Funded Energy Redress Projects

This project will build on a previously funded project, to provide personalised energy advice and advocacy on a community outreach basis, in Royston.

They will link with wider services and activities offered locally, targeting those most in need and vulnerable to fuel poverty and fuel debt. 

The project aims to support 500 households via telephone, drop-in and appointment-based sessions within local community settings, home visits, alongside workshops and events in partnership with local organisations.

Advice will include; help with understanding utility bills and usage, raising awareness of additional support schemes, advocacy for those in provider dispute or debt, as well as opportunities for energy efficiencies and reducing energy use.

This project aims to increase energy awareness and reduce fuel poverty among some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded households living in Burnley, Blackburn and surrounding areas. As part of their Energy Advice Service, advisors will provide one-to-one, face-to-face advice to families and people through connections with schools and parishes. They will provide interpreters and translated materials of the most used languages in the area as well as British Sign Language accessible information and interpreters. They will also supply small energy-saving items to help make immediate beneficial changes.

This project will expand on a previously funded project, to provide support to vulnerable consumers across Cornwall who are at risk of, or experiencing fuel poverty, combined with active outreach to bring services to the most vulnerable. With high levels of deprivation and poor-quality housing stock, demand from households in rural and coastal towns across Cornwall for energy advice and information and more intensive, in-depth casework and advocacy continues at high levels.

The project aims to target support towards hard-to-reach households and provide tailored support to over 4,000 households with a combination of impartial, telephone-based information and advice, including home visits, advocacy and casework for those with complex needs, training for frontline workers in partner organisations, help to secure funding and support to install capital measures. 

Their holistic approach means vulnerable consumers will also be signposted or referred to other health and wellbeing, debt and income maximisation services.

The project will ensure that households across North Yorkshire are fully supported to participate in, and benefit from, the necessary transition to green technologies. Helping them to improve their homes’ energy efficiency long term and through this reduce the likelihood of entrenched fuel poverty. Importantly, households will also be able to comply with the UK government’s target of Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050.  

Fully trained and qualified energy advisors will provide free, professional, confidential and impartial advice to over 5,000 vulnerable households on EPC ratings, suitable green technology options and how to access and implement these.  

Advice provision will incorporate home visits to conduct EPC assessments alongside help to apply to green technology grant schemes for home improvements. As North Yorkshire is predominantly rural, the project’s Community Champions will ensure they can raise awareness about green technologies and EPC ratings in all parts of the county with an outreach van and bus.  

If required, households will be directed into North Yorkshire Citizens Advice and Law Centre’s other advice services for specialist support, for example around housing, debt or consumer goods.       

The project aims to increase community understanding and confidence in carbon reduction technologies, and trial an energy service model which will enable local people, particularly those on lower incomes, to have greater access to affordable renewable energy services.

To achieve this, they will expand their evolving information service into a centre of trusted independent advice and support on domestic energy matters, sustainable energy technologies, solutions and services, accessible to all in the community.  They will also continue to build relationships with local installers and work with them to develop their projects and build community trust. 

As well as identifying and developing a replicable energy service model that will provide affordable locally produced renewable energy for all in the community, and piloting solar PV and storage as an energy service, ahead of a more comprehensive energy service model. They will own and operate the systems, roof owners will get electricity at a discounted rate and Transition Bro Gwaun will use the income towards their objective of creating a self-funding solar PV installation cycle.

The project will provide support to tenants, factored owners and service users of Cassiltoun Housing, Stables Nursery and Cassiltoun’s community groups, who struggle to heat their homes.

An energy advisor will work directly with households on low incomes, and those vulnerable to fuel poverty and fuel debt, to reduce expenditure on household energy by providing information to help them understand their bills, access affordable tariffs, and encourage behavioral changes. The energy advisor will also work closely with an existing money advice team to ensure household income is maximised, by supporting householders to identify and apply for benefits, suitable grants and other financial support to assist with fuel usage and debts.

The project builds on four years of partnership working between Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS), People Powered Retrofit, Cumbrian community groups and local vetted installers, to make home energy improvements more accessible and less daunting for households.

Working with volunteer sustainability groups, they will continue to engage local people at Solar Made Easy events around the county. At these events, local vetted partner installers answer questions about solar PV systems, and CAfS then facilitate quotes and support households through to installation. Alongside this, the project will launch ‘Heat Pumps Made Easy’ using the same replicable delivery model, adding expert energy modelling to assess whether people’s homes are heat pump ready.

Their partnership working with sustainability groups also extends into delivering free thermal imaging surveys in their local communities. The project will continue to train and support volunteers to use thermal imaging to raise awareness of where homes are leaking heat, and to advise households how CAfS can support them to address it. This support starts with home energy modelling, continues through design and specification stages and ends with support during installation.

To help more people overcome the barriers to retrofit, the project will also deliver a number of webinars about home energy and renewables plus a series of ‘pop-up’ home energy advice sessions around the county. 

The project aims to address loneliness, improve energy awareness and tackle fuel poverty for vulnerable households in North Shropshire.

According to National Energy Action, in North Shropshire, 9,300 households (19.3%) live in fuel poverty.  The national average being 13.06%.  Through this project, they aim to improve that statistic by helping households out of fuel poverty and equipping them with the skills and knowledge to become more energy conscious. 

The project will recruit and train Energy Champions, who will provide energy advice to vulnerable households and encourage greater participation in community activities at their community hub in Oswestry, to reduce time spent alone and in social isolation. Alongside energy advice, they will also offer winter warmth packs to those in crisis situations.

The project aims to support vulnerable people in the community, to keep their properties warm and their bills under control. The project will work closely with a network of over fifteen community based organisations who provide support to vulnerable people. 

As part of the project, an advisor will visit these community based organisations to offer advice and support to people, as well as upskill volunteers and staff so they can provide support. Advice will include information to help people understand their bills, energy usage, and actions to reduce day to day costs. During their community outreach, the advisor will also demonstrate home improvement items, such as radiator heat-keepers and LED lightbulbs, and distribute small measures tailored to people's needs. Where people are too vulnerable or not equipped with the skills to install the small measures, they will offer home visits to ensure items are installed safely and correctly.

Telephone support will also be offered to particularly vulnerable households, for support with resolving energy bill problems and accessing additional support services.

OVESCO is developing the Ouse Valley Solar Farm (OVSF) a 17MW ground mounted solar project North of Lewes in East Sussex. The solar farm has planning permission, a land agreement and a grid connection offer. Funding from the scheme, will enable the project to meet the planning pre-conditions and other costs associated with preconstruction.

The solar farm is expected to generate an annual community benefit fund of £50,000, which would provide energy advice to the local community. A significant part of the project is expected to be community funded by local investors keeping the returns from their investment in the local community. The Biodiversity Net Gain assessment shows that the project will bring a 230% increase in biodiversity along with a saving of 6,800 tonnes of CO2 pa. 

The solar farm will add to local energy security, make a significant contribution to achieving the carbon reduction targets of the Lewes District, and the UK, as well as provide a long-term annual fund for the benefit of the community.