East Durham residents facing fuel poverty are offered renewable energy lifeline
Energy advisors at the East Durham Trust are hoping to help hard-pressed households make the most of grants and support as bills rise on the back of the Iran war.
The area’s long-term economic deprivation and social challenges mean large numbers of people suffer from fuel poverty and that number will only increase should oil and gas prices continue heading upwards.
But staff at the East Durham Trust are hoping ambitious renewable energy and insulation offers from the Government, with up to £15 billion now made available for housing upgrades, will help ease the problem for many.
Eleanor Norton, programme co-ordinator for Energising East Durham at the trust, said: “There’s potential help and support for people out there - whether they’re struggling with fuel poverty or not - and we want to make sure everyone who qualifies in East Durham gets the help that might be available to them.
“We’ve had the Eco 4 scheme, there’s the boiler upgrade scheme and others but there’s now also the Warm Homes Plan where the Government has pledged £15billion, the biggest amount of money they have ever put into housing upgrades in Britain, to help reduce bills and grow energy.
“We want people locally to be able to take advantage of that if they can, because it’s money and support that’s there for them.
“To give just one example, there’s the Warm Homes Local Grant, where, if your home is on an EPC D rating or lower and you have an income threshold of less than £36,000, you can be eligible to apply for solar panels, insulation and other renewable measures that can improve your building’s energy efficiency and lower your bills as well.
“It would mean your house is suitable to live in for longer, it would reduce your energy bills as well, so you'd actually be spending less money on gas and electricity.
“And if you had some of the renewable technologies like air source heat pumps and solar panels, then you would be less reliant on gas and electric which is more unstable because of global politics.
“We've seen massive increases in the cost of gas and electric and the prices people are paying, so if you’re less reliant on those, and you're more reliant on the air source heat pump and solar panels, you don't have to worry so much about what your energy bill is going to be every month.”
The trust, which serves Peterlee and Seaham as well as 27 villages in East Durham, hopes that more and more people locally will seek it out for energy advice and support.
Anne-Marie Hughes, a community energy advisor for the trust, is aware of the scale of the need locally.
She said: “I go out to people's homes, or meet them in the community, to find out whether I can support them in making their homes warmer or more efficient, or to reduce their bills - anything I can do to help with their home energy.
It’s a massive, massive need in this area.
“It's historically a deprived area.
“There are a lot of people who are very low income, and there's a lot of energy debt, and there are also quite a few poor quality houses, draughty, uninsulated homes that are not heated very well, or old heating systems, that kind of thing.
“I start from where they are, and then, having had that discussion, I can do an assessment of the property, so if they have a concern - if the rooms are particularly cold or a door is really draughty, or something like that, then I can look at ways to deal with that.
“I can look at ways to cut those bills down a little bit, be that improving the tariff or changing the energy supplier, or by looking at what kind of schemes and grants are available that can help them.
“Retrofitting, for example, improving insulation, improving some of the fabric of the building - it all goes to help reduce the bills.
“Some of the government schemes now offer great ways to help people on low incomes to access things like eco-friendly options that they wouldn't otherwise be able to do.
“There’s a lot of different schemes offering different kinds of upgrades on the property, and for a general member of the public, I think it would be very difficult for them to know what options are out there for them, but that is where we come in.”
Anyone in East Durham seeking advice on tackling the cost of living can visit the trust website here at https://www.eastdurhamtrust.org.uk/cost-of-living-support.html, or visit the Trust Community House, in Yoden Road, Peterlee.
To contact a trust community energy advisor directly, call (0191) 5693511 or go to: https://www.eastdurhamtrust.org.uk/community-energy-advice.html