4. Local carbon emissions and fuel poverty statistics

Following the introduction of the most recent legislation and obligations, there are now new opportunities to bring substantial funding and improvements to properties in the Arun district to help alleviate fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions. This section contains the local statistics for carbon and fuel poverty which will help to ensure that resources and information are targeted appropriately across the District.

4.1 Carbon Emissions Statistics

National Indicator 186 referred to per capita  reductions in CO₂ emissions as an indicator of the impact of actions being taken by communities to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate against climate change. In 2010 the Government removed the requirement for Local Authorities to report on national indicators, however per capita carbon data continues to be collected and reported centrally on an annual basis by BEIS. Reporting relies on centrally produced statistics to measure end user CO₂ emissions in the local area; unfortunately, and similarly to the fuel poverty data, there is a long reporting time lag of almost two years.

Whilst there is little influence the Council can have on de-carbonising some elements of commercial and transport sectors; the Council is in a good position to influence carbon reduction though energy efficiency in the domestic sector and the Council’s own buildings. Evidence shows a trend of reduced domestic emissions against the 2005 baseline, but there is much more that can still be done to reduce these figures further.

In the Arun district, CO₂ per capita emissions from domestic properties fell by over 35% from 2010-2017; this is around the national average and the average for West Sussex. The fact the figure is marginally higher in West Sussex and Arun compared to the national average could be due to the older age of the properties in this area and the higher population density.

Nationally tackling climate change has become a high priority. A report by Sir Nicolas Stern highlighted the very high cost to society and the economy of not dealing with climate change.

The recently amended Climate Change Act 2008 commits us to legally binding targets of ‘net zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050.

The UK Climate Change Programme 2006, which sets out the Government’s policies and priorities for action in the UK and internationally, identifies local authorities as critical to the achievement of the Government’s climate change objectives.

This role was further emphasised in the 2006 Local Government White Paper, which proposed significantly strengthening local government’s leadership role, including leadership in tackling climate change. This was then reflected in the new performance assessment framework (Comprehensive Area Assessments [CAA]) and Local Area Agreements (LAA) announced in 2008.

4.2 Energy Efficiency Statistics

It is important to consider the age and energy efficiency of the properties in Arun to understand the implications and challenges in terms of improving. The Chart below summarises the age of properties in the Arun district. In total 50% of the domestic properties in the Arun district were built prior to 1966. This means that the district has a large number of solid wall properties which are hard to treat. The education and promotion of solid wall insulation is therefore vital to support these residents. Older properties often do not have the current standard of loft insulation, can possibly be off gas and unless improvements have been made they will have single glazed windows. All of which lead to poor energy efficiency.

4.3 Fuel Poverty Statistics

Since 2008, DECC (the Department of Energy and Climate Change) now BEIS have published annual sub-regional fuel poverty statistics for every local authority area in England. An overview of the fuel statistics for the Arun district comparing local stats to national trends can be seen in Figure 8 below.

There have been marginal changes across the county compared to last year. Nationally the percentage of fuel poor households is now very similar to 2011 (the first year of the Low Income High Cost model).

Currently the Arun district has the highest number of fuel poor households in West Sussex with 6,127. This is relative to the number of households, as the Arun district has a high number of properties, the percentage of fuel poor is the third highest at 8.6%.

The latest statistics have a breakdown of fuel poverty gap, i.e. the reduction in required spending which would take a household out of fuel poverty, by region. The South East is the highest in England at £449. This trend could be partly due to the higher than average fuel costs for the South East, with a median fuel cost for fuel poor household of over £1400 per year, compared to areas such as Yorkshire and Humber with a median fuel cost for fuel poor households of less than 1250 per year.

Although the Arun district is below the national average in terms of fuel poverty, there are two concerns which the 2017 government fuel poverty statistics highlight:

• The percentage of fuel poor households has increased by 0.4%, whereas nationally there has been no increase.
• There are pockets of fuel poverty within the Arun district which are not immediately evident.

Figure 5 above indicates that the increase in fuel poverty since 2011 is above the national figure. This strategy aims to address this issue for the district, but it is important to identify those smaller areas where need is greatest.

The national average is 10.9% (shown as a red line on the graph) with an average for the Arun District of 8.6%. This chart however identifies 3 areas, (River, Orchard and Marine) where the level is above the national average. It is important to investigate these areas further to see if the problem is specific to an even smaller section of the wards in question.

Looking in more depth at three of these areas to try and evaluate the reason for the disparity in results within a small area:

Area A (Ropewalk, Marina, St. Martins, East Bank) has the highest percentage of fuel poor households (14.4%). It is ranked 3rd out of 94 Arun district LSOAs (lower layer super output areas) and 3rd out of 504 West Sussex LSOAs in terms of overall deprivation. It is in the top 10% most deprived in England in terms of living environment. 48% of households are in privately rented accommodation, compared to 15% for the whole of the Arun district.

Area B (Irvine Road, Civic Centre Area) has the 2nd highest percentage of fuel poor households (13.9%). It is ranked 6th out of 94 Arun district LSOAs and 7th out of 504 West Sussex LSOAs in terms of overall deprivation. It is in the top 10% most deprived in England in terms of living environment and health deprivation and disability. 52% of households are in privately rented accommodation, compared to 15% for the whole of the Arun district.

Area E (East Street)however has a percentage below the district average and the lowest in the ward (8%). It is ranked 17th out of 94 Arun district LSOAs, 52nd out of 504 West Sussex LSOAs in terms of overall deprivation. It has no serious deprivation issues and its proportion of owner occupied and privately rented housing is in line with the district.

This analysis easily demonstrates the reasons for the disparity in results for each area of the ward. For other wards, however, there are less obvious pockets of fuel poverty.

The percentages in Courtwick with Toddington where the low proportions in areas D and E (Courtwick Lane and Toddington) offset the high ones in areas A and B (Clun Road North and South). The latter being areas with levels of deprivation and a high proportion of rented social housing. This contrasts with areas A and B which have none of these factors. In this case the headline ward percentage of 8.5%, which is slightly under the district average, hides a situation which needs attention.

It is important that the government data is scrutinised at all levels of detail so that these pockets of fuel poverty are not overlooked.