Council tenants living in the Monkton Road area of the city have had their calls for double glazing knocked back. Residents had petitioned the council arguing the windows result in them having large energy bills, and that they want to reduce their carbon footprints.

But the Executive Member for Housing's decision means there is little prospect of action in the foreseeable future, leaving ward councillor Barbara Boyce to argue residents have been let down badly by the council.

She said:

"The Executive Member is hiding behind this not forming part of the Decent Homes standard, and that funding the double glazing of all council homes without it would cost £5.7m. This is a rather simplistic way of looking at the issue and a convenient way of doing nothing abut the problem.

"What the council should be doing is budgeting for the replacement of windows over a period of years, so that it is not just offering rhetoric around reducing carbon emissions, but actually doing something about it".

Of ten properties surveyed for energy efficiency in the area, on a number of streets, nine had windows rated as ‘very poor', with one rated as ‘average'. The picture was broadly similar for the ratings for the walls of the same properties, despite the claim that they all have wall cavity insulation.

"People access council housing because they cannot afford market rents so it extremely unhelpful to their situations to place them in properties which require constant heating due to poor insulation. The Decent Homes standard is a positive aspect of the current strategy to improve housing throughout the country, but that should be regarded as a minimum requirement", said Heworth ward councillor Tina Funnell.

She added that the council is contributing to those falling into fuel poverty, against its nationally agreed indicator target to reduce those in fuel poverty.