Thousands of householders who have seen their fuel bills rise could be missing out on money to help them improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
A government initiative, the 'Carbon Emission Reduction Target' (Cert), a home-insulation programme funded by energy companies, was launched in April. Under it, the companies must offer grants to enable householders to make their homes more energy efficient in order to hit carbon emission reduction targets.
Cert spending is expected to reach £3bn over the next three years. Forty per cent of the money has been ring-fenced for the over-seventies and vulnerable households in receipt of qualifying income benefits, but the bulk is aimed at all other householders, and very few have taken it up.
In London, for example, British Gas runs a DIY insulation offer on behalf of the office of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. It runs until the end of the year and provides DIY loft insulation for £99. There is £50 cashback available once the insulation has been delivered and payment received.
EDF Energy is offering free cavity wall and loft insulation for homes to customers on qualifying benefits and for people over 70. A discounted rate of £199 for loft insulation and £199 for cavity-wall insulation is available for others. And independent company Affordable Energy has an offer running until the end of the year for loft insulation (including two water tanks and 15 metres of pipework) from £189 - or free to recipients of qualifying benefits. This compares to the typical standard cost of £400 for flats and houses built before 1976 and £500 and detached and semi-detached houses and bungalows built after 1976. Most companies will also offer discounts on energy-saving products and some will give out free energy-efficient light bulbs.
'The grants and discounts available are different depending on where householders live, but there is something available for everyone,' says a spokesman for the Energy Saving Trust, a non-profit organisation that provides free impartial advice.
The best way for householders to find out what is available in their area is by contacting their energy supplier or going on to the Energy Saving Trust website, which has a section entitled 'Search for grants and offers'. It is worth noting that you don't have to be a customer of a specific energy supplier to receive free or discounted insulation or other energy-saving measures from them.
Last Sunday, The Observer revealed how the government wants energy companies to redirect a chunk of the £3bn they must spend under the Cert programme towards fuel-poor households. On top of Cert, another initiative, called Warm Front, is directed specifically at vulnerable households and those on benefits.
This is a government-funded initiative managed by Eaga, a Newcastle-based green support services company. The Warm Front grant provides a package of insulation and heating improvements up to the value of £2,700 for those on benefits. Eaga estimates that there are around seven million people eligible for the scheme but that since its inception in 2000 only 1.7 million households have taken it up.
Anyone over the age of 60 in receipt of income support, council tax benefit, housing benefit, jobseekers allowance (income-based) or pension credit qualifies. So do householders with a child under 16, or pregnant women with maternity certificate MAT-B1 in receipt of one or more of the same benefits. Some other households on these benefits, or who receive disability living allowance and a small range of other allowances, may also qualify.
An energy assessor will visit eligible households and recommend measures that could be carried out by the householders themselves and also discuss what would be available under the Warm Front scheme. Improvements paid for by the scheme include loft insulation, draught-proofing, cavity-wall insulation, hot water tank insulation and gas, electric or oil central heating.
Edward Hardy from Lowestoft in Suffolk is one of the 1.7 million to have benefited from the Warm Front scheme. He is severely disabled from a car crash and in receipt of disability living allowance. He says he had no idea about the scheme until his support worker mentioned it.
'I was suspicious at first and thought it was a loan I had to pay back,' he says. 'I was so pleased when I found I was entitled to £2,700.' He had central heating installed throughout his house, an improvement which he says has made a huge difference to his life.
'I had two small gas fires before, one in the bedroom and one in the front room. The one in the bedroom was barely heating the room up, so I used to stay downstairs and run in and out of the kitchen and bathroom because they were so cold.'
Other initiatives that can save householders money on home improvements include the Low Carbon Buildings Programme, which offers grants of up to £2,500 for installation of renewable technologies and is open to householders across the UK. There is also the Scottish Community and Householders Renewable Initiative, which provides grants of up to £4,000 for installation of renewable technologies. It is only available to householders based in Scotland.
· Energy Saving Trust: go to www.energysavingtrust.org.uk or call 0800 512012 to be put in touch with a local energy adviser in your area.
· Warm Front: go to www.warmfront.co.uk or call 0800 316 2805
· Low Carbon Buildings Programme: www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk
· Scottish Community and Householders Renewable Initiative: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/schri
How to find your energy rating
To find out if someone is eligible for a Warm Front grant, an energy assessor will inspect a property. Dave Atkin from Eaga, the company that carries out the assessments on behalf of the government, came to my flat last week to demonstrate.
He first measured each room and fed the results into a computer, which then calculated the area in need of heating and came up with an energy rating for the property. Mine has sash windows, but I live in a conservation area so double glazing is not an option. Dave suggested I could get secondary glazing fitted and should draughtproof all doors and windows, even those that don't open.
He was unimpressed with my ancient boiler, but said he'd 'seen worse', and I got a tick in the box for having a room thermostat. He was more concerned about the condensation I have in the winter and told me to stop drying my clothes on the radiators and boiling water with the lid off the pan. He also suggested energy-efficient light bulbs, which can each knock about £7 off the heating bill in a year.
On a scale of 1 to 120, my energy rating was 64, which, amazingly, put my flat well above the UK average of 48. The government wants to raise the average to 65, which also the target for Warm Front-assisted properties - so there is obviously room for improvement at my place.
You can carry out a basic energy efficiency assessment yourself online and for free by using the Energy Saving Trust's Home Energy Check at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/aug/10/energy.utilities
Lisa Bachelor The Observer, Sunday August 10 2008 Article history
A government initiative, the 'Carbon Emission Reduction Target' (Cert), a home-insulation programme funded by energy companies, was launched in April. Under it, the companies must offer grants to enable householders to make their homes more energy efficient in order to hit carbon emission reduction targets.
Cert spending is expected to reach £3bn over the next three years. Forty per cent of the money has been ring-fenced for the over-seventies and vulnerable households in receipt of qualifying income benefits, but the bulk is aimed at all other householders, and very few have taken it up.
In London, for example, British Gas runs a DIY insulation offer on behalf of the office of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. It runs until the end of the year and provides DIY loft insulation for £99. There is £50 cashback available once the insulation has been delivered and payment received.
EDF Energy is offering free cavity wall and loft insulation for homes to customers on qualifying benefits and for people over 70. A discounted rate of £199 for loft insulation and £199 for cavity-wall insulation is available for others. And independent company Affordable Energy has an offer running until the end of the year for loft insulation (including two water tanks and 15 metres of pipework) from £189 - or free to recipients of qualifying benefits. This compares to the typical standard cost of £400 for flats and houses built before 1976 and £500 and detached and semi-detached houses and bungalows built after 1976. Most companies will also offer discounts on energy-saving products and some will give out free energy-efficient light bulbs.
'The grants and discounts available are different depending on where householders live, but there is something available for everyone,' says a spokesman for the Energy Saving Trust, a non-profit organisation that provides free impartial advice.
The best way for householders to find out what is available in their area is by contacting their energy supplier or going on to the Energy Saving Trust website, which has a section entitled 'Search for grants and offers'. It is worth noting that you don't have to be a customer of a specific energy supplier to receive free or discounted insulation or other energy-saving measures from them.
Last Sunday, The Observer revealed how the government wants energy companies to redirect a chunk of the £3bn they must spend under the Cert programme towards fuel-poor households. On top of Cert, another initiative, called Warm Front, is directed specifically at vulnerable households and those on benefits.
This is a government-funded initiative managed by Eaga, a Newcastle-based green support services company. The Warm Front grant provides a package of insulation and heating improvements up to the value of £2,700 for those on benefits. Eaga estimates that there are around seven million people eligible for the scheme but that since its inception in 2000 only 1.7 million households have taken it up.
Anyone over the age of 60 in receipt of income support, council tax benefit, housing benefit, jobseekers allowance (income-based) or pension credit qualifies. So do householders with a child under 16, or pregnant women with maternity certificate MAT-B1 in receipt of one or more of the same benefits. Some other households on these benefits, or who receive disability living allowance and a small range of other allowances, may also qualify.
An energy assessor will visit eligible households and recommend measures that could be carried out by the householders themselves and also discuss what would be available under the Warm Front scheme. Improvements paid for by the scheme include loft insulation, draught-proofing, cavity-wall insulation, hot water tank insulation and gas, electric or oil central heating.
Edward Hardy from Lowestoft in Suffolk is one of the 1.7 million to have benefited from the Warm Front scheme. He is severely disabled from a car crash and in receipt of disability living allowance. He says he had no idea about the scheme until his support worker mentioned it.
'I was suspicious at first and thought it was a loan I had to pay back,' he says. 'I was so pleased when I found I was entitled to £2,700.' He had central heating installed throughout his house, an improvement which he says has made a huge difference to his life.
'I had two small gas fires before, one in the bedroom and one in the front room. The one in the bedroom was barely heating the room up, so I used to stay downstairs and run in and out of the kitchen and bathroom because they were so cold.'
Other initiatives that can save householders money on home improvements include the Low Carbon Buildings Programme, which offers grants of up to £2,500 for installation of renewable technologies and is open to householders across the UK. There is also the Scottish Community and Householders Renewable Initiative, which provides grants of up to £4,000 for installation of renewable technologies. It is only available to householders based in Scotland.
· Energy Saving Trust: go to www.energysavingtrust.org.uk or call 0800 512012 to be put in touch with a local energy adviser in your area.
· Warm Front: go to www.warmfront.co.uk or call 0800 316 2805
· Low Carbon Buildings Programme: www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk
· Scottish Community and Householders Renewable Initiative: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/schri
How to find your energy rating
To find out if someone is eligible for a Warm Front grant, an energy assessor will inspect a property. Dave Atkin from Eaga, the company that carries out the assessments on behalf of the government, came to my flat last week to demonstrate.
He first measured each room and fed the results into a computer, which then calculated the area in need of heating and came up with an energy rating for the property. Mine has sash windows, but I live in a conservation area so double glazing is not an option. Dave suggested I could get secondary glazing fitted and should draughtproof all doors and windows, even those that don't open.
He was unimpressed with my ancient boiler, but said he'd 'seen worse', and I got a tick in the box for having a room thermostat. He was more concerned about the condensation I have in the winter and told me to stop drying my clothes on the radiators and boiling water with the lid off the pan. He also suggested energy-efficient light bulbs, which can each knock about £7 off the heating bill in a year.
On a scale of 1 to 120, my energy rating was 64, which, amazingly, put my flat well above the UK average of 48. The government wants to raise the average to 65, which also the target for Warm Front-assisted properties - so there is obviously room for improvement at my place.
You can carry out a basic energy efficiency assessment yourself online and for free by using the Energy Saving Trust's Home Energy Check at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/aug/10/energy.utilities
Lisa Bachelor The Observer, Sunday August 10 2008 Article history
