 In winter 2024, energy prices are still 50% higher than pre-crisis levels and people are struggling. The impact of January’s energy price cap means that 6.1 million UK households will be in fuel poverty by early 2025. This Fuel Poverty Awareness Day, we wanted to take a closer look at what fuel poverty action means to us and how we're helping people in south west London stay warm, safe and healthy in their homes. Fuel poverty in south west LondonLondon is such a place of contrasts. While it may be the financial capital, home to businesses such as Google, it is also home to some of the most disadvantaged people in the country who need our support. If we zoom in even further, our home of the London Borough of Wandsworth contains some key ‘hotspots’ of deprivation, a high percentage of ‘off gas grid’ homes, and the lowest percentage of energy efficiency measures installed under the ECO scheme due to hard-to-heat homes. South London as a whole also has a very high percentage of people living in rented accommodation: 36.3% private rented and 19.3% social rented. The most recent fuel poverty data highlights that in Wandsworth there are at least 13,521 households in fuel poverty, in Richmond upon Thames 8,271, in Merton 9,936 and in Kingston upon Thames 7,174. This data doesn’t take into consideration the doubling of energy costs, which risk tipping yet more households into this category. Through free one-to-one energy advice sessions and home energy visits with our advisors, we are providing a targeted service to address these elevated needs in hotspots within our borough and get support where it is needed most. How our energy advice service worksWe partnered with Richmond-based Habitats and Heritage in 2023 to create SWLEAP (South West London Energy Advice Partnership). This is an extensive service, delivering advice to vulnerable consumers through:
Households can get support with increasing home energy efficiency, increasing household incomes, addressing financial debts and accessing energy safeguarding services such as the Priority Services Register. When the SWLEAP team identifies a household unable to pay their energy bills, we’re also able to provide crisis support in the form of emergency fuel vouchers. Free energy home visits identify opportunities to increase energy efficiency via small measures. We can provide free energy saving equipment, such as radiator reflectors (which we fit there and them) and will lend households some equipment such as smart radiator valves. How visits also allow more time to assess bills in more detail and apply for relevant grants and discount schemes. Our impactIn winter 23/24, we provided 342 energy interventions, delivered 3,356 ‘warm packs’, conducted 314 home energy visits and 135 telephone advice calls, saving households a combined total of £173k and 189 tonnes CO2 per annum. This year has been bolstered and improved to match the rising levels of energy debt across London. For this round of our SGN funding, we are targeting 1500 interventions, 500 home energy visits, 500 1:1s and 500 calls each year for two years. This year, we have also received funding from UK Power Networks to launch the service in Hackney - their first fuel poverty programme. Similarly to our South London programme, we will be working closely with local community organisations in the area to deliver this support. This will target 1,000 interventions and 90 home visits. Funding is likely to be extended for another 3 years. This winter, we've also received funding from Wandsworth and Richmond Councils to distribute warm home packs across both boroughs - 300+ to date. We'll be delivering a further 1,000 warm packs to social housing residents, as well as providing deeper interventions in 400 households. This includes providing further energy gadgets, such as free electric blankets, infrared heaters, dehumidifiers and secondary glazing. Read more about this in our warm home pack blog post. This vital work has already made a difference to the lives of people suffering from fuel poverty. You can read case studies here. Our innovative approach to challengesIn recent years, when conducting our home energy visits, we have seen an increasing number of properties in a poorer state than their current EPC suggests. Damp is rife in many of these homes, reflecting cold bridging from inadequate insulation, but the EPC has assumed that a cavity has been filled. In some instances the team are noting that the loft insulation is not at the standard expected (50mm instead of 270mm). There are also cases where the windows are assumed to be double, or triple glazed. However, upon inspection, they are not. As these homes are not at the standard that the EPC suggests, the household is not eligible for the energy efficiency measures (ECO4 / Warmer Homes Scheme) that would help make their home less cold and damp. We have introduced a new service to reassess these ratings to help households access energy efficiency schemes. Energy advice for allOur support is also inclusive by design - irrespective of literacy, neurodiversity or intensity of support required. We have experience in supporting clients with complex needs and will dedicate the time to provide ongoing support, depending on the given intervention. Runnymede Trust research suggests that just under a third (32%) of White people were likely to experience fuel poverty this winter compared to more than half (52%) of Black and minoritised ethnic groups (rising to two thirds of Pakistani and Bangladeshi people). To ensure that support reaches underrepresented groups and that culture and language are not a barrier, this year, our partnership will be delivering energy cafés and advice sessions at local community events with local charities providing support to the Muslim and Afro-Caribbean community, and local Gujarati centres, plus English as an Additional Language groups. Advice is available in different languages via translation services. Our team is also currently proficient in Urdu, Punjabi, French, Italian, Spanish, Slovenian, Czech and Slovak. Sharing learning, knowledge and expertiseCREW has provided mentoring to services to nascent community groups, including energy adviser training to Transition Town Ilford, Transition Town Kingston and Croydon Community Energy. This support will help them establish their own energy advice services within their communities so that we can continue to tackle fuel poverty together.
To find out more about our energy advice service, contact [email protected].
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