Skip to main content

Your web browser is out of date. Please update it for greater security, speed and the best experience on this site.

Choose a different browser

Community-led fuel poverty innovations

A young woman and an elderly woman sit next to each other on a sofa smiling at each other

Helping local groups take action on cold homes.

Project duration: June 2017 to July 2018

Community organisations such as faith and befriending groups often come into close contact with people living in fuel poverty. Yet despite the fact volunteers at these organisations often want to help there’s not always a straightforward way for them to give people the advice they need. This might be for any number of reasons, including that they don’t feel confident talking about energy use, are too pushed for time, or aren’t sure what professional help is available.

This project aimed to develop a process to enable these groups to identify and take action on fuel poverty when they see it in their communities.

To do this we first worked with faith and befriending organisations across the South West to understand:

The lessons from this exploratory stage of the project were fed into creating a set of resources made specifically with these groups in mind and reflecting their requirements and concerns, and included bespoke training for particular types of group, as well as printed information and referral processes.

We know that faith groups and befriending groups tend to be very well trusted and respected in the communities in which they operate. Often they come into contact with people who aren’t easy for support services to reach but who are likely to be suffering from the effects of a cold home.

Despite clear enthusiasm for working with fuel poverty on the part of these groups there isn’t much in the way of support for them to do this. This project was an important first step in creating that support.

Harriet Sansom, CSE’s lead on the project

For further information contact

Share this: