Blog: Supporting those who needs us most

A blog by Ella Pinder, Vulnerability Policy Manager at Northern Powergrid.

As we head into winter and the colder months, supporting the most vulnerable people in our communities becomes more important than ever. This week is National Energy Action’s Nation’s Biggest Housewarming – a chance to get talking about what living in fuel poverty is really like, and bring together efforts to support the people who need it most.

Launching our annual winter campaign to encourage people to be prepared and consider joining our free Priority Services Membership is just one part of the work we do to help people across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.

But sadly, since the energy crisis, people aren’t just struggling through the winter. They struggle all year round. Self-disconnections have been higher than ever over the summer period this year, and for the first time ever, we’ve seen hardly any drop in demand for fuel poverty advice over the warmer months. Ensuring that those at most risk in our society get support is something we work on every day at Northern Powergrid.

What does vulnerable even mean?

We cannot underestimate the value living in a warm and safe home brings to our customers’ lives. It’s not just about saving money on your energy bills – cold homes cost the NHS £1.4 billion a year by exacerbating both physical and mental ill health. Behind that £1.4 billion figure are millions of householders struggling every day to make ends meet and living in a level of discomfort which, over time, seriously impacts their prospects.

As an industry, energy companies like to categorise vulnerable people in defined ways. We might think of someone as fuel poor, medically dependent on electricity, or living in a low-EPC home. But the reality is that vulnerability is dynamic and intersecting – so a real customer might struggle sometimes to find enough to put on the meter, but has managed quite well for a few months recently because they’re getting lots of shifts through each week. They might have a hospital bed at home which they were using for an elderly relative, but that relative has just recently moved into a hospice. Maybe their EPC rating is low, but what matters to them is the damp problem in their bathroom that just won’t go away – and they have no idea what causes it.

Thinking about customers’ real lives is the only way to get to the root of the problems they are having and find long-standing solutions. We need to stop categorising vulnerability, and take a whole-person approach.

The retrofit challenge

This year, we are focusing on the role that retrofit plays in the Nation’s Biggest Housewarming.

Before the energy crisis, many people in fuel poverty could feel a real benefit from interventions looking at income and basic energy efficiency: fuel vouchers, income maximisation, tariff switching, debt casework and energy efficient behavioural advice. Now, the sharp increase in energy supplier prices means that our customers need to go to the next step and look at the fabric of their home.

Reliance on electricity, fuel poverty and retrofit all sit hand in hand. By upgrading the fabric of someone’s home, you can reduce their energy demand while keeping them warm and eliminate recurring damp problems. By going further and helping someone access low carbon technologies like solar panels and batteries, you can help somebody to stay resilient in a power cut and further reduce their energy costs. So, to truly address fuel poverty, we need to place a greater focus on retrofit.

What we’ve learned

For people at the sharp end of poverty, approaching them with information about retrofit just isn’t going to land. When your afternoon routine is pick up the kids from school, eat something that doesn’t need to be heated, then straight into bed without a shower to keep warm under your duvet – life is just too tough to be thinking beyond the immediate challenges. What we’ve learned is that taking a whole-person energy approach is the best way forward.

What do we mean by whole-person energy approach?

Simply, this means taking a step-by-step approach that looks at the bigger picture around someone’s personal situation.

Step 1: right now

• Are you safe at home? Is there anything immediately causing a risk, like an old leaky boiler?
• Are you warm at home? Are you washing regularly with hot water? Do you wear a coat indoors? Are you able to eat hot meals at home?
• These are immediate, pressing issues that need to be addressed first. That means looking at fuel vouchers, local hardship funds, warm space facilities nearby and food bank referrals.

Step 2: your finances

• Are you claiming all the support that you’re eligible for? Are you a carer? Are you disabled? Are you claiming the right amount of Universal Credit?
• Do you have debts? à Council tax arrears? Water debt? Energy debt? Credit cards? Let’s look at a repayment plan.
• What does your monthly or weekly budget look like? à Are you eligible for boosters like the warm homes discount?

Step 3: your home

• By this point, we’ve created some breathing space. Everything feels a little bit more controlled for the customer and they’ve built a relationship with their advisor. Now they might be ready to think about retrofit.
• How old is your home? Is your loft insulated? Are your walls insulated? How are you heating your home?
• What could a smart meter do for you?
• Can we get you some financial support to improve the fabric of your home?

By taking this step-by-step approach, people are more likely to engage and see it through. For us it is about using the independent expert partners we work with to help achieve the best possible outcome for our customers without overwhelming them. We want to see more homes on a journey towards net zero, but we must always remember the person who lives in it. So, if they have other challenges or needs including potential health, language or social mobility barriers they may not understand or be able to fully value the advice they are being given and potential wider benefits on their whole life.

In short, retrofit needs to happen – but it needs to happen at the customer’s pace.

What are the additional benefits for network operators?

As well as supporting individual customers with warmer homes, retrofit has some welcome indirect benefits for network operators by getting people on the journey to net zero.

An increase in energy efficient green homes means reduced energy costs to customers over the long term. It also leads to reduced electricity demand which means we can maximise network capacity and efficiency for customers on their local network. Levels of demand inform network management and planning, so we can focus on upgrading our network where it is most needed first and invest wisely for our customers.

Collaborating for success

We have built a range of partnerships with independent expert partners which our customers can access for free advice and support such as Communitas Energy CIC, West Yorkshire: Citizens Advice, North East: Stockton Citizens Advice (SDAIS), Citizens Advice Hull and East Riding, North Yorkshire CA and Law Centre and the National Energy Foundation.

We are committed to working with industry, local and national government partners and the energy regulator to develop a robust framework with clear strategy and accountabilities for supporting our communities with retrofit. We need to focus on quality, consistency and building trust – so that support and services are fair, accessible and no one is left behind in the journey to a net zero energy future.

If you are working on retrofit projects, or anything else to support the Nation’s Biggest Housewarming, please reach out and speak to us! Let’s work together and get warm.