Share your warmth today and make a real difference to someone’s life this winter

As winter approaches, more people than ever are seeking out CSE’s help to keep warm at home.

For the second year running, we’re appealing for donations to our advice service, so the Centre for Sustainable Energy can continue to help as many people as possible through another gruelling winter.

Unfortunately, cost-of-living and energy costs are still through the roof. And more people than ever, including hundreds of thousands of children, are facing months of hardship in cold homes.

Support our advice line

Our energy advice helpline is a lifeline for the millions struggling to keep their homes warm and facing another winter in fuel poverty.  

Without our help, they’re left with a tough choice: going hungry, or being cold. But our advice line is at maximum capacity. We want to do more, but we lack the funds.

In this video, Carmen and Nick, CSE advisors, share what it’s like working on our advice line and how your support can help.

The difference you can make

You can help us end the suffering caused by cold homes by donating to CSE. Every person’s case is unique, and our advisors offer bespoke, complex, and empathetic support to people struggling.

With your support, we can help more people like Linda and Andy Mitchell.

Linda and Andy have complex health problems. Linda battles COPD, diabetes, mobility issues, and breathing difficulties. Meanwhile, Andy fights prostate cancer and a chest cyst, and has recently overcome bowel cancer. For both living in a cold home is risky. And their park home was already draughty and cold before their boiler broke. Unable to afford a new one, they struggled on, boiling water for washing in the kettle and shivering round an inadequate electric heater.

Around 7,500 people a year die from the effects of cold homes, and Linda and Andy were at risk of being among them.

Luckily, they were put in touch with us. We immediately provided new oil-filled radiators and shopping vouchers, and set about getting a new boiler installed. Read Linda and Andy’s story here.

Your donation will help us provide:

• Emergency support: We distribute prepayment meter vouchers and other emergency payments to help people in crisis keep the heating on. We also provide winter warmth packs containing a thermos flask, thick socks, a warm hat, a wind-up torch and fleece gloves.
• Energy saving advice: We talk to people to help them understand how to use their heating systems properly and how they can use less electricity and gas to save money.
• Skilled support: Our expert team provide highly skilled, in-depth, tailored advice to people in crisis. This covers managing debt and accessing benefits, including grants to make homes more energy efficient.

Every day our energy advisors witness people’s ongoing struggles—spiralling energy bills, unaffordable heating, and freezing homes.

It’s not right that people are living in cold, uncomfortable homes and avoid using energy. Please help us help them. Any donation to Share the Warmth will help bring comfort to those living in cold, desperate conditions.

Janine Michael, deputy CEO of the Centre for Sustainable Energy

Last year’s success

During the Share the Warmth campaign 2022, we raised over £12,000. It costs about £100 to help one household, which means we helped around 120 homes we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to support.

Thank you to everyone who contributed.

If you’re unable to support us with a donation this year, please consider sharing our work with your community or on social media with others so more people know where to go for help.