Research and analysis

Tackling fuel poverty and energy inefficiency in Hastings – East Sussex

Published 10 April 2024

Applies to England

Partnership for People and Place

The PfPP programme has piloted a new approach to cross-government working to improve local outcomes and efficiency of policy and programmes designed and delivered in place. PfPP funded 13 local government partners to deliver pilot projects focusing on hyper-local issues that could be tackled through better central or local government coordination. The overall objective of the PfPP programme was to test whether closer working between different central government departments and local places can bring measurable benefits to people who live there.

Local background – East Sussex

Hastings has the highest percentage of fuel poor households in the South East. Evidence shows that energy efficiency standards are low in the private rental sector. 29.6% of Hastings dwellings are privately rented compared to an average of 17.3% in England. While several initiatives have been or are already being delivered, key barriers remain. These include the cost of installing improvements and the need to support tenants and landlords to initiate improvement works. The levers to drive change are held at different levels of government (central and local).

The East Sussex pilot aimed to develop a better understanding of the barriers to action and co-design ways of overcoming them with landlords, tenants, and central government partners. The pilot conducted local research and facilitated several co-design workshops with central government partners to discuss barriers to change, identify solutions, test, and evaluate them through PfPP. However, it was determined that several solutions discussed in the workshops could not be tested through PfPP funding because they required changes to legislation or funding that could not be realised during the lifetime of the programme.

In consultation with central government partners, the East Sussex pilot changed its approach to building an evidence base about the needs of different types of residents and gaps in current central government funding streams to inform future policy and guidance. Evidence was gathered through conducting home assessments and resident surveys in target wards. The pilot also applied behaviour change techniques (such as the Behaviour Change Wheel approach and COM-B model, in collaboration with central government specialists and UCL behaviour change experts) to improve its communication materials about current services.

Central government engagement

The East Sussex team sought to engage central government partners in the co-design, development, and delivery of the pilot. This included: hearing first-hand the views of local tenants and landlords, discussing findings from the local research and key barriers to change, designing ways of overcoming these barriers, agreeing ‘flexibilities’ or changes to current policy/regulation to test through PfPP, and participating in local governance arrangements to understand impact and learnings.

Central government engagement through co-design helped clarify and advise on the feasibility of initial suggestions proposed in the delivery plan including what was and what was not possible within pilot timeframes and PfPP funding parameters. Central government partners advised that increasing incentives for landlords, even as part of a pilot, would need to be approved as part of a spending review cycle. The East Sussex team also learned that major retrofit improvements were likely unfeasible due to restrictions on capital spend through PfPP. As a result, the East Sussex team adjusted their approach to focus on producing evidence to inform the next spending review and improving tenant and resident communications and engagement in the Warm Home Check Service.

Delivery plans	Meetings	Visits	Involvement in delivery
DESNZ, DHSC, DLUHC, NHSE, and HM Treasury were listed in East Sussex’s initial delivery plan as departments who would be crucial to engage in the co-design stage of the programme and subsequent delivery.	DESNZ, DHSC, DLUHC and HM Treasury partners were involved in initial meetings to support the development of the project and its Theory of Change. A senior DESNZ central government representative was engaged in Local Place Board meetings, providing an effective and collaborative governance model for the project.	Fourteen central government partners from DESNZ, DHSC, and DLUHC attended a visit to Hastings in September 2022. The place visit included a tour of the local area, facilitated by Citizens Advice 1066, and discussions with local and central government partners.	Representatives from DESNZ, DHSC, DLUHC took part in four three-hour co-design workshops to explore potential flexibilities to current national policies for promoting energy efficiency improvements in private rental housing. DESNZ partners also participated in two initial and three follow-up behaviour change workshops, facilitated with support from the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change.

What was delivered?

The East Sussex team commissioned Citizens Advice 1066 to conduct community consultations with landlords and tenants on the barriers to installing energy efficiency improvements and generate evidence to inform delivery. Fifteeen tenants and 17 landlords took part in focus group discussions and 21 tenants completed surveys as part of these consultations. This research provided insight into the:

• Barriers for landlords making changes to their properties (including cost, availability and quality of contractors, awareness of energy efficiency, and lack of minimum regulatory standards), as well as the impacts of energy inefficient homes on tenants (including high energy bills, self-disconnection from heating, negative health effects, and social isolation).

• Lack of open dialogue between tenants and landlords, uncertainty among tenants over landlord responsibilities and reluctance to raise concerns, and often, a need for tenants to resolve more pressing issues (e.g. rat infestations).

• The levers required to affect change lie at the central government or ‘macro’ level, in terms of enforcing housing and energy efficiency standards, monitoring, and the lack of central government provision for local-level capacity to enforce these.

Retrofit Works was commissioned to deliver a research project on gaps in provision under current central government schemes, which was intended to influence national policy on where further provision may be required. Retrofit Works visited over 2,000 properties in the target wards and completed 150 home assessments. Ninety-nine residents completed attitudinal surveys.

An additional £100k of funding was identified by DESNZ. This enabled a continuation of the work being undertaken by Citizen’s Advice 1066 in the local community to provide advice and direct support for residents experiencing fuel poverty.

New leaflets have been developed to raise awareness of the Warm Home Check Service among residents, working collaboratively with local tenants, landlords, partners from the behaviour change team in DESNZ, local government, the VCSE sector, and behaviour change experts from UCL. A new letter is being finalised encouraging landlords to take part and provide the necessary landlord contribution for improvement. These will be used as part of a campaign in the autumn.

Local communities

316 households have been provided with information on the support available relating to fuel poverty and energy efficiency. Sixty-seven of the 150 properties where a home assessment was carried out have had small improvements made such as draught proofing and minor insulation. The pilot intended to implement improvements in 100-150 properties. Small improvements were installed at all properties where these were required and consent was given by the resident. The project has now been completed, although progress was initially slow. This was due to the short timeframe for raising awareness among residents and engaging local authority colleagues to support delivery, the small size of the target wards, and challenges reaching eligible residents using a door-to-door approach.

New communications materials will be incorporated into East Sussex County Council’s standard communications about the support and services available to improve energy efficiency. It is hoped this will lead to improved engagement by local residents with the Warm Home Check Service. Consultations with tenants and landlords provided an opportunity to contribute to building the evidence base on barriers to tackling energy inefficiency and fuel poverty in their area.

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Delivery partners & local government

The research commissioned through PfPP has helped formalise relevant anecdotal learning and knowledge East Sussex and local partners had from previous projects on the barriers to local resident and landlord action to improve energy efficiency (described above). This has also provided a platform for sharing learning on these barriers and how they manifest locally with central government partners in DESNZ, DLUHC, and DHSC.

PfPP has provided East Sussex with an improved understanding of the process for making policy or regulatory changes in central government, as well as the different structures and specialisms within the civil service, and what it takes to convene central government partners over a particular issue. For example, learnings included the need to: identify the right teams and people (with the right level of expertise and seniority) to engage, despite the overlap across teams and departments; ensure that evidence generated at the local level contributes to a national evidence base; and ensure requests align with spending reviews so that changes to existing funding can be approved by the Treasury.

The co-design workshops led to follow-up conversations between Citizens Advice 1066 and central government partners on areas of work they are developing in relation to promoting universal healthcare and low-carbon heating systems.

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Central government

Central government partners generally agreed that through engaging in East Sussex PfPP pilot activities they were exposed to challenges in local areas and how they manifest in local communities in new ways, especially through the in-person place visit to Hastings. Individuals described how they were more aware of how local authorities implement national government schemes, and that the implementation of national policy looks different depending on the local area.

Central government involvement helped increase awareness of what other central government departments are doing, identify colleagues who work there, and support forming new contacts. Additionally, central government colleagues felt they have built useful relationships with the East Sussex team which will enable them to approach East Sussex about other policy issues or contacts when they need a local authority perspective. One central government partner added East Sussex to a local authority sounding board on the new Renters Reform Bill, which will help sustain engagement after PfPP.

Central government partners were positive about the insights they may gain from the research findings produced through the pilot, particularly on gaps in current funding streams, how national guidance for tenants and landlords should be rolled out, why there is lack of engagement with existing guidance, and how to reach vulnerable people. For example, one central government partner from DESNZ remarked that taking part in the visit and the pilot overall was helpful to:

Paint a real picture of what’s going on… through the lens of one local authority, or town.

[Central government partner]