Findings from the British Gas Energy Trust second roundtable event
THE BRITISH GAS ENERGY TRUST 20TH ANNIVERSARY ROUNDTABLE PROGRAMME
Date: 6th June 2024
Location: Money Matters, Govan, Glasgow
Objective: To ensure that British Gas Energy Trust is supporting its local partner organisations as effectively as possible in Scotland, with a particular focus on the needs of young people.
Chief Executive of British Gas Energy Trust, Jessica Taplin explained: “We don’t want to be a funder that leads from the front. We should be funding frontline community-based charities, then giving them the freedom to do what they do so well. Over the coming months, we are convening groups like this across England, Scotland and Wales to understand what works and how we can help push forward systemic change.”
Key themes: Speakers from a diverse range of community groups and support organisations began by discussing some of the key themes of their work with those aged 16 to 25 who are experiencing fuel poverty. They highlighted a range of issues particular to young people, including insecure jobs, poor housing and difficulties accessing support, the latter being an issue which also arose as part of our roundtable discussion focused on physical and mental health.
Observations included:
Young people have particular economic and employment challenges, including insecure, lower paid work, so need targeted support.
- Audrey Lang, Chief Operating Officer at Glasgow money advice centre Money Matters, said those aged 16-25 are at a substantially higher risk of fuel poverty because steady jobs are harder to come by and there is less government support. She said: “A core percentage are not in education, employment or training and those who are in work are more likely to be working in the gig economy or on minimum wage, and if you are on benefits then you are automatically disadvantaged if you are under 25.”
- Sharon Bell, Head of StepChange Debt Charity in Scotland, agreed and added there was a direct link between having an insecure or irregular income and debt. She said: “Young people have always been overrepresented among our clients. They earn £500 less a month than our average client, are four times more likely to be on zero-hour contracts and we know they are particularly susceptible to getting into problem debt.”
The financial challenges young people face mean they are more likely to live in poor quality housing, which can be inefficient and expensive to heat, making them even more vulnerable to energy poverty.
- Damon Dailly, Project Manager at Money Matters financial advice centre in Glasgow, said: “Young people often live in the poorest housing stock that may have storage heating and issues with heat loss due to a lack of insulation. We’ve also seen cases where there has been a disjointed approach to retrofitting housing with energy efficient technologies that have actually made things worse, like installing heat pumps without appropriate insulation, causing massive increases to bills.”
- Molly Shelvin, Project Engagement Officer at Citizens Advice Scotland, agreed and said some people’s living situations made them vulnerable to unscrupulous actors. She said: “In the Scottish private rented sector over half of properties don’t meet the Repairing Standard, which means they are not wind or watertight. But we’re seeing a lot of scammers operating in the retrofitting industry, targeting people through social media.”
- Frazer Scott, CEO of Energy Action Scotland, which campaigns for an end to fuel poverty, said young people’s living circumstances can mean they are excluded from the kind of support provided by organisations like British Gas Energy Trust: He said: “Younger people are more likely to be in private rented accommodation and have their energy provided by their landlord, so they have no protections through energy companies because they are not the customer – the landlord is.”
We can’t always assume that the best way to provide targeted support for younger people is online, because not everyone has the same digital and social skills.
- Dave Smeaton, of Young People’s Support Base, which works to support young parents in Glasgow, said: “People say how tech savvy young people are, but when it comes to engaging with services, a lot of vulnerable young parents have literacy issues, so online support isn’t going to cut it for everyone.”
- Karin Johnstone, operations manager Dundee Citizens Advice, said that can prove a barrier to accessing support. She said: “People presume that young folk are technologically minded, because they grew up with it. That’s not true for everyone, and it can stop people being able to move forward.”
- Fiona Cameron, director of Conduct, Risk & Customer Vulnerability at British Gas, said young people are increasingly finding the social pressure of being online a struggle. She said: “We can make the assumption that young people are really engaged digitally, but sometimes they are proactively opting out of the digital world because they find it very hard psychologically to be online.”
Next steps: The panellists were then asked to draw on their experience delivering front-line support in Scotland to identify strategies and areas for action that would make a difference to young people in fuel poverty. Much like at the previous roundtable focused on physical and mental health, they were keen to emphasise the need for joined-up service provision to ensure that everyone is able to access the support they need as easily as possible. This can be hampered because funding providers place strict restrictions on how money can be spent, and which don’t always fit a person’s needs.
They identified three broad areas for action in the short and longer term:
There are a diverse range of factors that contribute to young people being in energy poverty. This requires holistic support, but delivery is currently fragmented and inefficient, so a new approach is needed.
- While much excellent work is being done by local organisations, the way funding is targeted means they are often limited in the kind of support they can provide, and the short-term funding model makes it harder for them to effectively plan their provision. British Gas Energy Trust believes in giving the groups it funds the flexibility and freedom to offer the full range of services that clients need, from financial support to help with mental health.
- There is an opportunity for greater collaboration between support services, so they are not operating in silos.
- Dave Smeaton advocated for a clear, robust pathway for young people accessing support. He said: “At the moment, we have to physically take our clients to our specialist partners who provide those services that we don’t provide.”
- John Sherry, Head of Financial Inclusion & Transformation at Glasgow City Council, said collaboration among support groups with different specialisms was crucial: “All too often, people who need help are put in silos. There needs to be collective input so that if you get one of us, you get the best of all of us.”
- Kirstin Urqurhart, Chief Executive of Young Scot, agreed: “This really needs a whole system approach. We will only make a change if we are pooling all our resources together.”
- Neil Ritch, the National Lottery Community Fund’s Scotland Director, said: “I don’t think funders are doing a good enough job in sharing lessons of what works. We need to be clear that we’re not just responding to the energy crisis, we’re facing a longer-term structural problem. With that in mind, we’re looking at funding programmes for longer; up from two or three years to five years.”
Education can have a lifelong transformative impact, helping build young people’s financial capability and resilience, so they can manage their finances effectively from when they need to and avoid falling into energy debt. However, it must be delivered in a more targeted way and in places they naturally learn.
- Leon Ward is CEO of MyBnk, which provides financial education for young people, advocated that this should be taught from a young age and be included in school curriculums – naturally developing their financial capability for when they’re older. He said: “Energy use and utilities must be blended into a wider package of financial education. Young people have a thirst for knowledge and want to learn about these things and improve their life chances.”
- Leon also said that the earlier young people start learning about how to manage their money, the better, “There are two places that most young people go: school and work, so that’s where you must deliver financial education.”
In the longer term, a social tariff can be a permanent solution to energy poverty, but there isn’t currently a cohesive strategy on how this would be implemented and integrated with other forms of support.
- A social tariff is a discounted energy rate for those on lower incomes or with specific needs.
- Marian Fellowes, founder of Lanarkshire Poverty Network, said: “I believe we need a properly administered social energy tariff, not just for people on benefits, but for anyone who needs it. What we also need are strong advocates in both parliaments who understand how important this is.”
- Molly Shelvin also backed the idea, but added: “A social tariff would have to work in conjunction with some sort of debt write off scheme or it will be unsustainable.”
- Stephen Scott, of Children’s Hospices Across Scotland – a family support service for babies, children and young people with life-shortening conditions – highlighted the challenges faced by those who rely on medical equipment, such as ventilators and dialysis machines. He said: “I really think a social tariff is the best way forward, as well as increasing the amount of debt that can be written off, because at the moment if someone has debts of £4 – 5,000 then their next option is bankruptcy.”
Find out more about the Trust’s roundtables here.