Last week I said that the Council after months of my asking had finally agreed to put out letters to 11000 private renting tenants about the Warm Homes Discount. I have now updated this after discovering that the letters being sent out contain wrong information, and for many are simply too late to help this year:

After months of my pressure on Durham County Council, which culminated last week in my writing to every single councillor to ask for their support, 11000 residents were to be sent details of how to save £135 on their energy bills. Thank you to all the Lib Dem, Independent, Conservative and even Labour councillors who backed me up at the time. Shame on the Labour run Cabinet for taking so long, that it now turns out to be too late for many residents.

The Lib Dems in government got agreement with the energy companies after the general election to ensure that low income families received discounts on their energy bills. Since then I have promoted this in newsletters and on this blog, but the Labour run council had done practically nothing to promote it. Each year residents must register with their energy company.

I went on Inside Out at the start of January (but recorded in December) on the BBC to complain at the lack of Labour action. After writing to all councillors including Labour ones, I thought I had finally got somewhere,

I am still pushing the council to do the same for all those in social housing because the council has all the details of who is most likely to be eligible. At the moment the council is simply asking social landlords like Durham City Homes to do this. At my request Durham City Homes has sent out details to several thousand elderly residents, but none of the organisations running social housing have all the information needed to properly target this.

I had hoped that the Labour run council would recognise this so that the estimated 20,000+ households in social housing who are eligible would also get a letter explaining this.

In the meantime, if your total household income is less than £16000, check at the governments website to see if you are eligible: https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme/overview then call your energy company as they may still accept your application – some like Scottish Power have now stopped accepting applications, but others are still accepting.

It is crazy to think that £4m is not being claimed across County Durham alone, and saddening that because this is a government organised scheme, there has been little attempt by Labour councils to promote it. It does suggest that the Labour leadership doesn’t want the Coalition to be seen as helping the poorest in society as it doesn’t help them politically. Any normal council  whether socialist, conservative or liberal minded  should have jumped at the chance to promote this. After all, £4m in the pockets of our poorest residents is a huge amount.