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32<br />
Wanstead Village Directory<br />
Out in the Cold<br />
Kathy Taylor from Wanstead Climate Action urges local politicians to<br />
support the United for Warm Homes campaign, which highlights the<br />
mental and physical health impacts of cold homes<br />
A<br />
new report by the Institute of Health<br />
Equity highlights the shocking<br />
fact that in Britain today, 9.6m<br />
households are living in heat-leaky homes<br />
and have incomes below the poverty<br />
line. Cold homes double the risk of adults<br />
developing new mental health conditions<br />
and put one in four children at risk of<br />
multiple mental health symptoms.<br />
Some of the quilt-making team<br />
pose with the quilts in Ilford<br />
The lack of meaningful action to tackle<br />
Britain’s cold homes over the last decade<br />
has intensified inequalities and the level of<br />
harm being felt across the country with many<br />
millions of households now at crisis point.<br />
The UK has the oldest and least efficient<br />
housing stock in Europe, with housing<br />
directly responsible for 14% of the UK’s total<br />
greenhouse gas emissions, driven in part<br />
by the proportion of uninsulated or poorly<br />
insulated homes. Since 2013, installation rates<br />
of energy-saving measures and insulation<br />
have plummeted by 90%. Rather than the<br />
intermittent and piecemeal approach to home<br />
insulation of successive governments so far,<br />
if there were a nationwide, government-led<br />
programme to upgrade the UK’s inefficient<br />
housing stock, not only would this bring<br />
millions out of fuel poverty, but it would go<br />
some way towards tackling the climate crisis.<br />
In addition, with the reduced costs of fuel<br />
subsidies, the improved health impacts and<br />
the stimulus to a UK green economy, the costs<br />
of a street-by-street insulation programme<br />
would more than pay for itself. This would be<br />
win-win, as we cannot get to net zero carbon<br />
emissions without tackling our leaky homes.<br />
The total cost of insulating low-income UK<br />
homes to a suitable standard (EPC grade C) is<br />
likely to be around £74.5 billion, or £6 billion<br />
a year over 12 years, which was the original<br />
commitment proposed by Labour as part of<br />
its warm homes plan before it backtracked<br />
on this recently. Wanstead Climate Action<br />
has been taking part in a Friends of the Earth<br />
campaign called United for Warm Homes to<br />
raise awareness of this situation.<br />
Locally, a shocking 69% of homes in Ilford<br />
are heat-inefficient. In Leyton and Wanstead,<br />
(John Cryer’s constituency) the figure is only<br />
slightly better at 66%, and in Chingford and<br />
Woodford Green it is 65%. Due to the high<br />
percentage of leaky homes and high fuel<br />
poverty in Ilford, we met with the shadow<br />
health minister Wes Streeting MP (Ilford<br />
North), who supports the campaign. However,<br />
we are asking all local MPs to pledge support<br />
and do all they can to ensure the introduction<br />
of policies to tackle this crisis so none of their<br />
constituents suffer from fuel poverty or a cold<br />
home. John Cryer, are you listening?<br />
Last year, over 40 Redbridge people came<br />
together to make two beautiful quilts that<br />
highlight this situation. If you have a suitable<br />
public place to display the quilts for a few<br />
weeks, do get in touch.<br />
For more information, visit wnstd.com/ch.<br />
To contact Wanstead Climate Action, email<br />
info@wansteadclimateaction.com<br />
To advertise, call 020 8819 6645 or visit wnstd.com
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