Current and Recent Projects and Campaigns

NEA deliver a range of projects and campaigns through the UK to raise awareness of fuel poverty, to encourage the fuel poor and the vulnerable to seek help and to test new solutions to combat the issue. Below are a few examples of recent projects and campaigns.

SMILE Project (Supporting More Independent Living Everywhere)

The project aims to ensure that Sure Start staff working with vulnerable families are able to communicate effectively on energy efficiency issues, and to raise awareness and understanding of the impact of poor housing conditions on the health of young children.

This project has three key objectives:

To deliver 40 training sessions to Sure Start staff and other relevant local people, including parents and grandparents;
To administer a hardship fund to needy low-income families with children who are not eligible for Warm Front or CERT grants and who may need assistance to pay off small debts or with costs towards energy saving measures and household appliances. Each of the 40 training sessions has £250 ring-fenced of a £10,000 hardship fund held by NEA. Sure Start Team each contact NEA when they wish to claim their ring-fenced funds for client they feel are in need of additional support. NEA issue Sure Start Team Leaders with assessment criteria for the fund following the delivery of each training session;
To undertake local profiling in each Sure Start area to ensure that the training provided is specific, tailored and relevant, and to establish effective referral mechanisms for further advice and support for families struggling to pay their fuel bills.

Funded by The ScottishPower Energy People Trust

To view the final SMILE report click here

For more details of NEA training click here

HEAT Project (Home Energy Advice Team)

A project is underway in NEA's Coventry office which delivers the following activities specifically for families with young children, ethnic minority households and older people.

Personal home energy advice visits
Home energy advice surgeries
Telephone advice
Presentations to local organisations and community groups that provide support for parents with young children, ethnic minority and older households

The office provide advice, advocacy and support around all aspects of money advice, but the project's uniqueness lies in that it delivers bespoke telephone advice along with face-to-face advice in the client's home in a holistic way to help deliver a solution to multiple problems faced by the client. Fuel debt is caused by a number of factors (e.g. poor energy efficiency in the property, low income, poor knowledge about financial systems), and this project delivers solutions to all of these. Other money advisers in the Coventry area are not trained to provide energy advice - while they may enable a client to arrange to pay off a high fuel bill, they cannot give advice which prevents its recurrence. Fuel debt cases are complex, and many households only seek support when the situation is desperate.

Currently funded by The ScottishPower Energy People Trust, The Lloyds TSB Foundation and Coventry City Council

Lowick Sunday School Project

In March 2007, NEA began to deliver a renewable technology demonstration project at Lowick Community Hall in Cumbria (previously known as Lowick Sunday School Rooms). The project aimed to raise the profile of renewable energy in a remote area of rural Cumbria and to lower the carbon emissions and fuel bills of the building. The objectives of the project were to:

install a renewable technology heating system, comprising of a 12kW air source heat pump, fan convectors and a programmable room thermostat into Lowick Community Hall
Appoint an energy champion at the hall who continues to act as a point of contact for members of the local community who may have queries on energy efficiency and sustainability issues
Deliver an awareness raising coffee morning for the local community to encourage them to ‘think green' in their own homes by becoming more energy efficient and raise awareness of new technologies available

Funded by ScottishPower

The Heat is On DVD (Versions 1 & 2)

In 2005/06 NEA produced an energy efficiency DVD in 15 different languages. This interactive DVD was designed to promote energy efficiency and affordable warmth. It encourages householders to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes and also think about how they use and save energy. The DVD was produced ‘copyright-free' to encourage cost effective duplication of the resource. A second version of the DVD has recently been developed and now features a total of 31 languages.

To watch the DVD click here

Funded by npower Health Through Warmth

Assisting Disabled Householders in the East Midlands Project

Disabled householders are considered to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of fuel poverty. However, the experience of NEA's project activity has been that many disabled householders find it difficult to access the assistance which is available to them and for which they are eligible.

Since 2006, NEA has worked in close partnership with Defra, Eaga, Ofgem, the Energy Retail Association and a range of disability organisations to establish an Access to Energy Efficiency Advisory Forum. The Forum has facilitated a dialogue between grant providers and disabled people through focus groups, customer surveys and ‘mystery shopper' exercises. The work of the Forum has been very successful in identifying some of the barriers which disabled people face in trying to access assistance. The Forum has made several recommendations for changes to the marketing and delivery of Warm Front and other grant schemes which would make them more accessible to disabled householders.

Building on this, NEA has been developing the ‘Assisting Disabled Householders in the East Midlands' project during 2008-09 which will develop a pilot approach for working with selected disability organisations in the East Midlands. By working with local disability groups, NEA will be in a position to generate referrals for assistance at the same time as raising awareness of the availability of such schemes among staff and services users of disability organisations.

Funded by E.ON UK

REECH Project (Realising Energy Efficient Communities and Homes)

REECH - Realising Energy Efficient Communities and Homes - was created to help ethnic minority communities tackle the misery of cold, damp homes. It aimed to help members of ethnic minority communities overcome the barriers which can prevent them from heating their homes affordably.

The project ran in London, Birmingham, Bradford, Rochdale and Oldham, where dozens of community groups were shown how to reduce fuel bills for their members and advised on ways of staying warm and healthy at home.

The REECH project connected ethnic minority groups to energy efficiency advice, information and services, including:

Tailored energy awareness training for community workers, enabling them to offer own-language advice to households
Access to energy efficiency home improvement grants
Access to REECH network and support for energy efficiency programmes
Regularly updated energy efficiency promotional material
Establishment of key energy contacts in their areas and nationally
Access to free low energy lightbulbs
Publication of a newsletter advising on latest developments, ideas for action and competitions

Funded by British Gas

Warm Homes Campaign and Award Scheme

The Warm Homes Campaign is NEA and Energy Action Scotland's annual fuel poverty campaign, aiming to raise awareness amongst politicians and members of the public of the problem of fuel poverty and the various schemes and policy initiatives that are available to help those struggling to heat their homes.

The campaign involves MPs, AMs, MSPs & MLA visiting the home of a constituent who have benefited from an energy efficiency grant such as Warm Front or HEES, or attending a promotional event to raise awareness of the issue of fuel poverty.

The Warm Homes Campaign Award Scheme assists not-for-profit organisations, local authorities and community groups to organise campaign event across the UK to promote the work they are doing to tackle fuel poverty and/or to help local people achieve affordable warmth? A £500 prize is awarded to the winning organisations to help them organise a campaign event.

The 2008 campaign is funded by Defra and eaga.

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