People on low incomes are less able to prepare for, respond to and recover from extreme weather events
 

Credit: JRF/Eloise Ross

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Introduction

 

The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events can affect anyone but poverty is an important determinant of how well people can prepare for, respond to and recover from events like flooding and heatwaves. Poverty is affected by three things: people’s incomes, the costs they face and their ability to meet their material needs. This section focuses on why people on low incomes are less able to prepare for, respond to and recover from climate impacts. These include difficulties obtaining affordable flood insurance, over exposure to some risks, and more impact from material losses due to extreme events than those on higher incomes.

 

Additional factors can increase the vulnerability of those on low incomes. For example the potential for suffering disproportionate losses in health and wellbeing is greater when people on low incomes are also sensitive to extreme weather due to their age and health, or where they are socially isolated or living in certain types of housing.1 Indeed, a person’s income is often closely tied to other causes of vulnerability such as due to being a lone parent, being in ill-health or having a disability. People in these groups tend to have fewer employment opportunities than others and so tend to be on lower incomes. Low income can in turn exacerbate some of the causes of vulnerability; it is well known that people on lower incomes are more likely to suffer ill-health for both financial and social reasons.2 People experiencing multiple causes of vulnerability are the most extremely socially vulnerable.

The following shows how low incomes can make people less able to prepare for, respond to and recover from climate impacts and related extreme weather.

 

 

Heatwaves

 

People on low incomes are more likely to be sensitive to the impacts of heat-wave events than those on higher incomes. There is considerable evidence about the connections between income and health. People on low incomes have fewer choices in terms of goods and services, may suffer lower self-esteem, participate less in social activities and be more likely to experience stress and anxiety than people who have higher incomes.3 Lower participation rates in social activities may indicate poorer social networks and a greater chance for social isolation, one of the factors known to affect the chances of people being affected by heat stress and which helps explain patterns in heat-related deaths,4,5,6  although social links are not always lower than for other income groups.

 

People on lower incomes are more likely to have increased exposures to temperature extremes. This can come as a result of exposures at work, at home and in the local neighbourhood:

  • Work - some low income occupations involve exposure to heat due to working outdoors, working on tasks which involve high temperatures and/or working in confined spaces.7,8
  • Home – People on low incomes living in accommodation requiring adaptation may not be able to afford the necessary adaptations to cool their homes in summer.9
  • Neighbourhood – People on low incomes are more likely to live in urban areas where temperatures are elevated as a result of the Urban Heat Island effect.10
  • See the 'What actions can be taken?' section on Adapting Buildings for more information.

 

People on lower incomes are more likely to be private or social tenants and have a lower adaptive capacity to heatwaves because they lack both the resources to act and the power to make changes. The rate of poverty among renters is around three times that of homeowners.11 Social tenants have the lowest incomes of all housing tenures with a gross annual income of £17,600 in 2011/12.12 Private tenant households tend to be on a lower gross annual income than homeowners (£30,100 compared to £40,500), yet on average they pay more on weekly rental payments than home-owners do on mortgages (£164 compared to £141). Given that private tenants already spend around 41% of their income on housing (compared to 30% for social renters and 18% for home owners), this presents a considerable financial disincentive for carrying out additional property level adaptations, even if permission is granted from landlords. This situation is likely to continue – or even increase - in future, given that rates of poverty in the private rental sector are increasing. As of 2011/2 there were almost as many private as social renters in poverty (3.9 million compared to 4.2 million respectively).13

 

Some of the housing occupied by people on low incomes is prone to overheating in high temperatures and excess cold in low temperatures. Poorly insulated housing has a greater likelihood of exposing occupants to high internal temperatures. Large social housing blocks often suffer from poor ventilation; as a result, older people living alone in high rise flats are particularly vulnerable to heatwaves, especially if they live on top floors.14

  • See the Further Resources section above for more information about some of the problems with different housing types and a short video about overheating in tower blocks in London.

 

Low income households face a greater risk of burglary compared to other households and this may affect their willingness to take heatwave advice. Although rates of burglary have fallen for all groups, in 2005/6 households earning less than £5000 per annum were still more than twice as likely to be burgled than households earning more than £5000 per annum.15 The second lowest income group also has a greater risk compared to middle income households where the risk is lowest (Figure 1). People living in high crime areas may be unwilling to open their windows to let their homes cool down, especially at night, for fear of burglary. Although fear of burglary is higher than risk of burglary, there is some evidence of a connection between the two.16 Furthermore, people on lower incomes are more likely to have poor security measures in the home and far less likely to have enhanced security measures compared with people on higher incomes.17

Figure 1: Income and burglary risk18

 

 

Flooding

 

People on low incomes are less likely to have home contents insurance than those on higher incomes.19 In 2006 it was very low income households earning under £10,000pa who were the least likely to have home contents insurance (44%) compared to those earning £10,000pa – £15,000pa (61%) and those on average earnings of £15,000pa – £30,000pa (82%). Thus the very poorest people will find it most difficult to deal with the costs of recovery and replace their belongings after a flood.

 

People on low incomes may not be able to afford flood resilience measures for their homes. Research on nearly 1,000 respondents in England and Wales found that people overall were not willing to spend more than £500 for flood resilience measures and over a third would not pay anything.20 For those on low incomes this is likely to be out of necessity rather than an active choice.

 

Those on low incomes are more likely to rent their homes rather than own them– see the tenants and vulnerability section for evidence. Tenants have fewer resources to make property level modifications and have to seek the permission of property owners and managers in order to implement flood protection measures. Tenants may be reluctant to fully or partly contribute to costs or indeed to suffer the associated disruption of implementing measures when they are living in a property that does not belong to them. 

 

People on low incomes are more likely to become displaced as a result of flooding.21 People on low incomes are more likely to occupy housing that is less resilient to flooding - for instance, mobile homes and caravans which are particularly at risk from storms and flooding.22

 

People on lower incomes are less likely to be aware of the potential for flood exposure. Taking employment category as a measure of income, a national study showed grades C2 (skilled manual workers), D (semi- and unskilled manual workers) and E (non working) had lower awareness of being exposed to flooding than those in other groups.23, 24 Even when people are aware of the potential for exposure to flooding, they often see the likelihood of their home actually getting flooded in the future as rather low.25 See the Further Resources section for more information about awareness and how to engage local communities.

 

Poorer communities may have fewer transport options and be reliant on public transport services which themselves may be under pressure during and after extreme weather events. People on higher incomes are more likely to have private transport, to make more journeys and to travel further. Access to a private car reduces demand for public transport and people in households with a car are likely to make 66% fewer trips by bus and 25% fewer trips by train than people in households without a car.26 Therefore those with no private transport can be expected to be particularly reliant on bus services. The charity Sustrans argues that there is a distinct and growing group experiencing ‘transport poverty’. This group are denied access to job opportunities, education, care services and participation in social, cultural and leisure activities as a result of their reliance on public transport which can be very limited in some areas. Research from Sustrans indicates that those experiencing transport poverty have a lower adaptive capacity to climate impacts and extreme weather events.

 

Poorer communities are less likely to have a political voice. Income is closely correlated with political participation and people on lower incomes are less likely to engage with political processes, including participation in electoral voting, political action and through membership of political or civil organisations and associations.'27 Poorer communities are also much less likely to seek assistance. For example, evidence suggests that people in deprived communities tend to be less proactive in finding information and financial support.28  It is therefore important to support the process of distributing financial aid and other forms of assistance.

 

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References

  1. Benzie, M., Harvey, A., Burningham, K., Hodgson, N. &Siddiqi, A. (2011) Vulnerability to heatwaves and drought. Case studies of adaptation to climate change in south-west England, Joseph Rowntree Foundation; York.
  2. The Marmot Review Team (2010) Fair society, healthy lives.The Marmot Review.(page 76)
  3. The Marmot Review Team (2010) Fair society, healthy lives.The Marmot Review.(page 75/76)
  4. Klinenberg, E. (2002) Heatwave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
  5. Hames, D. and Vardoulakis, S (2012) Climate Change Risk Assessment for the Health Sector
  6. Kovats, R. S. and Ebi, K. L. (2006) ‘Heatwaves and public health in Europe’. European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 592–599
  7. Benzie, M., Harvey, A., Burningham, K., Hodgson, N. &Siddiqi, A. (2011) Vulnerability to heatwaves and drought Case studies of adaptation to climate change in south-west England, Joseph Rowntree Foundation; York.
  8. TUC (2009) Changing Work in a Changing Climate: Adaptation to Climate Change in the UK, New Research on Implications for Employment. London: Trades Union Congress, produced by AEA for the TUC.
  9. Benzie, M., Harvey, A., Burningham, K., Hodgson, N. &Siddiqi, A. (2011) Vulnerability to heatwaves and drought Case studies of adaptation to climate change in south-west England, Joseph Rowntree Foundation; York.
  10. Benzie, M., Harvey, A., Burningham, K., Hodgson, N. &Siddiqi, A. (2011) Vulnerability to heatwaves and drought Case studies of adaptation to climate change in south-west England, Joseph Rowntree Foundation; York.
  11. McInnes, T. et al, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2013
  12. DCLG (2013) English Housing Survey HOUSEHOLDS 2011-12. Office of National Statistics 
  13. McInnes, T. et al, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2013
  14. Poumadere, M., Mays, C., Le Mer, S. and Blong, R.(2005) The 2003 Heatwave in France: Dangerous Climate Change Here and Now Risk Analysis 25(6): 1483-1494
  15. Tilley, N., Tseloni, A and Farrrell, G (2011) Income disparities of burglary risk: Security availability during the crime drop BRIT. J. CRIMINOL. (2011) 1 of 18
  16. Jansson K (no date) British Crime Survey Measuring crime for 25 years
  17. Tilley, N., Tseloni, A and Farrrell, G (2011) Income disparities of burglary risk: Security availability during the crime drop BRIT. J. CRIMINOL. (2011) 1 of 18
  18. Tilley, N., Tseloni, A and Farrrell, G (2011) Income disparities of burglary risk: Security availability during the crime drop BRIT. J. CRIMINOL. (2011) 1 of 18
  19. Tapsell, S.M., Penning-Rowsell, E. C. Tunstall, S. M. and Wilson, T. L. (2002) Vulnerability to flooding: health and social dimensions Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 360, 1511-1525
  20. Bichard E and Kazmierczak A (2012) Are homeowners willing to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change? Climatic Change 112: 633-654
  21. Scawthorn, C., Flores, P., Blais, N., Seligson, H. Tate, E., Chang, S., Mifflin, E., Thomas, W., Murphy, J., Jones, C., Lawrence, M. (2006) HAZUS-MH Flood Loss Estimation Methodology.II. Damage and Loss Assessment. Natural Hazards 7(2) 72-81. )
  22. Benzie, M., Harvey, A., Burningham, K., Hodgson, N. &Siddiqi, A. (2011) Vulnerability to heatwaves and drought. Case studies of adaptation to climate change in south-west England, Joseph Rowntree Foundation; York.
  23. Fielding J, Gray K, Burningham K and Thrush D (2005) Flood warning for vulnerablegroups: secondary analysis of flood data.R&D Report W5C-018/2. Bristol: EnvironmentAgency.
  24. Fielding, J.L. 2012. Inequalities in exposure and awareness of flood risk in England. Disasters, 2012, 36 (3): 477 – 494, Figure: p, 490.
  25. Bichard E and Kazmierczak A (2012) Are homeowners willing to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change? Climatic Change 112: 633-654
  26. Balcombe, R., Mackett, E, Paulley, N, Preston, J, Shires, J, Titheridge, H, Wardman, M, White, P (2004) The demand for public transport: a practical guide TRL Report TRL593 
  27. Pattie, C., Seyd, P. and Whiteley P. (2004) Citizenship in Britain Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
  28. Zsamboky, M., Fernandez-Bilbao, A., Smith, D., Knight, J. & Allan, J. (2011) “Impacts of climate change on disadvantaged UK coastal communities”, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.

In 2011/12 there were an estimated 13 million people in the UK living in poverty
 

 

Credit: JRF/Liz Hingley

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Tackling poverty and inequality

There has also been a fall in real incomes – both overall1 and for those in the lowest income group. Between 2001/2 and 2011/12 there was a 5% reduction in the real incomes of households in the bottom 10% of the UK’s income distribution. Although the proportion of people reporting financial difficulties has been falling, in 2011/12 more than 10% of people in the UK still find it quite or very difficult to get by2. Considering the needs of those on low incomes is important for developing adaptation strategies which do not increase the potential for disproportionate impacts on people and communities with an already lower capability to prepare, respond and recover.
 

It is against this backdrop that householders are being asked to contribute more to tackling the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. It is right that householders share some of the burden and responsibility for adaptation, but a failure to fully consider the relative capacity for households to do so is deeply divisive and inherently unjust. Where communities cannot afford to adopt measures or obtain adequate insurance, it is not possible for them to adequately prepare without outside help. If that help is not effectively provided then it is these communities which are highly likely to see some of the most extreme impacts from future flood and heatwave events. Failure to consider the needs of the most extremely vulnerable now will further erode their resilience to climate and extreme weather impacts into the future.
 

People on low incomes face a triple climate injustice and there is a need to consider how inequalities and the potential for greater burdens can be reduced. The development of effective adaptation strategies and related measures needs to recognise the different ways that low income groups are affected:

  • They are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts such as flooding compared to higher income groups for the reasons explained in Section 1.
  • They contribute least to climate change because their emissions are much lower than those of people on higher incomes. See Which households emit the most carbon?
  • They are the hardest hit by the mitigation policies which raise costs of energy, therefore they are frequently living in fuel poverty.  See also What can be done to tackle fuel poverty?

The need to consider equality in action features in a number of policies and frameworks associated with climate adaptation and the management of extreme weather events. However, it is vital to be able to appreciate the different challenges that are faced by low income households in order to have a sound basis to effectively deliver on these aspirations and achieve equality in outcomes.
 

Duties and responsibilities

Local authorities have statutory duties and responsibilities relating to people on low incomes which are relevant for action on climate impacts and extreme weather. They include:

  • The Equality Act 2010 states that any authority to which the act applies “must, when making decisions of a strategic nature about how to exercise its functions, have due regard to the desirability of exercising them in a way that is designed to reduce the inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage.” Therefore an authority’s policy and planning systems for climate adaptation and all related duties need to consider ways in which equality in outcomes can be achieved.
  • The Child Poverty Act places duties on local authorities and named partner authorities to cooperate with a view to reducing, and mitigating the effects of, child poverty in their local areas.
  • The Health and Social Care Act (2012) and related Joint Strategic Needs Assessments requires the consideration of a range of factors which determine health outcomes, including factors associated with the socio-economic determinants of health.  
  • The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 identifies Local Authorities as one of the organisations who have a responsibility for developing plans for emergency situations.
  • The Heatwave Plan for England is non-statutory but provides a basis through which other obligations to produce adaptation plans can be developed. Its main purpose is to provide information which helps in the process of building more resilient communities to heat-waves. It sets out ways to prepare for heat-wave events and what to do to avoid some of the most severe impacts from prolonged exposure to high temperatures. 
  • The Housing White Paper 2017. The white paper “Fixing our broken housing market” sets out a broad range of reforms that government plans to introduce to help reform the housing market and increase the supply of new homes. Providing new homes needs to be balanced with issues like development in the flood plain (see Section 3 of Which places are disadvantaged?)

 

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References

  1. Randall, C, Corp A and Self, A (2014) Measuring National Well-being: Life in the UK, 2014 Office for National Statistics
  2. McInnes, T. et al, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2013
  3. Preston, I., White, V., Thumin, J. and Bridgeman, T (2013) Distribution of carbon emissions n the UK: implications for domestic energy policy. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.

 

 

 

The Climate Just map tool contains a series of maps which can be used to understand patterns of people with low incomes and other indicators of poor adaptive capacity across England, Scotland and Wales.

 

Credit: JRF/Liz Hingley

Overall geographic pattern

 

The Climate Just map tool contains a series of maps which can be used to understand patterns in incomes across England, Wales and Scotland. Some of the main geographical patterns for England are summarised below. The map tool also allows users to overlay maps of potential exposure to flooding and heatwaves. See the map tool for the national maps for 2011 in your area. Also see Sustrans's information and maps of transport poverty.

 

People with the lowest household incomes are more likely to live in urban areas. In England, neighbourhoods in Central London have the highest average income in the country but also some of the highest income disparities. The lowest average income levels are present in urban areas to the north of the country and on the south west coast. The neighbourhood with the highest income in 2011 was in Kensington and Chelsea, whilst the lowest was located in Leicester.

 

Very high levels of unemployment – a measure of low income - were concentrated in urban areas in 2011, particularily London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle. The highest levels of unemployment in 2011 were experienced in a neighbourhood in Kingston Upon Hull (15%), whilst the lowest figures were found in a neighbourhood in Cambridge (only <0.01%).

 

Long-term unemployed households are also highly concentrated. Very high levels of households with long-term unemployment (LTU) and dependent children are concentrated in urban areas, particularly London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and Newcastle. The neighbourhood with the lowest percentage of households with LTU and dependent children was in the Isles of Scilly (<0.01%) whilst the neighbourhood with the highest percentage was in Nottingham (21.2%).

 

There is a clear north/south divide in proportion of people in elementary occupations– some of the job types which are most closely associated with low wages. Urban areas in the north of England such as Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds and Sheffield had high proportions of people in elementary occupations in comparison to London, which had a high level of skilled workers. The neighbourhood with the lowest proportion of people in elementary occupations in 2011 was in Camden, Greater London (1.7%), whilst the neighbourhood with the highest proportion was in Swindon (34%).

 

See the Map Tool for more information, including income distributions across England, Wales and Scotland. 

 

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Assess the nature of the problem in your area

 

Identify the places in your local area where people are on low incomes using the Climate Just map tool

 

Identify the magnitude and likelihood of hazards associated with the changing climate, including flooding and heatwaves.

  • Consider how patterns of people on low incomes compare with patterns of potential exposure to flooding and heatwaves using exposure and disadvantage maps in the map tool. New finer resolution data are available for flood vulnerability and current and future flood disadvantage. See Which places are disadvantaged? for more information.  
  • Draw on existing risk assessments, adaptation tools such as the UKCP09 projections and its most recent successor the UKCP18 (which builds upon UKCP09 and was initiated after the 2015 Paris Agreement) and other local information (for example following the UKCIP Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP) process).  See the Further Resources section for an example LCLIP for Greater Manchester.
  • Examine the impacts of extreme weather events including their location, timing, costs and the effectiveness of responses. Kent County Council developed a Severe Weather Impacts Monitoring System (SWIMS) tool to record local experiences more systematically and support continuous learning.

 

Review the case studies to see what others have done.

 

Ensure that a full range of issues are incorporated into organisational risk registers, including indicators of low ability to adapt, such as income. It is important to recognise that those on low incomes are more likely be vulnerable to climate impacts and extreme weather events in other ways too. Actions need to be wider than the provision of financial support alone. 

 

Help raise awareness in low income areas with targeted information and support about what needs to be done to prepare for extreme weather and actions to take during extreme weather events. Consider appropriate outreach activities and additional support for those who face income-related restrictions to their adaptive capacity.

 

Develop local plans that reduce the impact of heatwaves and floods for people on low incomes. Be sure to include measures which take account of what can be done before an event to minimise its impacts and also how people can be supported during recovery, particularly from flood events. The recovery and clean-up period often involves more effort than the time during the flooding itself. Certainly, recovery times are likely to be much longer than the flood duration. There will be a number of challenges to face, including:

  • inspection of and cleaning road surfaces to ensure they are safe before they are reopened.
  • advising residents on reoccupying their properties and offering advice about drying equipment and drying-out. It may be useful to develop a central resource of information to provide assistance on useful contacts, reputable contractors, and more.
  • dealing with accommodation problems.
  • supporting individual and general community recovery.

 

Reduce exposure by considering ways that buildings and local environments can be better adapted. People on low incomes may need to be supported financially in order to realise property and community level adaptations.

 

Ensure that information and actions and roles and responsibilities are clearly communicated. Poor communication and the lack of clarity on actions needed may lead to apathy from local communities.1

 

Emphasise actions and initiatives which provide tangible and multiple local benefits.2  These do not need to have flood or heatwave management as their only goal.

 

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References

  1. Zsamboky, M., Fernandez-Bilbao, A., Smith, D., Knight, J. & Allan, J. (2011) “Impacts of climate change on disadvantaged UK coastal communities”, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York
  2. Zsamboky, M., Fernandez-Bilbao, A., Smith, D., Knight, J. & Allan, J. (2011) “Impacts of climate change on disadvantaged UK coastal communities”, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.

Actions to take

 

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

 

  1. 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

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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. 

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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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References

  1. Houston, D., Werritty, A., Bassett, D., Geddes, A., Hoolachan, A. & McMillan, M. (2011) Pluvial (rain-related) flooding in urban areas : the invisible hazard, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.

 


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Tools and resources

 

Name and Link

Developer

Type of Resource

Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP)

Designed to support the UKCIP Climate Adaptation Wizard, this tool supports local assessments of past weather-related events and their impacts as a basis for understanding the possible impacts of future weather-related events.

UKCIP

Guidance and Spreadsheets

Community Resilience Toolkit

Aimed at local communities and the organisations working with them, this set of resources supports the process of understanding local needs and developing emergency plans based on those needs

Cabinet Office (UK)

Communities

Reports, checklists and case studies

Severe Weather Impacts Monitoring System (SWIMS)

A data collection tool to encourage learning about the impacts of and responses to past extreme weather events as the basis for improved future decision-making.

Kent County Council

Online Tool

Cold Weather Plan for England (2013)

The plan provides the framework for action during specific periods of very cold weather. It includes an ‘equality analysis’ and other resources which can assist local decision-making

Public Health England/NHS

Health and social care sector

Reports and action cards.

Know your flood risk Flood awareness and action guidance – information about different types of flooding and what to do if a flood alert is issued.

Environment Agency

Advice for householders, businesses and other groups

Prepare for a flood and get help during and after Flood awareness and action guidance for different stages of the flood process

Environment Agency

Advice for householders, businesses and other groups

If your home is flooded. Practical assistance about what to do during events, what to do to clean up and  get repairs, who you can approach for help and how to get alternative housing if someone is made homeless.

Shelter

Advice for householders

Helpline and information to help with getting insurance. The National Flood Forum also has a range of other information resources for preparing for, responding to and recovering from flood events.

National Flood Forum

Advice for householders

Advice produced through the Heat-wave plan for England 2013

The heat-wave plan contains advice for a range of practitioners and the public

Supporting vulnerable people before and during a heatwave: advice for health and social care professionals

Looking after yourself and others during hot weather – The latest advice

Public Health England

Advice for different groups

Keeping cool in a heatwavetargeted advice for older people about what to do if there is a heat wave warning.

AgeUK

Advice for older people

How voluntary groups can help in emergencies Guidance and resources to assist volunteer groups including legislative links  and information about the Voluntary Sector Civil Protection Forum

Cabinet Office

Advice for volunteer groups

Vulnerable People and Climate Change Project report from a 2 year project looking at improving information about climate impacts, adaptation measures, carbon emissions reduction and related campaigning. The project involved more than 50 organisations from which 20 drew up action plans on adaptation and/or carbon reduction related to their specific activities.

NCVO

Report – evidence, analysis and recommendations

Six Steps to Flood Resilience

Designed to address the lack of easy-to-use guidance to support the use of novel flood resilience measures in planning, this resource provides a process to follow and resources for further information

Building Research Establishment, Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Manchester

Guidance document

 

Reports

 

Name

Author

Type of Resource

Case studies of adaptation to climate change in south-west England.

Benzie et al (2011)

Report

Pluvial (rain-related) flooding in urban areas: the invisible hazard.

Houston et al (2011)

Report

Distribution of Carbon Emissions in the UK: Implications for Domestic Energy Policy

Preston et al (2013)

Report

Fair Society, Healthy Lives. The Marmot Review

Strategic Review of health Inequalities in England post-2010.

Marmot, M. (2010)

Report

UK Climate Change Risk Assessment: Evidence Report, London

Defra

Report

Impacts of climate change on disadvantaged UK coastal communities

Zsamboky et al (2011)

Report

 

 

Case studies and examples

 

Name

Developer

Type of Resource

Greater Manchester Local Climate Impacts Profile

Ecocities

Online example of an LCLIP

Example of a risk register (District Council)

Blaby District Council

Online material (external)

Community flood warden scheme – Doncaster

How communities and service providers in Doncaster were able to learn from flooding events in 2007 in order to develop a community flood warden scheme in affected areas.

ClimateJust team with Doncaster Borough Council

Internal case study

Community Flood Warden Schemes

Defra pathfinder projects

Links to a number of projects which are trailing new community based initiatives to build resilience to flooding. A set of projects exploring community resilience to coastal erosion are already completed.

Defra

External web content

Keep Cool Illinois – an example of the ‘one stop shop’ for getting advice and assistance including a list of approved ‘cool centers’ for residents to use during heat-waves

Multi-agency

Example of cooling centres

Vulnerable People and Climate Change Project report from a 2 year project looking at improving information about climate impacts, adaptation measures, carbon emissions reduction and related campaigning. The project involved more than 50 organisations from which 20 drew up action plans on adaptation and/or carbon reduction related to their specific activities.

NCVO

Case studies and personal views from the voluntary sector

 

 

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References