CSE has conducted an in-depth evaluation of the two-year Rural Communities Energy Support Network (RESN) pilot.

Paid for by the Energy Redress Fund, this project aimed to boost energy-focused advice for people who struggled during the cost-of-living crisis and period of sustained high energy prices that hit Britain in the early 2020s.

RESN was delivered by CSE in partnership with Somerset Independence Plus, Community Council for Somerset, Spark Somerset and Wessex Community Action.

To read the evaluation, click the button below.

The RESN sought to increase the availability and quality of energy advice in Somerset and Wiltshire, specifically by:

• Training and supporting community-based advisors to deliver basic energy advice.
• Increasing the reach to rural residents via community-based advisors and frontline staff.
• Exploring the efficacy of developing a rural advice network to meet consumer demand for energy advice.

Overall, the project performed well in terms of outreach, as the following headline figures show:

Table: project activities, September 2022 to May 2024

Activity	Target	Outcome
Home visits	240	492
Households reached at events	1,740	3,484
Face-to-face advice sessions	1,195	1,447
Telephone advice calls	2,440	2,836
Training sessions provided	70	107
Frontline workers trained	300	666

Exceeding targets

The project team was pleased to exceed the targets set by the funder in every KPI, in most cases significantly. Project manager, Cora Paine, said, “We trained more frontline workers and reached more households than anticipated. This shows – if we didn’t know already – how much demand there is for this training and support from such a wide range of frontline organisations and community groups.”

In addition to the outcomes in the table above, over £25,000 of Community Fund grants was given to 11 organisations. This will help to strengthen their outreach and help more people struggling with the cost of living.

Findings

For the full evaluation and recommendations, click here.

One of the findings of the evaluation was that while 87% of advisors reported positive impacts for clients, themselves and their organisations, they were nonetheless somewhat pessimistic that their advice had helped their clients significantly with their health, anxiety about bills, and being able to make ends meet. This was supported by a survey of householders who received advice as part in the programme.

This wasn’t unexpected since there’s only so much that energy advice can do in the face of high energy prices. And it points to the broader issue of negative budgets – or put more simply, household debt. As Ian Preston, CSE’s external affairs director put it “The evaluation shows that there is a undeniable need and demand for energy advice. But in the face of the cost of living crisis people are still struggling. To improve lives in the long-term we need structural and policy changes.

“The first of these is a long-term programme to improve the energy efficiency of homes. The second is a set of measures to reduce bills for those on the lowest incomes, for example lowering standing charges“..

CSE seeks to build on this pilot which was positively received by both organisations and individuals. Our development team is looking for future funding to develop the project and take it forward to the next stage.