Since 1970, the 22nd of April each year is Earth Day. As an environmental charity, it offers us a chance to reflect on our actions that help to mitigate the impact of climate change, through the reduction of household carbon emissions across Cheshire & Merseyside.

In a typical year, we support approximately 9,000 households to reduce their energy bills by around £1m, with an associated reduction in carbon emissions of about 1,000tCO₂ (being lifetime tonnes of carbon dioxide).

Many people won’t necessarily realise it, but every time you save yourself £1 off your energy bills, by remembering to switch off a light, or not overfilling your kettle, you’re also helping reduce your carbon footprint.

Just some of the ways you can reduce your carbon footprint at home are:

• Switching to a 100% renewable energy electricity tariff
• Mains gas is unlikely to ever become fully renewable, so can you swap from gas cooking to electric?
• Similarly, might you be one of the households to take advantage of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, to swap out a gas boiler with a Heat Pump?
• Consider your commute too – is walking/cycling/public transport a viable option to help you offset some petrol/diesel miles?
• Adopting smarter driving techniques for when you do need to drive, and/or considering an electric vehicle
• Checking your home’s Energy Performance Certificate to see what recommendations you might want to undertake
• If your Energy Performance Certificate recommends increasing your insulation, upgrading your heating system, or installing solar panels, might you be eligible for support through the Energy Company Obligation?

It’s always a good idea to check your current carbon footprint, to help you see where you might want to make changes, and also so you can measure the impact those changes make. There are many carbon footprint calculators available. Here’s one from WWF that lets you see how your diet, travel, home & leisure/lifestyle impact on your carbon footprint: https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ 

The main theme for Earth Day 2024 is “Planet VS Plastics” – read all about it by clicking on the logo below

ScottishPower Energy Retail Ltd will pay £1.5 million in refunds and compensation after it charged customers above the price cap during the height of the energy crisis.

Ofgem agreed the redress package after the supplier confirmed that between 2015 and 2023, it mistakenly overcharged 1,699 direct debit customers a higher rate, which should only apply to those who pay by standard credit (on receipt of bill).

The average amount overcharged during this period was £149 per customer.

As a result, ScottishPower has paid a total of £250,000 in direct refunds to affected customers, plus another £250,000 in goodwill payments – equating to an average of £294 per customer. All payments were made automatically, and customers do not need to do anything.

ScottishPower has also agreed to pay £1 million to Ofgem’s Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Fund, which benefits charities and community projects that help vulnerable customers with energy-related support.

Dan Norton, Ofgem’s Deputy Director for Price Protection, said: 

“The last few years have been challenging enough for energy customers facing increasing cost of living pressures, without the additional hardship of being overcharged. The price cap is there to protect consumers, and we take seriously any breaches of the safeguards we have put in place. 

“Suppliers must be vigilant and act quickly to resolve billing errors that impact customers. We will continue to closely monitors all suppliers and will hold them to account if they do not meet the standards we set.”

ScottishPower reported itself to the regulator last summer, when it discovered that operational errors had led to direct debit customers being charged the standard credit tariff. 

This overcharge initially began in 2015 and continued across 11 price cap periods to June 2023 – a period when energy prices reached historically high levels, prompting the government to step in and provide additional support. In determining this redress package, Ofgem considered the additional strain and financial hardship that ScottishPower’s error may have caused customers during this time.

While the error is a serious matter, the regulator has taken into account that ScottishPower self-reported the issue and put in place steps to address the failings. Had Scottish Power not self-reported and resolved the issues in a timely manner, the redress package sought would have been considerably higher.

Djamila Serir is one of the Community Energy Advisors working on our Liverpool Affordable Warmth project

Energy Projects Plus delivers the Liverpool Affordable Warmth project, funded by British Gas Energy Trust.

Recognising the need to support people who don’t speak English as a first language, we started to work with Liverpool Arabic Centre to spread the message about energy advice further and support those who are struggling with energy issues.

We now run two sessions a month in partnership with the Arabic Centre – an energy awareness session focusing on damp, mould, condensation and providing some energy saving tips, and a pre-bookable drop-in session where people can benefit from specific advice about their individual situation. We’re also in the process of translating our energy advice materials into Arabic, to support our clients further.

Djamila Serir is one of the Community Energy Advisors working on the project. She speaks Arabic and met with one of the team from the Arabic Centre through referrals to the service before exploring potential partnership opportunities further.

Djamila said:

“Although I speak Arabic, I’ve never had to use the centre – I didn’t even know where it was. We worked together to support some people who were referred to us before we formalised the partnership properly. They support people in every aspect of their lives but told us they were seeing loads of people who had energy issues, so that’s where we were able to step in to provide that specialist support.
For some people, just the idea of people picking up the phone is a barrier, so when they get through and there’s an extra language barrier, it takes time and can be very frustrating. It can take an hour to get through in the first place, and many will eventually be able to translate but it can take extra time. By having a partnership like this, we’re able to support people there and then.

It’s not a one-off thing either, our support lasts. Every person I support, I probably speak to five, six, or seven times. For example, it may start with voucher support for a top up meter, but what happens when that voucher doesn’t work? We’re there to help them every step of the way. We’re building relationships and our support isn’t transactional.”

The charity recently supported a woman who had received an energy bill of more than £2,000. She realised it wasn’t right but didn’t know how to challenge it. With Djamila’s support, it was found that the meter had been read incorrectly and charges should only have been £75.

And on the back of this success, the charity is looking to expand is multi-lingual services further to support other communities in need.

Project Manager Lisa Boothroyd said:

“Within the last couple of years, certainly since the pandemic and with the cost-of-living crisis, we’re seeing a lot of people coming to us with issues around rising fuel and water debt. Utility providers are not being very accessible to speakers of other languages. Working with places like Liverpool Arabic Centre allows us to really break down those barriers. Building on this success, we’re now preparing to work with other organisations.”

The charity is also working with a wide range of likeminded organisations such as Raise, The Big Help Project, Everton Football Club, The Life Rooms, Cobalt Housing and Clubmoor Children’s Centre to widen the message around energy advice.