Despite reducing since the height of the crisis, energy bills are still at record high levels, with no sign of this changing over the next decade. Whilst the previous Government’s energy support package was crucial to support households to deal with skyrocketing bills, a consistent lack of demand reduction policies failed to additionally shield households from the rise in energy prices, particularly the fuel poor. It is therefore welcome that one of the proposed aims of the UK Government’s Warm Homes Plan is to tackle fuel poverty. We are also pleased to see that this consultation document recognises the importance of improving the energy performance of homes in England.
We would firstly underline the need for fuel poor homes to be prioritised for UK Government funding and receive grants that cover the full costs of retrofit which we hope to see in the Warm Homes Plan. Bringing all fuel poor homes to EPC C by 2030 would have significant benefits, including saving households an average of £480 on their annual energy bills.
The UK Government should create a national expert retrofit advice service for England to accelerate the number of fuel poor homes being upgraded, helping to cut energy bills, and making UK Government grant funding go further.
The need for a national advice service in England
The current process for households looking to upgrade their homes is complex and confusing. This leaves people unsure where to find trusted information about what measures are suitable for their property or if they are eligible for financial support through UK Government schemes. Advice services help overcome this barrier by giving people the help they need, tailored to their circumstances and engaging and empowering them to go ahead with changes to their home. The lack of impartial, tailored advice provision is most prevalent in England, with advice services already in place in Scotland, Wales and to some extent in Northern Ireland.
Although there are some pockets of expert local advice and support for households in parts of England and growing specialised one stop shop provision from some combined authorities, overall existing provision is patchy and variable. This means, at present, that advice provision in England is not sufficient to drive the necessary pace and scale of retrofit to meet the Warm Homes Plan’s proposed ambition to reduce fuel poverty. England needs a national expert energy advice service which delivers consistent outcomes across the country, works alongside and enhances existing local services and fills in significant gaps to end the advice postcode lottery in England.
From our experience delivering Home Energy Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, we know that tailored advice is a key driver of the high uptake of energy efficiency measures and low carbon technologies in Scotland when compared to the rest of the UK. Each year, the network helps more than 130,000 customers; in 2022-23, 42% of people who used the service, installed at least one energy efficiency, low carbon heat or renewable energy improvement after receiving advice, with 42% more planning to do so within 12 months. The advice is delivered online, by phone and in person, helping to overcome the behavioural and financial barriers.
A national advice service in England would deliver the following outcomes to benefit fuel poor households:
- Advice would help deploy UK Government money much more efficiently by increasing direct referrals to fuel poverty schemes, enabling the take up of fully funded measures for eligible fuel poor homes (such as through the Energy Company Obligation and the more recently announced Warm Homes: Local Grant scheme). At present, the Committee on Fuel Poverty estimate that only 10-30% of ECO is spent on fuel poor homes and a significant proportion is spent on lead generation.
- A national advice service would also ensure that people can access post-installation advice. This is particularly important for households in fuel poverty who may need more support if they don’t understand how to effectively operate their new heating system or what behaviour changes they need to make. A lack of knowledge of how to operate the system properly could lead to an increase in their bills or the household not using the system altogether.
In Scotland, Home Energy Scotland is the only way for people to access Scotland’s national fuel poverty programme “Warmer Homes Scotland.” This ensures that all applicants have received energy saving advice and can be re-contacted by Home Energy Scotland after any insulation or heating has been installed to give advice to ensure that people are able to use their heating systems efficiently. Inefficient use of heating systems can lead to using more fuel than needed to heat a home to a given temperature. Research shows that few people really understand their controls and many simply just don’t use them.
Such advice is important not only when people have new heating systems installed but also when insulation is installed as it is important to adjust heating controls to reflect improved insulation – and such adjustments can help optimise energy use and maintain comfort in the home.
- An advice service would also ensure that households who are very vulnerable are able to improve their homes to bring down their bills. In Scotland, Home Energy Scotland Energycarers are specialist energy advisors who provide an enhanced level of handholding, advocacy and support, delivered through home visits or remotely, for very vulnerable households to help them achieve affordable warmth. The service is available to those with issues relating to physical or mental health, disability, family circumstances, low income and expensive heating. These audiences are more likely to be in fuel poverty and struggle to use the freephone service, website or email advice.
To ensure that clients receive a high-quality service with a “whole house” approach, Energycarers have specific training for the energy efficiency assessment of properties, to enable them to model the impact of different measures on the comfort and affordability of the home heating. In some cases where the household cannot afford to heat the home to a ‘standard’ heating pattern, Energycarers focus on solutions to keep the main living space and person warm, rather than the entire home. As part of enabling affordable warmth for these households, support includes helping them to deal with structural dampness, condensation and disrepair, including seeking funding for repair and improvement work, advice and support on dealing with fuel supplier issues and contacting and engaging other support agencies.
Home Energy Scotland works with local energy advice organisations, rather than displacing them, so it will always look to access support through local partner organisations before arranging a home visit. If no partner can help and a visit would be helpful, an Energycarer visits the householder, sometimes with a relative or carer present, to look at how their home uses energy and see what could be improved.