Critical factors for the Adoption of Smart Homes for Energy Efficiency

This policy briefing highlights the positive steps that can be taken now by the UK Government and energy regulator Ofgem to respond to the current energy crisis and support vulnerable energy customers this winter. It is hoped that this will prompt policy interventions in advance of Ofgem announcing in February the next revision to the energy price cap.

This year’s UKFPM identifies the opportunities associated with decarbonising heat for fuel poor households; the barriers they face in doing so; the likely risks of the decarbonisation agenda for them; and which policy developments and interventions are required to ensure that the decarbonisation of domestic heating can be fair and affordable.

NEA’s response to the BEIS Consultation on hydrogen heating trials. NEA welcomes the plans to deliver a hydrogen village trial by 2025. In this response, NEA sets out the key issues that will need to be considered to ensure fuel poor and vulnerable households can benefit from the trial and are adequately protected from any potentially negative outcomes.

Our Budget and CSR submissions recommend ways to support struggling households to keep warm this winter at a time when energy prices are increasing, incomes are reducing, and there are other financial pressures on households like rising inflation. It also recommends longer term actions to end fuel poverty through increased spending on energy efficiency and making the uplift to Universal Credit permanent.

NEA welcomes the extension and expansion of the ECO scheme until at least April 2026 and fully supports the consultation’s continued, critical focus on low-income and vulnerable households and greater support for deeper retrofits for the least energy efficient homes.

This research study has been completed with the support of Smart Energy GB to evaluate the potential benefits of smart prepayment, investigate remaining barriers that are preventing further uptake and consider a range of potential interventions to maximise the rollout of smart prepayment in the remaining years of the rollout.

This year’s UK Fuel Poverty Monitor (UKFPM) reviews the events that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they have impacted vulnerable energy consumers and the organisations that look to support them, cataloguing the response to this challenge from these organisations. It concludes with an investigation of the policies, strategies and other key actions that are urgently needed to address the impact of the pandemic this winter and beyond.

This year, the focus of the Monitor is on progress in delivering existing fuel poverty strategies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.