Rural fuel poverty conference- Energy and Equity- Affordable Warmth wherever you live
The rural fuel poverty conference took place on the 10th December at the Royal York hotel and was supported by Calor.
Historically, rural homes have been the forgotten face of fuel poverty. Despite households in rural areas being more than twice as likely to suffer from fuel poverty than their urban counterparts, previous initiatives aimed at addressing the heating and insulation needs of low income households have had limited impact. The three main causes of fuel poverty – energy inefficient housing, high energy prices and low incomes – are all exacerbated by living in a rural area, with homes more likely to be difficult or expensive to treat, lack access to mains gas, and householder’s facing additional living costs. There are a range of policies which seek to address the problem of fuel poverty however these are often not delivered in an equitable way that is fair to all households whether they live in an urban or rural area.
The conference examined some of the inequities and considered how these can be addressed as we consider shaping a new Fuel Poverty Strategy for England. It also highlighted some examples of best practice in tackling fuel poverty at a local level. NEA was really pleased that almost 90 delegates attended including representatives from local authorities, rural community councils, housing associations and other local agencies and charities with an interest in rural fuel poverty. Each delegate was given a copy of NEA and Calor’s joint policy briefing ‘Energy and Equity- Access to Government Programmes for Rural and Off Gas Households in England’ which highlights the scale of the problem and provides recommendations to address the level of fuel poverty in rural areas.
We heard from a range of high level speakers including:
Teresa Perchard, Deputy Chair of the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG) who chaired the event and gave an overview of the problem of fuel poverty in rural areas and outlined the role and purpose of the FPAG.
Peter Smith, External Affairs Manager at NEA quantified the scale of rural fuel poverty and highlighted NEA’s work within that area. He looked at the current policy landscape including changes to ECO, covering the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) and the Renewable Heat incentive (RHI) and reflecting on the announcements made in the Chancellors Autumn Statement.
Holly Sims, Corporate Affairs Manager at Calor provided an overview of the Future of Rural Energy (FREE) initiative, a project which aimed to raise awareness of, and find practical solutions to, rural fuel poverty. FREE is the first national dedicated fuel poverty initiative to solely support off-gas grid households. Through FREE, NEA has trained rural advice workers in fuel poverty and energy efficiency awareness. These advice workers are now acting as local energy champions within off-grid communities, raising awareness of rural fuel poverty at all levels – from rural residents, through to local and national Government – and helping to facilitate practical energy efficiency solutions. Holly Sims outlined the project and summarised the conclusions and recommendations.
Peter Hirschfeld, Community Development Officer, Humber and Wolds RCC and Kathryn Chapman, Rural Action Yorkshire looked at Community engagement and shared their experiences of engaging with vulnerable households in rural communities. They highlighted the importance of introducing energy champions as being trusted by their community to provide them with information on energy saving. They also stressed the need to support and train them in their role.
Jeremy Nesbitt, Managing Director, Affordable Warmth Solutions (AWS) provided an overview of some of the challenges and solutions to ‘off gas grid’ homes and how AWS works to overcome these. These included solutions such as extending the gas grid in some areas and establishing mechanisms to enabling households to access renewable technologies. He also mentioned the ‘off gas group’ within FPAG which aims to bring together the key parties that will consider the main challenges of these types of properties and develop a decision framework that would assist such homes identify options for the future ‘energy proofing’ of their home.
Jane Mears, Senior Environmental Health Officer, East Riding of Yorkshire provided a summary of an air sourced heat pump pilot project in Skipsea where 107 heat pumps were installed and findings monitored. She also went through some of the activities funded by the Department of Health.
Hugh Cripps, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Energy Partnership spoke about their solid wall insulation work in Richmondshire and their work in national parks. He commented on the challenges faced when improving the energy efficiency of some of the rural dwellings in national parks, particularly around planning permission for insulation.
Table discussions:
In between the formal presentations, delegates had the opportunity to come together and discuss the challenges they experience when helping fuel poor households in rural communities and provide feedback as to what needs to be done to address these issues.
Community engagement was seen as an important factor to the success of tackling fuel poverty, yet delegates felt they had lost the valuable community liaison that was present with Warm Front. The networks that have been dismantled are now in the process of being re-built. Social housing providers, local authorities and local charities are the key to engaging with communities to tackle fuel poverty.
Delegates felt it was important to understand the priorities and motivations of the health sector and encourage more joint working. Lancashire council have an excellent example of best practice having utilised Warm Homes Healthy People funding to engage with health front line staff to set up a single point of contact. It was felt that more needs to be done with fuel poverty workers and the health sector.
Particular issues came up from delegates that are specific to working in rural locations. Green Deal assessors can’t cope with the dwellings found in rural areas; there is a need for specialists in the field. There are problems with improving energy efficiency of housing in national park areas due the housing being hard to treat and planning laws making it difficult for external walls to have external cladding. Delegates have called for regulation of the oil market similar to that of the gas and electricity market. Due to the large rural areas the data used for finding fuel poor households are out of date and there is a need for better data sharing.
Closing comments:
Teresa Perchard closed the conference with some interesting remarks taken from speakers and delegate discussions. She felt the conference has established ideas on how things could be different in the future. She stressed that we need more innovative approaches for rural areas where one size doesn't fit all, better data and better information sharing and more investment in engaging with the public. She highlighted the call for a 25 year plan rather than a start stop approach. All of the issues and concerns expressed throughout QA and delegate discussions will be taken back to FPAG and circulated among delegates and the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
