NEA established its regional office presence in 2004. The Regional Co-ordinator works out of NEA’s national office in
Key regional partnerships:
- NEA is represented on the Sustainable Energy Network Stakeholder Group, which has as its objective the implementation of the Energy White Paper in the region.
- NEA is represented on the Energy Leadership Council which provides strategic guidance and advice to facilitate the development of the Energy Industries in the North East
- NEA is also on the board of Tees and Durham Energy Agency (TADEA), which manages the Energy Saving Trust Sustainable Energy Network in the region.
- NEA is a member of the Carbon Action Network North East (CAN-NE) and is taking forward the promotion of the North East Fuel Poverty Declaration on its behalf with regional agencies.
- A Public Health and Fuel Poverty subgroup was established as a result of the research report Alleviating fuel poverty in order to improve health in the North East. The subgroup is chaired by Public Health Intelligence North East and an action plan is in place to assist with the implementation of fuel poverty aims in the North East Health and Well Being Strategy Better Health Fairer Health. It feeds back to the Regional Advisory Groups - Theme 1: Economy, Culture and Environment and Theme 9: Later life: The North East will be the safest, healthiest and happiest place to grow old.
- The North East Public Health Observatory has developed a dashboard to illustrate the incidence of fuel poverty and Excess Winter Deaths down to North East local authority level, visit http://new.nepho.org.uk/dashboard/ for more information.
- NEA is a member of the Financial Inclusion Capability Network (FINCAN) in the North East, which operates a subgroup that addresses fuel poverty in relation to the economy in the region.
- Other key partnerships include the North East Biomass Forum, Voluntary Organisations Network NE, Northumberland Renewable Energy Group, County Durham Climate Change Strategy Group, Local Authority Affordable Warmth Strategy steering groups and other networks such as the Warm Zone groups, the Teesdale Partnership and Hotspots steering groups.
Current work programme:
In accordance with NEA's business plan, NEA continues to expand its work in the region by:
- Increasing NEA’s involvement at the regional level to promote implementation of the Government's Fuel Poverty Strategy
- Further development of Affordable Warmth Strategies with local authorities, assisting those with strategies to implement, monitor and review them and helping authorities to move towards the establishment of Warm Zones
- Expansion of consultancy services for local authorities, housing providers and other organisations
- Promotion of energy champions within Primary Care Trusts and community and voluntary organisations
- Establishment of skills centres
- Further developing technical projects
- Continuing a proactive regional fuel poverty forum
Practical projects:
NEA is currently taking forward a number of different development projects including:
- Affordable warmth development support for Children's Trusts including Gateshead, Redcar and
- Calor Future of Rural Energy in
- Continuing Professional Development for children and young peoples’ professionals – North of Tyne, South of Tyne and
- Easington Energy Performance Certificate initiative
- East End of
- Fuel poverty action plan and strategy development including
- North East Fuel Poverty Declaration
- Performing Energy Efficiency in Schools (PEEPS), specifically for schools in Northumberland and Tyne & Wear with sessions incorporating different learning styles, drama and discussion, and role play
- Resourcing Family Learning on Accessible Terms (REFLOAT) - an educational activity designed to work in fuel-poor Local Education Authority areas to develop resources with children and parents
- Riverside Dene community well-being project in
- Warmer Homes Better Health training for front-line health professionals in the 4 PCT cluster areas of the region – North of Tyne, South of Tyne, Durham and Darlington and Tees Valley
- Wansbeck '
Technical projects
- Assessing biomass technologies
- Air-source heat pump monitoring project in Blyth, Northumberland
- Code for sustainable homes retrofit project in Guide Post, Northumberland
- Energy audits of community buildings including Brafferton Village Hall, Darlington and Stillington Village Hall,
- South Tyneside Homes – monitoring social aspects of low carbon technologies
- Sustainable schools projects
- Riverside Dene biomass district heating scheme
- Technical advice line
- Warm Front community biomass feasibility project
- Warm Front solar thermal trials
Policy development:
The Regional Co-ordinator has provided recent input into the following key documents:
- The Integrated Regional Framework for the North East of
- North East of
- Better Health, Fairer Health: A strategy for 21st Century Health and Well-Being in the North East
- The regional Financial Inclusion Strategy
- NEA considers the Regional Housing Strategy 'Quality places for a dynamic region' (July 2007) to contain a strong current commitment to achieve affordable warmth in the region.
- With imminent changes expected in the region, NEA’s NE Regional Coordinator is closely following policy developments and hopes to continue to raise the profile of fuel poverty issues
Affordable warmth consultancy
Building on previous work across the region affordable warmth consultancy work is currently being taken forward with a consortia of partners in both Northumberland and
Regional policy matrix
NEA maintains a regional policy matrix for the nine regions in
Regional fuel poverty briefing
NEA has produced a bi-annual regional fuel poverty briefing which aims to highlight the extent of fuel poverty in
Forthcoming Events:
North East Fuel Poverty Forum
NEA holds regional Fuel Poverty Forums three times per year throughout
- Examine policy and practical initiatives related to fuel poverty and delivering energy efficiency solutions at a local, regional, and national level
- Showcase innovation and best practice
- Promote dialogue and discussion on a wide range of sectoral issues
- Help NEA shape policy developments and campaigns
See NEA’s Events Diary for forthcoming meetings or contact NEA’s Regional Co-ordinator for details.
'Spotlight on fuel poverty' seminars
The seminars explore opportunities for regional agencies to take a leading role in addressing the fuel poverty challenge via future integrated strategies. They bring together senior policy makers with representatives from organisations working on the ground to deliver solutions to fuel poverty and will be targeted at representatives from local authorities, community and voluntary sector organisations, the business sector, health sector, regional development agencies, and regional agencies/groups with an interest in energy efficiency and fuel poverty. See NEA’s Events Diary or contact NEA’s Regional Co-ordinator for details.
Contact Details:
For more information on NEA’s current activities or advice on consultancy or partnership development projects in the North East please contact