy rating for a dwelling.The SAP is measured on a scale of 1 to 120 with lower figures indicating a poorer rating and the higher figures a good or excellent result. The major factors affecting the SAP are the heating system, controls and the insulation of the dwelling.
Results 2008 - 2010:
Three data sets are examined in the following results:
The 2008 -09 baseline (resulted reported in May 09)
The 2009 -10 results
The 2008 - 09 'recent changes' control data
| 2008 - 09 | 2008 - 09 | 2009 - 10 | 2009 - 10 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | % | Count | % | CI - 95% | |
| SAP < 35 | 94 | 17.38 | 179 | 12.15 | 1.67 |
| SAP 35 - 65 | 354 | 65.43 | 990 | 67.12 | 2.40 |
| SAP > 65 | 93 | 17.19 | 304 | 20.64 | 2.07 |
| Total | 541 | 100 | 1473 | 100 |
In summary the proportion of households within the SAP<35 and SAP>65 bands have both decreased and increased respectively between the reporting years. Both fluxes are significant to within a 95% confidence interval.
The housing stock appears to have improved amongst owner occupiers and local authority tenure groups, but not amongst private renters.
Home Energy Conservation Annual Surveys:
As part of the Home Energy Conservation Act, the Council collected data on energy efficiency measures, through conducting Home Energy Conservation Surveys with homes in the Borough. All people who returned the completed survey form received a report with suggestions for making their home more energy efficient.
2008:
The survey for 2008 took place in the wards of Princes, Newtown, Bean and part of Joydens Wood and targeted homes where there was an indication (from previous surveys) that the property may not be very energy efficient. Surveys were also sent to properties that had not returned a completed home energy survey form before. The Home Energy Surveys were distributed through the post.
All completed survey forms were entered into a prize draw for 4 prizes of £50 worth of B and Q vouchers.
A total of 1536 completed energy survey forms were returned.
2007:
The survey for 2007 took place in the Wards of Town, Stone, West Hill and Wilmington. The Home Energy Surveys were sent to homes that from previous surveys indicate that the property may not be very energy efficient. Surveys were also sent to properties that we had not received a completed home energy survey form from in previous years. The Home Energy surveys were distributed through the post.
All completed survey forms returned by 2nd November were entered into a prize draw for 4 prizes of £50 worth of B and Q vouchers
In total 8649 survey forms were sent to properties within the selected wards and 1480 completed home energy survey forms were returned.
2006:
The survey for 2006 was delivered to all households in the Wards of Longfield, New Barn, Southfleet, Brent, Castle, Greenhithe and Heath. The home energy surveys were distributed with the electoral registration forms during September.
All completed survey forms returned by 3 November 2006 were entered into a prize draw for 5 prizes of £50.00 worth of B and Q vouchers.
A total of 2780 completed home energy survey forms were received.
2005:
The Home Energy Surveys for 2005 were delivered to all households in the Wards of Swanscombe, Joyce Green, Littlebrook, Sutton at Hone/Hawley and part of Joydens Wood. The Home Energy Surveys were distributed with the electoral registration forms during September.
All completed survey forms returned by the end of October were entered into a prize draw for 5 prizes of £50 worth of B and Q vouchers
10078 forms were sent to properties within the selected wards and 3452 completed home energy survey forms were returned.
Targeting properties benefiting from energy efficiency measures:
In June 2006 the Dartford Sustainable Home Energy Strategy and Action Plan were adopted by the Council. Contained within the Action Plan was a specific action to increase the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) ratings.
The Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) is adopted by Government as the UK methodology for calculating the energy performance of dwellings.
National Energy Action (NEA) secured funding from DEFRA (Department Rural Affairs and the Environment) and the energy supplier Powergen, to work with a limited number of local authorities that had already developed a strategy to deliver affordable warmth and also required support to progress its implementation. The Council successfully made an application for this support and NEA offered up to 7 days consultancy services to develop and deliver a proposal to support Dartford in targeting homes with a low SAP rating. The period for the project was October 2006 to March 2007.
Dartford Borough Council as part of their annual Home Energy Conservation Act data gathering exercise undertakes a home energy survey each year with a quarter of the borough's residents. From responses received via completed home energy survey forms the Council is able to identify those buildings with low SAP ratings or possibly benefiting from energy efficiency measures.
A total of 761 properties in the Borough were identified with energy efficiency ratings below 30. A home energy survey form was delivered and responses received monitored.
A number of council owned properties were instantly placed as priority for contacting to ascertain if cavity wall and loft insulation could be installed into the properties.
From the responses received a number of people were eligible for a Government Warm Front Grant, with details about the scheme and application forms sent to those people identified.
In addition a number of referrals were made both to the local Pensions Service and also Benefit Checks undertaken.
The project was completed by March 2007.
Renewable Energy Seminar 2008:
Dartford Borough Council held 2 seminars on Saturday 8 March 2008 for residents to find out more about sustainable energy resources.
The seminars, organised by the Council with the National Energy Foundation explored a range of renewable energy options in detail including solar water, wind turbines and ground source heat pumps. Advice was given on costs, installation and planning requirements and also looked at the most efficient solutions to suit different properties and budgets.