20/01/2014 Inside Out West Midlands

Tonight, we are on the trail of the fuel thieves who're costing us all

an extra ?30 a year. There we have another gas metre. All

the power, be it gas or electricity used through the two metres, is not

being billed, it appears. So they are getting it for free. For now.

Also on the show, Johnny meets a man with no fuel bills and finds out how

you can make your home more energy efficient.

We can make some extra money by selling surplus electricity that we

generate to the generating company. Wow. That's incredible. It's the if

you chair clam now, that has got to be worth sticking around for. I'm

Mary Rhodes and this is Inside Out. `` it's future! Pensioners'

charities call it a national scandal, the thousands of older

people who die every winter, not because they are ill, but because

they can't keep warm. Anthony Bartram is in Stoke`on`Trent next,

investigating the health risks of a cold home.

Sara is at the Weather Centre... The temperatures plummeted. The cold

is a killer that preys on the old. This time last year, almost 40

people a day were perishing in our region, often because they couldn't

keep warm. One or two neighbours died too

early, if you know what I mean, through not being able to have their

heating on an extra hour or two at night. Of course, we have to think

about the pennies all the time. And what it's going to cost us to have

the heating on. Everything's going up.

31,000 people were ambushed and killed by the cold in Britain last

year. 3,400 of them here in the West Midlands.

That was a big jump, up by a third and pensioners' charities say it's

about time something was done about it.

Health professionals say the difference between life`and`death

among the most vulnerable can be measured by a few degrees.

Think about it. An evening, a very cold spell, an elderly person may

have a minor stroke due to a spike in blood pressure, they'll call 999,

get into the stroke unit, that's cost thousands of pounds, thousands

of pounds. Less than probably the few, ?10 or ?20 or ?30 per night to

be kept warmer. The high`rises in Stoke`on`Trent are draftee and hard

to heat. I'm here to meet Reg and his wife Beryl who've lived here for

years. A secretary of the Residents' Association, Reg knows the flats

better than anyone. He puts on extra layers because the heating is off in

half the rooms to save money. At 80 and 76, the Shaws are in the most

vulnerable age group when it comes to coping with the cold. You worry

for the future. The energy companies are just putting the heating up

every year and it is a big worry. Could you afford to have the heating

on much more than you are? No, no we can't. It could, but other things

would suffer. We could spend money that we have to spend on food or

clothes or whatever. We found another couple keeping a

close eye on the thermostat. On the money Lawrence and Sheila Cooper

have coming in, turning it up is a big decision.

We've been on a low wage for, well, for as long as we can remember.

There's loads of people that can't cope with it. I mean, we've got...

We've cut down, sat with coats on in the chairs and everything else.

Paying the bills is clearly a worry, but both couples think they're

coping. I want to put that to the test. Or rather Professor Franco

will do it for me. The internal body temperature naturally fall falls at

night. You have to make sure that the external temperature's such to

compensate for that and keep you at a stable temperature in the home.

With help from the University Hospital in Coventry and the

University of Warwick, we are keeping tabs on Reg and Sheila's

blood pressure for the next 24 hours so see how it's affected by the

temperature. The colder your temperature, the higher the blood

pressure goes. We want to create more awareness amongst people that

if you live in a cold environment in the winter, we might put ourselves

at a greater risk of suddenly getting a heart attack or a stroke.

In other words, temperatures can be a Trigger for these events.

Yes. Both couples read the headlines, but what about the facts

behind them. Allowing the temperature of your home to yo`yo

could have the same effect on your blood pressure and that's dangerous.

But for our experiment, we don't want Reg and Sheila to change their

habits yet. There are recommended temperatures that you should be

keeping your rooms at. Do you know what they are? No idea.

Well, for your general living areas, it's 21 degrees Celsius, and for

your bedroom, it's 18 degrees. Right.

So Reg now knows what he should be aiming for, but back at Sheila and

Lawrence's place, the ex`Grenadier Guardsman seems regimental about

keeping that dial set to 14, four below the recommended minimum.

I'm sitting here and I don't mean to sound rude. You're obviously used to

it, but I'm a bit chilly. Yes, yes. We need to find a balance whereby we

are comfortable. We have thermals. At the moment we are sitting here,

our fingers are slightly tepid. They soldier on, but wait until you