Heat 4 health is a project to help vulnerable people in fuel poverty in the Stratford-on-Avon district and surrounding areas. Heat 4 health offers four services:

  1. Energy efficiency advice
  2. Home visits for vulnerable households
  3. Advice surgeries within GP practices
  4. Physical interventions – heating, insulation, draughtproofing, energy efficiency measures.

Fuel poverty

Fuel poverty affects a wide range of people: families with children, retired people and those living in private rented accommodation are particularly vulnerable. The effects can be fatal – on average there are 31,000 excess winter deaths in the UK. Of these, 9,700 deaths are attributable to the avoidable circumstances of living in a cold home – about the same as the number of people who die from breast or prostate cancer each year.*

Heat or eat?

For the 12,681 people in South Warwickshire currently living in fuel poverty this is reality.  With rising fuel prices, more people cannot afford to keep their homes adequately heated, making winter a very difficult time. In the most extreme cases some are faced with the stark choice of whether to heat their homes or buy food to eat.*

Further help

Many of the households we visit often have other health or financial problems. Our advisors can identify these issues and refer to other agencies for support, such as Warwickshire Welfare Rights,  Age UK, the district council, and the fire service.

*2016 Statistics from BEIS