Heating costs of private rented properties as an issue in local authorities tackling Climate Emergency issues and socio-economic injustices

LB Brent-based 'Advice4Renters' leaflet on Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard.
The law now requires landlords to issue an Energy Performance Certificate
of standard at least E, but this is for new lettings only.
Will councils have the funds to police this?

The letter below was e-mailed to Hereford Times around 6 October 2019, and published in Hereford Times, Thursday, October 31 issue with the heading 'Heating costs'

Dear Letters Editor

The term 'infrastructure' in relation to planning Herefordshire's sustainable future is generally confined to matters such as transport and telecoms communications with reference to housing and workforce amid Climate Emergency and employment opportunities.

What about issues of socio-economic justice and enforcement of rights and responsibilities, along with poorer people's access to information, advice, guidance and advocacy? As an example, my Freedom of Information request regarding . The Council seemed more keen on punishing poor folk than advising them of their rights.[1]

Now, property developers cream off  'Help to Buy' Government moneys to attract purchasers of new housing,[2] including purchases for 'buy to rent' market while [really unaffordable] 'affordable rent' is defined as 85% of market rent. And what about heating costs while the Met Office anticipates the coldest winter for 30 years?[3]

Potentially ameliorating news there is that "a new regulation [states] that landlords cannot lawfully let a home with an Energy Efficiency Rating of F or G… the law says that landlords and agents who advertise homes to let must show the energy rating in the ad, and landlords must also give new tenants an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). The Certificate informs you about the Rating, and also provides information about the steps the landlord could take to make your home warmer and cheaper to heat….

"Government statistics for 2018 show that more than 18% of greenhouse gases in the UK are emitted from the homes we live in."[4]

How will the new Council help enforce this Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard for tenants and planet?

Alan Wheatley

Notes to editor:

1. https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/17273040.revealed-thousands-summonsed-over-council-tax-debt/
2. https://moneyweek.com/509813/help-to-buy-a-crazy-subsidy-for-housebuilders/
3. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/this-winter-could-be-coldest-for-30-years-bringing-snow-event-after-snow-event-104832843.html 
4. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/790626/2018-provisional-emissions-statistics-report.pdf

To Adapt to the Escalating Climate Crisis, Mere Reform Will Not Be Enough - London Green Left blog

Written by Rainer Shea and first published at The Ghion Journal


Forwarding notice by Mike Shaughnessy:

The lifestyle tweaks that we’re told will save the planet—eating less meat, carpooling, flicking off the light when you leave the room—won’t be able to solve the problem even if society were to largely adopt them…

https://londongreenleft.blogspot.com/2019/10/to-adapt-to-escalating-climate-crisis.html

Mike Shaughnessy, the London Green Left blogger

Herefordshire Council and the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard

The term ‘infrastructure’ in relation to planning Herefordshire’s sustainable future is generally confined to matters such as transport and telecoms communications with reference to housing and workforce amid Climate Emergency and employment opportunities.

What about issues of socio-economic justice and enforcement of rights and responsibilities, along with poorer people’s access to information, advice, guidance and advocacy? As an example, my Freedom of Information request regarding Council Tax debt revealed that Herefordshire Council summonsed nearly 7,500 people for Council Tax debt in 2017/2018. The Council seemed more keen on punishing poor folk than advising them of their rights.[1]

Now, property developers cream off ‘Help to Buy’ Government moneys to attract purchasers of new housing,[2] including purchases for ‘buy to rent’ market while [really unaffordable] ‘affordable rent’ is defined as 85% of market rent. And what about heating costs while the Met Office anticipates the coldest winter for 30 years?[3]

Potentially ameliorating news there is that “a new regulation [states] thatlandlords cannot lawfully let a home with an Energy Efficiency Ratingof F or G… the law says that landlords and agents who advertise homes to let must show the energy rating in the ad, and landlords must also give new tenants an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). The Certificate informs you about the Rating, and also provides information about the steps the landlord could take to make your home warmer and cheaper to heat….

“Government statistics for 2018 show that more than 18% of greenhouse gases in the UK are emitted from the homes we live in.”[4]

As with Council Tax payments related to a property, tenants' fuel bills are currently of little concern to greedy landlords. (Where tenants have absconded without paying Council Tax, however, unpaid Council Tax becomes the landlord's responsibility, as in the case of 'Peter'.[5])

How will the new Council help enforce this Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard E for tenants and planet?

Notes for printing out:

1. https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/17273040.revealed-thousands-summonsed-over-council-tax-debt/
2. https://moneyweek.com/509813/help-to-buy-a-crazy-subsidy-for-housebuilders/
3. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/this-winter-could-be-coldest-for-30-years-bringing-snow-event-after-snow-event-104832843.html
4. http://advice4renters.org.uk/wp/2019/09/03/how-tenants-can-be-warm-and-help-to-save-the-planet/
5. https://www.bigissue.com/latest/council-tax-scandal-part-ii-human-cost/ 

John Iadarola interviews Naomi Klein on how to enact Green New Deal

Link to 7 mins 50 secs youtube video, that kicks off with 7 mins 20 secs interview with Naomi Klein about her new book, On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal.

Her focus is "how best to map out the next economy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNkgz7QD8CM

Prospective 'good will' from sponsorship of a sporting event in times of Climate Emergency

TO: The All Blacks and Rugby New Zealand

Dump AIG until AIG dumps Adani.

Soon to impact on TV screens around the world is the matter of the Rugby World Cup in Japan this weekend, trailers on ITV have informed me. That brings with it huge sports sponsorship deals between rugby nations and multinational brands. That can work for or against global brands, and I sure hope it works against global insurer AIG's plans to underwrite Adani's coal field in the Great Barrier Reef and also sponsor the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Team!

(My initial thought regarding Rugby World Cup 2019 was the matter of how the air miles of the travelling fans might impact on global warming.)

SumOfUs: 'Fighting for people, not profit', write:

In just a few days, the All Blacks will be charging onto the field at the Rugby World Cup proudly wearing the Silver Fern. 

But as thousands of Kiwi Rugby fans put on their black shirts this week, they will also be wearing another, more sinister logo: principal sponsor, AIG.

AIG is not just another boring insurance company. It is doing what 14 other companies have refused to do: insure the Adani Carmichael mine. The most bitterly opposed mine in Australia’s history.

More at: https://actions.sumofus.org/a/all-blacks-dump-aig/

This matter refers me back to Eleanor MacLean's highlighting of how sponsorship of mass media distorts social perspectives, as outlined in the Table of Contents for her 1981 book: Between the Lines: How to detect bias and distortion in the news and everyday life.

Between the Lines
How to Detect Bias and Propaganda in the News and Everyday Life

MacLean, Eleanor

Publisher:  Deveric, Halifax, Canada
Year Published:  1981  
Pages:  296pp   ISBN:  0-9690919-0-7
Library of Congress Number:  P91.M23   Dewey:  302.2'4
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX8412

An exploration of medthods of "dec-doing" our daily newspapers and radio/TV news. Examines our predominant sources of information (mass media) and indicates the existence of many alternative sources of informaiton.

Abstract: 

Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. What gave you that idea?
Introduction
Forming opinions
Thinking clearly
The mass media of communication
Further reading
2. Getting the message
Introduction
Determining the overall message
Bias and propaganda techniques
De-coding some messages
News and current events
Mass culture
Impact of propaganda and advertising
Further reading
3. This message was brought to you by . . .
Introduction
1. Where the news comes from
2. Ownership and control
3. How do present trends affect the media's message?
4. Where does government fit in?
5. The global village
6. Isn't there any good news
Further reading
4. Propaganda, bias and point of view
Introduction
The first casualty
The Bloody Road to Zimbabwe
Textual analysis of The Bloody Road to Zimbabwe
The other side of the story
Further reading
5. "Underdevelopment": Case studies
Introduction
Case Study #1: Brazil
Case Study #2: The Atlantic Provinces
Conclusions: Where is the "Third World"?
Further reading
6. Do not adjust . . .
Communication and modern world problems
1. The analysis
Postscript: the experience
2. Resources
Subscriptions/ newsletters
Information centres/ sources
Of interest to educators
Appendices
For Chapter 1:
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
For Chapter 3:
Atlantic Canada media ownership
Maclean-Hunter
Thomson newspaper chain
Southam
Torstar
A missing section on the elite
For Chapter 4:
Last of the few
Notes
List of tables
Index

Source: https://www.connexions.org/CxLibrary/CX8412.htm

A question from all this might be, "Will ITV News attempt to play down the issue of how controversial the All Blacks shirt sponsorship deal is?"

Another question might be, have mainstream media news channels reported sufficiently about the global implications of Adani Carmichael's climate criminal activities regarding global warming prospects? If not, perhaps a key influence has been the desire not to upset potential advertising revenues for commercial mass media?

Armaments industry and climate change

Going on from the Morning Star report I referred to in the previous blog post, here is a letter I had published in the mainly parochial Hereford Times earlier this year. As that letter does not appear online at Hereford Times website, I transcribe it below without the print edition headline it was given and that I've currently forgotten. (I pass on my copies of Hereford Times without scanning copies of my published letters there.)

Hereford Times has much less readers letters space on the printed edition than the Camden New Journal has, and sometimes Hereford Times publishes, online, letters of mine that are over 250 words long. The search link
letters  "alan wheatley"
helps to highlight some of those published letters, while also flagging up a few 'false positives'.

My Hereford Times published letter re armaments industry and climate change

Veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent recently presented the Millichap Peace Lecture at Hereford Friends Meeting House, in a lecture entitled 'War No More'. The occasion celebrated Bruce's 90th year and the 20th anniversary of the Millichap Peace lectures and this letter focuses on matters relevant to Herefordshire and more recent publication of a UN report into poverty in the UK.

Bruce showed his pocket sized copy of the UN Charter — a document that few of the audience had ever seen. It seems that governments that are keen on promoting militarism and robotic obedience in schools don't like promoting public awareness of government responsibilities or of citizens' rights that are enshrined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Emphasising this point, the concluding and highly critical UN report on poverty in the UK by Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty published on May 22nd stated:

"Although the [UK] is the world's fifth largest economy, [1/5] of its population (14 million people) live in poverty, and 1.5 million of them experienced destitution in 2017"

and described Universal Credit as

"a digital and sanitised version of the 19th Century workhouse, made infamous by Charles Dickens rather than seeking to respond creatively and compassionately to the needs of thos facing widespread economic insecurity in an age of deepa nd rapid transformation...."

The UK Government has denounced this report as "barely believable," and based on too brief a visit rather than painstaking research (with hundred of submissions received by November 2018), before, during and after his visit. Rapporteur Alston says, "The UK is happy to use human rights to criticise other countries, but it must also reckon with its on human rights problems."

The Climate Emergency movement, said Bruce, has yet to tackle the huge impact that production and retention of nuclear weapons, and also the sale and deployment of armaments, has on climate change. Nuclear weapons and also nuclear energy production are also incredibly wasteful of public money, producing fewer jobs than socially useful production, while the current government has savaged funding of public services [and councils and told local authorites to leave housing policy to the private sector].

Former US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara admitted years after stepping down that incredible luck and good fortune rather than nuclear deterrence had prevented world war. Bruce Kent pointed out that a considerable element there was key personnel disobeying orders that had been based on false alarms.

Alston's report is not a false alarm, and the sooner those who describe it as "barely believable" remove their digital blinkers, the more secure planet Earth will be.

Alan Wheatley
(Hereford & South Herefordshire Green Party)