Concerns have been raised over the government’s Affordable Warmth Scheme after the Department for Communities (DfC) admitted it cannot confirm a budget for 2023/24.
The Affordable Warmth Scheme is the DfC’s primary scheme for tackling fuel poverty, with the Department working in partnership with all local councils and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive on its delivery.
However in an update letter issued to councils and discussed at a meeting of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s environmental services committee on Tuesday, March 14, DfC head of affordable warmth and energy branch Emma Sisk said that the budget remains unconfirmed.
Emma Sisk explained: “Unfortunately, I am not in a position to confirm the scheme budget for 2023/24; however, our current planning assumption is for a capital budget of £16m.”
Ballymoney UUP Councillor Darryl Wilson said he was “hugely disappointed” by the lack of funding certainty.
“An assumption is never a guarantee and this is a critical scheme which has been championed by this council,” he said. “I just want to record how uncomfortable I am with the wording in this document. The line that stands out to me is: ‘We don’t have a £16m budget for this, we have an assumption of a budget’. That’s quite unnerving.”
The uncertainty comes after the DfC’s decision in June 2022 to reduce the number of referrals to the scheme from 30 to 20 per month. The latest correspondence now instructs councils to continue making 20 referrals per month from April 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023 until confirmation of the budget has been received.
In the letter, Emma Sisk added: “I understand there is some concern among councils about meeting the referrals per month target without a change to funding arrangements. In addition, at the most recent senior officials meeting several councils indicated that they may be unable to continue their participation in the scheme under the current funding model.
“The Service Level Agreement (SLA) allows a +/-5 flexibility in monthly referral numbers and you should work with your local Grant Office to make up any shortfall by the end of each quarter.”
Bann DUP Alderman Michelle Knight-McQuillan raised concerns about the reduction in referral numbers coupled with the unconfirmed budget.
She said: “In the climate we’re in now, we’re likely to see more demand rather than less demand and if we don’t have a confirmed budget and we have a reduced amount of referrals I wonder are we going to end up in a position where we have more people disappointed than satisfied.
“What we should be looking at and what the DfC should be looking at is getting that figure back up to 30 considering the crisis that we currently see when it comes to heating homes. It’s disappointing that we have that reduced figure and if we haven’t got a set budget it doesn’t look like we’re going to get any chance of an increase in the referrals.”
The DfC is drafting an addendum to the current business case to allow the scheme to run from April 2024 to March 2026. Options on a revised funding model will be explored through the addendum. Further detail on the new approach will be provided “at the earliest opportunity”, according to Emma Sisk.
Along with the funding details, the letter also set out the DfC’s interim SLA and a refreshed approach to targeting. The committee accepted the SLA and noted the refreshed targeting approach.
