Energy Solutions Ltd
Reaching more people in fuel poverty and learning more about the energy performance of their homes
The Trustees agreed funding for this project in December 2010 for a period of 1 year from January 2011.
Energy Solutions has provided effective and innovative fuel poverty services for 12 years, principally within the London boroughs of Brent and Harrow. In addition to its pioneering Home Visit service for vulnerable clients – the first in London – Energy Solutions has written the Brent Fuel Poverty Strategy and is responsible for its implementation.
There is however a serious lack of hard data about the actual incidence of fuel poverty in North West London which makes it difficult to assess progress on addressing any Fuel Poverty Strategy.
With funding from the Ebico Trust, Energy Solutions is running a 12-month project to increase the level of data available about fuel poverty in Brent specifically, in parallel with its ongoing work of taking people out of fuel poverty and resolving their fuel debt issues. There will be 2 strands to the project:
1. Reaching more residents likely to be fuel poor through collaborative events with various community based organisations, including:
- The Harness GP Co-operative, a social enterprise made up of 14 General Practices in Brent and Harrow, with which Energy Solutions has already run a successful winter heating campaign.
- Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, which has asked Energy Solutions to run fuel poverty clinics to make the connection between fuel poverty and health issues, particularly bronchial problems.
- The 15 Surestart Children’s Centres in Brent.
2. Improving data availability about the properties of people in fuel poverty, through carrying out RdSAP assessments and thermal imaging of all homes visited and maintaining a comprehensive database of all Energy Solutions clients and their homes.
Finally we plan to make use of Brent Council’s GIS department to provide mapping of the incidence of fuel poverty which can be overlaid on to other social and property related data.
All this will give a clearer picture of the incidence of fuel poverty within a particular geographical area, which could be applied anywhere in the UK. It will also provide a clearer analysis of the relationship between property size/condition and household income in determining fuel poverty.
See Energy Solutions interim report here
