In December 2019 the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health published an updated excess cold guidance aimed at helping practitioners enforce excess cold in the private rented sector.

Why is it so important?

Cold homes impact on both the mental and physical wellbeing - from respiratory disease to depression. With many people unable to afford to heat their energy inefficient homes. Cold homes and fuel poverty make up a significant proportion of the costs for the NHS and society as a result of poor quality housing 4.

Excess winter deaths were around 50,000 in 2017/18 5, having increased from 24,000 in 2015/16. A third of these are estimated to be directly related to living in a cold home.

What do CIEH want to see?

• The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards for private rented sector properties raised further, with a clear and effective trajectory being published to show how the standard will be brought up to Band C by 2030.
• The new Fuel Poverty Strategy in England set to ambitious targets, bringing homes up to Band C as quickly as possible, as well as ensuring that hard to treat properties are not left behind.
• Tax incentives to encourage homeowners to bring their homes up to standard, such as reductions in VAT for energy efficiency home improvement measures.

Tools:

•          To view the document click here - https://www.cieh.org/media/3762/cieh-excess-cold-enforcement-guidance.pdf

•        To complement the publication of revised CIEH guidance on excess cold enforcement, Alison Thomas, Principal Environmental Health Officer at Nottingham City Council, will deliver a webinar that will focus on excess cold enforcement and heating in HMOs. For booking details click here - https://www.cieh.org/events/2020/webinars/excess-cold-enforcement-and-heating-in-hmos/