Actions to take

 

1. Review the recommended general actions. This includes information about raising awareness and partnership working and engaging local communities.

 

2. Make use of risk registers which are already held within local authorities and organisations with a role in service provision and consider which people are likely due to face additional pressures as a result of income. Data sharing requires relevant approval, but subject to that being received, organisations involved in emergency planning could make use of local authority data on people receiving care and other types of support.¹

 

3. Consult guidance about how to incorporate climate change impacts into risk registers.

• See the Further Resources section for links to guidance and examples. There is an example risk register available from Blaby District Council.

 

4. Draw together a range of relevant information sources and guidance documentation which can be used to help raise awareness and assist adaptation in low income communities. Encourage dialogue and engagement to aid information use. The Environment Agency’s flood maps are useful but need to be provided with their other information resources about what terms mean and the sort of actions that can be taken if a householder lives in an area likely to be exposed to riverine, coastal, groundwater or surface water flooding. Advice about heatwaves will also vary according to personal circumstances. This needs to include a range of measures such as: establishing secure ways of ventilating properties during heatwaves, considering the availability of appropriate cool spaces in the local neighbourhood, and considering people’s travel, transport and accessibility requirements. 

• See the Know your flood risk website and Prepare for a flood pages on the Government's website. Shelter also provides information resources, the information in their guidance note If your home is flooded sets out immediate and longer term actions for those affected by flooding. This includes information on getting support for those made homeless through a flood or other extreme event, e.g., through a lack of insurance, explaining the process of making emergency housing applications and explaining how to get rent payments back from landlords for periods that housing is not fit for occupation. The National Flood Forum provides a helpline for people who are having trouble obtaining insurance for their homes and other practical advice for homeowners about protecting their homes and belongings. Immediate financial help may be available for those affected by flooding. If those affected claim certain benefits, they may be able to apply for a budgeting loan.
• Public Health England has also produced information for the public about how to cope in heatwaves.  There is also advice directed at specific groups who tend to be on lower incomes, for example advice from Age UK on keeping cool.

 

5. Work in partnership with others to help those on low incomes in your area, for example to increase people’s incomes or reduce the costs they face as part of wider anti-poverty initiatives, as well as preparing for extreme weather. Partnership working is a crucial part of any response to the challenges of climate change and extreme weather.  This can help to overcome problems associated with the same people being targeted by different organisations and provided with inconsistent information about what actions should be taken. Local authorities, in partnership with public agencies, can mobilise communities in flood risk areas to assist in disseminating warnings, rendering emergency assistance and helping with installing flood resilience measures. In addition broader initiatives to address poverty could mean households are better financially equipped to deal with problems. Proactive approaches to support low income households with accessing safety nets such as schemes to support home insurance take-up with rent by social landlords could also be important.

• See the Further Resources section for more information on partnership working.
• See the Islington SHINE case study for an example of local work to support households facing fuel poverty where increasing benefits take up is considered alongside measures to improve people’s homes. 

 

6. Support and encourage local organisations to work with the voluntary and community sector to help with the process of raising awareness of climate impacts and the promotion of personal adaptation strategies. Where possible, this should build on existing programmes and voluntary sector initiatives and pay particular attention to reaching marginalised communities. Community initiatives can be supported by providing volunteers with an arena where people can share their experiences in a way that enables them to learn from and support each other, and where key stakeholders can engage with the communities. Low income communities can be engaged in the development of Climate Change action plans, in local flood groups or in networks of volunteers.

• See the Further Resources section for more information on community engagement, including a case study of developing a flood warden scheme in a materially deprived area of Doncaster. There is also government guidance on How voluntary organisations can help in emergencies. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has produced a learning report on the activities of 50 voluntary organisations across England that have been supporting people likely to be disproportionately impacted by climate impacts and extreme weather events. The NCVO work included specific consideration of organisations supporting people on low incomes in Hull and Portsmouth.

 

7. Consider investing in or supporting investment in community wide measures (such as temporary flood barriers, SuDS, or insulation schemes). Funding for any capital schemes requires a number of sources/ agencies to contribute. Support for insulating measures may help to reduce the risk of overheating and also provide protection against extreme cold weather and fuel poverty. If the buildings in which vulnerable people live are prone to overheating, and there is no green space nearby to provide relief from heat, other adaptation options need to be considered. During heatwaves, social infrastructure, such as GP surgeries and hospitals, but also community centres, nurseries and schools, can become cooling centres. Cooling centres are equipped with air conditioning, which may only be used during extremely hot weather. The idea of cooling centres comes from the USA, where air conditioning is commonplace in public buildings. In order to improve human comfort, the city officials have kept public buildings open as cooling centres for residents without air conditioning. Free transport to these centres is also provided. It may be possible to develop ‘warm centre’ initiatives during periods of extreme cold.

• A toolkit developed for Defra provides detailed information on sources of funding, which includes guidance on potential partner organisations and funding sources. 
• Defra’s Community Resilience Pathfinder projects are also providing further learning about good practice in community level flood actions. Projects associated with flooding are currently ongoing. They aim to protect a range of properties from flooding and stress tangible and measurable outcomes, such as reductions in household insurance premiums. A set of projects on coastal resilience are already completed and all were shown to have improved community resilience to some extent. Further information on community engagement can be found here.
• See this CREW Retrofit Advice Tool to explore the evidence and provide information to those on low incomes on eligibility for any initiatives which are currently available, for example through the Green Deal or ECO funding. See also the material on adapting the built environment.
• See the Keep Cool Illinois campaign for information about cooling centers from the United States.

 

8. Consider community schemes in low income communities which have other goals or outcomes but which also have flood or heat-management benefits. For example, green infrastructure projects can provide a multitude of benefits for local communities, including for wider health and wellbeing.

• See the Further Resources section for more information on community engagement and green infrastructure. A link is also provides to a community training pack on climate change and the role of green infrastructure in adaptation  produced by Community Forests North West.

 

9. Develop a step-by-step programme of activities. Ensure that you are clear about what can be done now to increase community resilience. Helping people to prepare in advance can do a lot to reduce the actual impacts of an event when it happens. It also means that people can feel more empowered to help themselves during an emergency too and some may need less external support. Events like flooding can have a long recovery time so it is important to consider how people on low income will not be further impacted through the decisions made in the aftermath of an event – such as through considering travel and transport requirements and the need to maintain social ties. 

 

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