Gas heating gets a cold response

Oct 6 2005 Blairgowrie Advertiser

DOZENS of tenants on a Blairgowrie housing estate have cold-shouldered plans to provide a new gas central heating system in their homes.

Now, because of the lack of uptake – and escalating costs – Perth and Kinross Council have reluctantly put the scheme on hold.

A meeting of the authority’s housing and health committee was told this week that Ferguson Park, Rattray, was an area associated with low average incomes. And the residents’ ability to avoid the effects of fuel poverty were also hampered by their lack of access to affordable heating systems.

Last October, it was agreed to tackle the problem, with TRANSCO and a gas supply company offering to install a mains gas network to the estate, giving residents the option of installing gas central heating.

It was estimated at the time that the cost to the council would amount to £413 per connection. The council also planned to improve the thermal insulation in the houses.

In a bid to encourage council tenants to take part in the scheme, letters were sent out and personal visits and public meetings were arranged.

Specialist energy efficiency advisors were also involved. But, despite all these efforts over the past 12 months, only 119 of the 197 Ferguson Park tenants agreed to take part.

Thirty-three tenants wanted to continue with their present electric heating and 45 failed to respond at all.

In a report to the meeting, Dave Roberts, executive director (housing and community care), explained that there are also 89 private sector households on the estate. It had been assumed that around 40% of them would be willing to make the estimated £413 contribution towards a mains gas service. But he added: “The required contribution is now likely to be between £754 and £1015 and it is suggested that few, if any, individual households would be willing to bear that cost. That, in turn, would have the effect of pushing the council’s costs still higher.”

He concluded in his report: “The relative lack of enthusiasm amongst tenants for the proposals would seem to indicate that the existing electric storage heating systems are not generally disliked and therefore it would be reasonable to renew these with the current equivalent, as or when continued repairs become uneconomic.”

The costs of introducing the gas mains service to Ferguson Park would be over £200,000, in addition to the cost of the new heating systems, which wouldn’t represent “good value” for the housing revenue account.

In the absence of any form of subsidy from the Scottish Executive or other grant-awarding body, councillors agreed to defer the scheme until the 2006/07 financial year.

In the meantime, council officers will research alternative ways of delivering “affordable warmth” to the housing estate, including the use of renewable forms of energy such as heat pumps, wind energy, biomass-based community heating or small-scale combined heat and power.

A report on these will be tabled to a future housing committee meeting.