We were delighted when our good friends at NEA (National Energy Action) announced their National Fuel Poverty Conference would be coming to Liverpool this year.

From Monday the 27th to Wednesday the 29th of January, organisations from around the country came together at Camp & Furnace, to discuss the current state of affairs nationally, regionally, and locally, regarding action on reducing fuel poverty, and making homes warmer.

From the official conference opening by the Lord Mayor, the keynote address by Energy Minister, Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, right through to the closing remarks from NEA Chief Executive, Adam Scorer, there was a genuine buzz of optimism across all the sessions, for what feels like the first time in several years. We were particularly pleased to hear about all the great work happening to combine health and housing, to improve the housing standards for patients whose chronic health conditions can be exacerbated by living in cold homes. Our friends Lucy Malcolm from NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, and Rhiannon Clarke from Health Innovation Northwest Coast, presented on the local work being undertaken in our area, through which we’re pleased to be receiving referrals from respiratory teams, so we can deliver energy advice and home visits, to make homes warmer, with an ambition to prove this work reduces GP visits, hospital admissions and excess winter deaths.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, five years ago, many organisations like ours found they started spending more time engaging with clients who were already at a point of fuel crisis, and needed support immediately to resolve their presenting issue, such as providing emergency fuel vouchers to low-income, prepay customers at risk of self-disconnection. While we remain thankful for the availability of funds to support these clients with these immediate needs, we’re always looking beyond the energy crisis, to support them to make their homes more energy efficient, cheaper to run, and warmer through Winter. We want to help our clients not return to the point of energy crisis, and improving the fabric of their properties, and their heating systems, is a great way to do that.

After Internal Wall Insulation (IWI) is applied, the external walls of solid brick built properties are no longer cold to the touch.

Our Business Relationship Manger, Dominic Griffiths (pictured, right), delivered a presentation during Session 4: “Putting People First“ in which he discussed the fact that there has never been a better time in terms of the range of funding available to make homes warmer, forever. In fact, he included a case study that many attendees wouldn’t have expected to see, presenting a client of ours, namely Dominic Griffiths (also pictured, right).

Thanks to the Great British Insulation Scheme, Dominic received free Internal Wall Insulation (IWI) for his 5 bedroom, semi-detached house, built in 1905. The eligibility for this scheme is that the property must have an Energy Efficiency Rating of D-G (which most residential properties in the country do), and is in Council Tax band A-D (which most residential properties in the countries are). 

It’s therefore the case now that the cohort of clients we can support has never been broader, and the list of improvement measures we can help clients to achieve has never been better.

But we can’t lose sight of the challenges remaining in the merging agendas around energy efficiency, fuel poverty and net zero. Dominic finished his presentation referencing some of these challenges, such as the fact that the grants system can be too complicated for residents to navigate without our help, and grant schemes competing with one another for the same clients. 

You can watch the whole of Session 4: “Putting People First,” via NEA’s YouTube channel: