Help is available to tackle Fuel Poverty and Rising Energy Costs

Help available to tackle Fuel Poverty and Rising Energy Costs

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Around 250 people attended an Energy Efficiency and Benefits Awareness event at Deeplish Community Centre on Wednesday 20 February 2013 to find out more about:

• the emerging benefit changes as part of the welfare reform;
• ways to reduce their energy bills,
• ways to improve energy efficiency within their homes through the range grants, discounts, cheaper tariffs, energy efficiency measures such as free loft and cavity wall insulation, and solar panels etc

This event was organised by KYP as part of their ongoing fight against fuel poverty in Rochdale’s deprived areas through the 'Fuel Katao, Paisay Bachao' project, funded by Scottish Power Energy People Trust and Rochdale Council. The project provides free Energy Advice and information to help to empower the local communities by making them aware of available services and changing energy use behavior at home.

Several partner organisations provided information and/or showcased their services such as the Greater Manchester Energy Advice Service, Rochdale Council, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, Great Places, Regenda, Dyson Insulation, Scottish Power, British Gas, N Power, GM Fire Service, Health Trainers, Help with Rent, Greenage Solutions and KYP

Partners in attendance very extremely pleased with the high level of resident attendance and in the interest and take-up of services.

For example Dyson Insulation said: "This was an excellent and well organised event with good level of interest and take-up of our free support. The event was also very good for networking with other oragnsiations working to the same objectives”

Scottish Power representative stated: "We had many referrals to Scottish Power website and call centre to switch supplier”. He went on to state that “the event had great representation form housing, energy, gas and advice providers – thus making it simple for residents”

Rochdale Council representative commented: "The event had a very high level of interest resulting in more sign ups than we were expecting. In the future KYP need a bigger venue to enable this large number of people to interact etc. But well done in organising an excellent event”

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing colleagues state: "We supported 52 people with a range of measures including 10 re-housing applications. The event overall was great and should be held more regularly”.

GM Fire Service added: "We took around 80 referrals for fitting of smoke alarms and a swap of chip pans with fat fryers as they are a safer option."

Cllr Cecile Biant, Chair of Rochdale Township Committee, commented: "This was a really good event with excellent turnout from the local community. I found some of the information and advice personally useful and will be using this at home. I would encourage KYP to hold these events on a regular basis to help and support our communities”

A significant number of residents also said that they had no idea that so much help was available during these difficult financial times, especially when the fuel costs are increasing. In particular residents with language needs highlighted difficulty associated with communicating with energy suppliers and understanding the complex information provided as part of the tariff system. They were pleased to see KYP offering support to plug this gap at a time when major changes were taking place. As a result KYP will be holding regular surgeries at Deeplish Community centre over the next 2 months.

KYP received around 20 expressions of interest from local residents interested in being engaged and trained as local Energy Champions as well as strong interest from people in finding out more about the opportunities and benefits of installing solar panels. KYP will now be following up on these interests and arranging follow-up focused sessions to help respond to this local demand.

After the huge success the project partners are very keen to continue the collective effort to tackle fuel poverty within our town. KYP are now planning to deliver another event in May in another deprived part of the borough to further increase awareness about the opportunities and support available to residents.

Anyone interested in attending the next energy awareness, the Energy Champions or Solar Panels event please contact KYP’s Energy Advice team on 01706 630140 or email energy@kyp.org.uk