Tackling Fuel Poverty on the Lakes Estate

The Lakes Estate has been identified as an area of deprivation. The majority of the homes on the estate are of a non-traditional build and are very energy inefficient. Whilst MKC carried out work on the houses and bungalows owned by them to improve the energy efficiency, that only dealt with about half of the properties. There are still many residents suffering from fuel poverty, especially those living in privately rented properties and those living in the MKC owned flats in Serpentine Court. The residents of Serpentine Court are perhaps the worse off as many of the properties also have problems with damp and very bad condensation, mostly due to the original windows. No improvements have been carried out to Serpentine Court because of the uncertainty of its future under regeneration:mk.

We believe that by doing something to tackle fuel poverty, although in a small way, our project relates to the health and energy core interests.

We would like to be able to give every child and vulnerable person living on the Lakes Estate a warm fleece blanket to help them to combat the cold. We realise that this doesn’t tackle the bigger issue of energy efficient homes, which would cost many millions, but it would provide some small immediate relief and help to keep them warmer and healthier and possibly reduce energy bills as well.

Reliable internet access is becoming more and more essential in daily life, including access to health information and researching competitive energy providers. So, while we distribute the fleeces, we plan to use tablets to collect data on whether and how residents access the internet and how competent and comfortable they are in using it.