Neighbourhood Energy Action (NEA) was established in the early 1980s as a development programme of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
Then, the main role was to develop a national network of community insulation projects to create temporary employment by delivering basic energy efficiency measures and advice services to low-income households. Thirty years on, NEA has undergone a name change to National Energy Action, has become a national charity and, during the intervening years, has contributed to wide recognition of fuel poverty as a major social problem.
Indeed, the profile of fuel poverty has been raised to a once unimaginable level. Back In 1985, the then secretary of state for energy Peter Walker MP complained: “People do not talk of ‘clothes poverty’ or ‘food poverty’ and I do not think it is useful to talk of ‘fuel poverty’ either.”
Yet by 2000, the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act, introduced as a private members’ bill, had been passed with unanimous all-party support. Not only was there a legislative basis for an official definition of fuel poverty, there was also a commitment that the government would do everything “reasonably practicable” to ensure that fuel poverty in England would be eradicated by 2016.
Regardless of the official status of fuel poverty, there has never been a period during NEA’s existence when the problem of cold homes and unaffordable energy costs has not been implicitly acknowledged in the guise of government remedial policies and programmes, however basic. These have included:
· ”Heating additions” before the welfare reforms of 1988 for those on the lowest level of social security benefit, depending on the characteristics of a dwelling and its occupants.
· Statutory Cold Weather Payments from 1986. Expenditure on this payment in 1988 totalled £30,000. The severe weather of last winter resulted in payments of £427 million.
· In 1997 the government introduced the Winter Fuel Payment, initially paid at £20 with a total bill of £191 million. By 2010 the payment had increased to £250 and total expenditure had reached £2.7 billion.
· The recently introduced Warm Home Discount provides for mandatory fuel bill reductions of £120 for a significant number of the most financially disadvantaged households. By 2014/15 this should be assisting two million households at a cost of £310 million.
· The Homes Insulation Scheme (HIS) funded loft insulation in the early 1980s and gradually evolved into what might be thought of as a prescient fuel poverty programme when, in 1988, access to grants was limited to households in receipt of means-tested benefits. HIS was succeeded in 1990 by the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme, subsequently renamed Warm Front. This began as a basic programme providing loft insulation, draught proofing and energy advice but developed into a major energy efficiency programme offering a comprehensive package of heating and insulation measures to a maximum value of £3,500 to eligible private sector households. Over the period 2008-11, expenditure on Warm Front totalled £1.1 billion.
· The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (Cert) requires energy suppliers to ensure a proportion of the carbon savings they fund target financially disadvantaged households. Over the period 2008-11, Cert expenditure on low-income and other disadvantaged households was approximately £1.8 billion.
Had things gone to plan, fuel poverty should have ended for vulnerable households in England by 2010 and we would be on course to eradicate fuel poverty completely by 2016. The first official fuel poverty statistics (in 1996) indicated there were 5.1 million fuel-poor households in England – with appalling symmetry, this is almost identical to NEA’s current estimate of the scale of the problem.
But we live in interesting times. The government commissioned and has just published an independent review of the fuel poverty definition and targets. This should see a major debate in the coming months on what is required. And the Department of Energy and Climate Change recently published a consultation document on the new Energy Company Obligation which ministers insist will significantly increase investment in energy efficiency assistance for fuel-poor households.
NEA believes that a sufficiently strong political will, combined with a coherent approach to heating and insulation improvements and supplemented by effective action on energy prices and inadequate household incomes, could ensure that the war on fuel poverty can be won. But as with all good campaigns, strong allies are required and in this respect the support of central and local government, the energy industry, the regulator and the voluntary sector is essential to ultimate victory.
Ron Campbell is NEA senior policy analyst
In the zone
One of the key initiatives pioneered by NEA is the Warm Zone concept. This involves the systematic assessment of the energy efficiency and fuel poverty status of all the households in a designated Warm Zone area and the co-ordinated delivery of the necessary energy efficiency improvements and related services, including a benefit check. Typically this brings together local authorities, NEA, community groups and specialist agencies. Often Warm Zones are supported financially by energy companies.
Nigel Turner of the London Warm Zone (LWZ) explains: “Our key activity is to identify and engage with households in the private sector living in fuel poverty or at risk (low income and vulnerable) and generally the poorest areas through an area-based, street-by-street, door-to-door approach. We work closely with partnering London boroughs who help identify areas to target and also provide referrals. EDF Energy has supported LWZ since its inception over ten years ago, since which time we have carried out over 200,000 assessments, helped over 50,000 homes with energy efficiency measures, invested over £30 million and raised a cumulative total of around £8 million for households in increased benefits and tax credits.”
Behind those statistics are individuals like Mrs Freethy, the 94-year -old occupant of a house in Eastcote, Pinner – a suburb of the capital. Mrs Freethy’s home for five decades is a typical 1950s semi-detached property. It had a gas fire in the front room, while other rooms relied on electric heaters or had no source of heat at all.
This year, Mrs Freethy has enjoyed her first winter in a house where every room is cosy, courtesy of a brand new gas central heating system and loft insulation, a package of measures totalling £4,416. The work was done in July 2011 and had been preceded by cavity wall insulation installed under the Warm Front scheme. Mrs Freethy smiles as she speaks of the simple pleasure of coming down stairs on a cold morning and being able to run her hands over a warm radiator in the hall. “It’s a great feeling,” she says.
Roger Milne is political and environment editor
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 6 April 2012.
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