30 May 2008 – Help with fuel bills for the poorest consumers

A raft of new Government measures to help vulnerable consumers and especially the elderly make their homes warmer and more energy efficient are announced today.

Measures that are designed to help with bills and ensure consumers are on the best value tariff include:

• Seek changes in the law to allow data-sharing with energy suppliers; and
• A pilot scheme to ensure people applying for Warm Front grants are referred to their energy supplier for tariff advice so that they can make maximum savings. The pilot will be trialled by 3,000 households;
• £150,000 to fund a roll out of Ofgem’s national Citizens Advice Bureau awareness campaign on social assistance for the vulnerable.

Measures to help improve energy efficiency in the long term which can cut bills include:

• £3 million as part of a pilot project within the low carbon buildings programme (LCBP) to introduce fuel saving microgeneration to fuel poor communities
• The publication of the results of the heat call for evidence. The call for evidence will help the Government develop a heat strategy and measures to reduce demand for heat. This will help reduce heating bills in fuel poor communities. There will be a formal consultation on the Heat Strategy in Autumn.

The initiatives come after Ofgem’s fuel poverty summit last month where attendees called for better energy efficiency in homes and advances in data sharing.

The Government measures aim to assist poorer consumers to cut bills for the long term by improving energy efficiency and helping those who need the help most to be easily identified.

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said:

“We’ve got a commitment from the energy companies now to provide an extra £225 million in social assistance by increasing their investment to £150 million per year by 2011.  Now we’re working on finding ways to get them the right information to enable them to get that money to those who need it the most. That’s what’s most important right now – making sure the most vulnerable, the elderly, the disabled and young families aren’t cold in their own homes because they can’t pay their bills.”

“In the light of rising energy prices and the increasing global demand for energy we have to think long term and carefully and provide sustainable solutions to those most likely to need help. As well as measures to improve the incomes of the vulnerable, a key part of this must be energy efficiency which will help bring people’s bills down in the future and keep their homes warm. It means using schemes such as the LCBP to ensure the fuel poor can benefit from the lower bills that modern technology can bring.”

Environment Minister Phil Woolas said:

“Household bills are rising and purse strings are tightening. Encouraging energy efficiency is crucial because it really does cut costs – especially for those who can least afford energy price hikes.”

“These new measures will make homes across the country more energy efficient and give people at risk of fuel poverty a boost where they need it most.  Fuel poverty isn’t just a winter issue – it’s about working all year round to improve the homes of some of the most vulnerable people in this country, and that’s something the Government is determined to do.”

Minister for Pensions Reform Mike O’Brien said:

“I am today making it clear that we are willing to seek changes in the law to allow data-sharing with energy suppliers. But they must promise to use that data securely. Our shared goal is to reduce the bills of vulnerable pensioners. This is how we can work together to keep tackling pensioner poverty.

"Grants for home heating and insulation are already available to older people receiving Pension Credit. But we want to do more to ensure that the oldest and most vulnerable in society are receiving all the help available to them. Today's announcement is an important step towards that goal." 

Notes to editors

Malcolm Wicks will be visiting Mrs Harriet Popham in South London who has received a Warm Front grant to install a new heating system in her home. Images and pooled footage will be available. Mrs Popham received the 100 000th Warm Front grant within the London area to install new heaters in her home.

Mrs Popham said: “My new heaters have made a huge difference to the warmth and comfort of the home. As well as being far more efficient than the older system, the controls are much easier to use and they have a great slimline look.”

Notes on the different measures:

• The Warm Front Pilot

eaga, the Warm Front scheme manager, will contact a sample of 3,000 customers about the benefits of being on the most appropriate tariff and offer to transfer a customer to their supplier for more advice and help. The referred customer’s energy supplier will check to ensure that they are on the best tariff given their circumstances, which may be the suppliers’ social tariff, and will offer any other appropriate help. 

This means that Warm Front will be tackling all 3 factors associated with fuel poverty; energy efficiency, low incomes and fuel prices. 

It is planned that a full evaluation of the pilot will be carried out and the findings considered in respect of any further roll out later in the year. 

• BERR are funding a national roll out of the ‘Energy Best Deal’ campaign that Ofgem and the CAB have been piloting. 

The objective of the project will be to provide training sessions for a wide range of front line advice workers as part of the CAB's financial capability work. The aim of the project will be to raise awareness among low-income consumers of the savings that can be made by switching supplier and/or payment method and help to provide reassurance about the switching process.

• £3 million of the low carbon buildings programme (LCBP) funds directed towards a pilot fuel poverty workstream.

The pilots will be delivered on a regional basis by community interest companies, with revenue funding from regions as well as capital BERR's LCBP. The LCBP householder grants, which traditionally part-fund an installation, have so far benefited the “able to pay”. This will extend the benefits of lower running costs to the fuel poor.The projects would be delivered to deprived communities drawn from across the pilot regions.

This work will build on experience from demonstration programmes currently being co-funded by BERR, OneNorthEast and Yorkshire Forward, which have shown that this community-based approach, delivered within regions, can lever significant additional funding, maximise number of installations and drive down costs of technologies and installations. Delivery bodies will also be able to work up gas projects and larger scale energy efficiency programmes along the lines of the Domestic Energy Solutions project in the North-East

• The Heat Call for Evidence concluded on 31 March.

Results are currently being examined and will provide input to Government's  forthcoming consultation on its Renewables Strategy and, later in the year, on its Heat Strategy. Results of the Heat Call for Evidence can be found at: http://heatevidence.dialoguebydesign.net/

We plan to consult in the Autumn on our Heat Strategy which will focus on potential low-carbon solutions to decarbonising heating and cooling. The Heat Strategy will be published in the Spring of 2009 alongside the Government's Renewables Strategy.

• The Department for Work and Pensions is proposing to introduce an amendment to the Pensions Bill to allow data to be shared with energy suppliers with appropriate safeguards to help them identify customers who are at risk of fuel poverty.

Delivery of Warm Front

The delivery of the Warm Front Scheme, the cornerstone of the Government's target to tackle fuel poverty by installing energy efficiency measures in the homes of vulnerable consumers, is managed across England by eaga plc.  eaga plc also works with devolved nation governments in Northern Ireland and Wales to deliver similar schemes.

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