Findings from the British Gas Energy Trust fifth roundtable event
THE BRITISH GAS ENERGY TRUST 20TH ANNIVERSARY ROUNDTABLE PROGRAMME
Date: 26 September 2024
Location: Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle
Objective: To ensure British Gas Energy Trust (the Trust) is supporting its local partner organisations as effectively as possible, with a particular focus on disadvantaged communities across the UK.
Introducing the event, Jessica Taplin, Chief Executive of the Trust, said: “Our 20th anniversary events are an opportunity to come together and reflect on the actions that have proved effective so far, but also to learn from each other to help inform our strategy for the future. The organisations we partner with have a positive impact on thousands of people’s lives every year, but it is still a challenge to reach some communities.”
Key themes: Speakers from a diverse range of community groups and support organisations gathered to discuss their front-line work to address fuel poverty, with a particular focus on disadvantaged communities. They highlighted a range of challenges that are experienced by such communities across the country, which can include low incomes, poor housing, digital exclusion and language barriers. Jabeer Butt OBE, Chief Executive of the Race Equality Foundation, said: “BAME communities are much more likely to experience poverty than their white counterparts and that includes fuel poverty. “While 12% of white communities are in fuel poverty, that rises to 21% among BAME communities. That experience of inequality stretches from childhood into adulthood and old age.”
Observations included:
While front line support groups are often able to access funding, it commonly comes with restrictions on how it can be spent, which can limit its impact. Funding is also awarded for short term projects, which hampers groups’ ability to plan, recruit and operate efficiently. The way funding is awarded to front-line support groups has been consistently raised at all five round table events, with panellists campaigning for less red tape and greater flexibility on how funds can be used.
- Jane Bevan, Strategic Lead at Greater Manchester Disabled People’s Panel, flagged a ‘post code lottery’ in her city region, where the level of support available varied between local authorities. She said: “Different authorities have different criteria on who qualifies for support and the kind of support they will fund. It means people living only metres apart have a completely different experience. The fewer criteria, the better.”
- Richard Elliott, Financial Resilience & Support Manager at Sunderland Council, added: “Over the last few years, we’ve been grateful to have a significant increase in funding, but funds get announced at the last minute, with guidance that is either very vague or incomprehensible. What we need are long-term schemes for local welfare provision.”
- Alex Johnson is CEO of Reviving the Heart of the West End, a charity that works to promote opportunity in Newcastle’s West End. She said: “Too often, funding is pigeonholed to deliver a specific service. Funders should trust organisations to use their resources in a way that delivers a more holistic service, which they are very capable of doing. That would make a huge difference.”
A number of panellists were keen to flag how language and cultural differences can often exacerbate the challenge of reaching disadvantaged communities. As well as language barriers which can hinder communication, some communities have past experiences and cultural conventions which mean they are reluctant to engage with some support services.
- Disadvantaged communities are often isolated because of language and cultural differences, which requires an extra effort from organisations to overcome.
- Penny Walster is Director of Programmes and Partnerships at The Big Issue, which has worked with the Trust since 2022. She highlighted how providing support is more challenging when working with people for whom English is not their first language. Penny said: “Nationally, about 60% of Big Issue vendors would identify as members of the Roma community, often living in large family groups in private rented accommodation. Most Roma community members’ main language is one of the Romani dialects. Communicating with people in English automatically creates a barrier to information sharing, because it may be their second or even third language.”
- Carol Shreeve, CEO of North Yorkshire Citizens Advice and Law Centre, said employing advisors who speak languages including Polish and Russian was vital. She said: “It has helped increase uptake of our energy services within these groups. People are more inclined to engage with a service if it’s coming from inside their own community.”
- Judith Wood-Archer, Service Delivery Director at Citizens Advice Gateshead, said they too had seen the benefit of recruiting advisors from within minority and disadvantaged groups to help reach those most in need. She said: “Sometimes past experiences mean people are scared to engage with authority, so we have to embed ourselves in their communities.”
Poor quality housing is a persistent issue for front-line support groups. They flagged how inefficient heating, a lack of insulation and more can exacerbate fuel poverty and prevent practical interventions.
- Damp and draughty homes are more expensive to keep warm and can impact on the health and wellbeing of residents. There is little benefit in, for example, installing a new boiler if a home is not insulated or draught-proofed.
- Jabeer said: “People from BAME communities are much more likely to live in private rented accommodation, so are dependent on their landlord to make improvements. Unfortunately, we know from experience that relationships with landlords are rarely supportive and are too often exploitative. Even when there are opportunities to improve the insulation in your home, for example, unless you have trusted voices in trusted places, the message is not going to cut through.”
- Amanda Bailey, Director of the North East Poverty Commission, said: “In the North East, we have the highest proportion of children living in rented accommodation outside London. The challenges are not so much around housing cost, but really poor-quality housing, both in the social housing and private rented sectors.”
- Tracy Moore, Big Issue team leader for the North East, said: “We see homes where residents just don’t put the heating or hot water on because of the cost. They don’t have efficient boilers, and they are frightened to challenge their landlords to make any improvements to the property for fear that their rent may be increased.”
- Lisa Boothroyd, Projects Manager at Energy Projects Plus, which provides energy advice to households in Merseyside and beyond. She said: “The amount of damp and mouldy social housing and private rented accommodation that we see is shocking. When our advisors visit people in their homes and identify that their property needs upgrading, we can refer them to a retrofit project managed by one of our partner organisations.”
Next steps: The panellists were asked to share strategies and solutions which they believe would prove effective in tackling fuel poverty in disadvantaged communities.
Many people find accessing support intimidating, and providing a friendly face can make the world of difference. Meeting people face to face in their own communities not only makes services more accessible but increases uptake and improves outcomes.
- A number of panellists stressed how effective delivering services face-to-face can be, removing communication barriers, developing trust and giving greater insights into the challenges people are facing.
- Fiona Cameron, Conduct, Risk & Customer Vulnerability Director, British Gas, said: “Energy companies, like all businesses, are keen to go paper free because its more environmentally friendly and cheaper, but digital isn’t best for everyone and we really need to think about the needs of all customers. The Post Office pop-up information events that the Trust has been supporting recognise how older customers in particular benefit from that face-to-face contact.”
- Penny Walster highlighted a successful Big Issue initiative where magazine vendors were trained and employed to share energy advice face-to-face with their peers. She said: “Big issue vendors have always had an ethos of supporting each other. So, we built on that by developing a peer mentoring programme called Equal to Equal, where vendors come and work with us to share information about what support is available. For Roma communities in particular, it’s really important to get information from trusted people within your community.”
- Amanda Bailey, Director of the North East Poverty Commission, said: “What has worked for us is delivering advice drop-in sessions in schools, which we plan to expand into more areas. It’s a way of reaching busy people, managing lots of different responsibilities, who might not be able to get to or feel comfortable visiting a Citizens Advice office, or access help online.”
- Gayle Purvis, a Welfare Advisor at Citizen’s Advice Newcastle, agreed: “Schools are a safe space where people feel they can speak freely, so we’ve found that by holding drop-in sessions there, people really open up about their situation, which is often dire.”
- Lynne Hunter is the Energy Team Manager at Newcastle Citizens Advice, with seven years’ experience. She said: “One of the ways we reach people is to go out to local food banks. We’re based at an office in in the city centre, but we have found that if we go out into the community you can reach groups of people who can’t even afford to travel out of their immediate area.”
Technology can help make the delivery of support and advice more efficient and effective, but digital exclusion is an issue and some people may need support accessing or using technology, including older people.
- Alongside face-to-face meetings, there is also a place for technology in delivering energy poverty solutions, but providers must consider service users’ circumstances and individuals shouldn’t be considered ‘digitally savvy’ just because they can post on social media channels.
- Ross Brooks, Centre Manager at Citizens Advice Hartlepool, said: “Technology works and is getting more user friendly. We’re holding workshops for the elderly population to help them download their energy provider’s app to their devices. The app gives us all the information we need so we can then advise them if they are getting the best deal they can or if they could switch providers.”
- Jane Bevan said: “Recently, we were helping somebody who was trying to sort an issue with their utility bill, but they didn’t have a smartphone or an internet connection. Their local authority was able to provide that for them through the Household Support Fund, so they no longer struggled with digital exclusion.”
- Alex Johnson said: “We’re tapping into as many funding projects as we can to buy devices for our clients, as well as helping them use them, which can make a significant difference.”
- Pete Barrett, Senior Programme Advisor at the Community Foundation, which matches community groups with funding providers, said: “We helped fund a project in Sunderland to help boost people’s digital skills, including accessing energy advice online, which helps make communities more resilient.”
By providing more options for customers to communicate with them, energy companies can improve engagement with disadvantages communities, leading to better outcomes.
- There is an opportunity for energy companies to provide more channels of communication, including different languages, to make themselves more accessible.
- Penny Walster said: “What has been really successful with one energy provider has been having the option to book calls with call centres, rather than just calling them on spec. That means you can also schedule an interpreter to join the call. It’s a basic thing but it had been very powerful and would make a huge difference to many disadvantaged communities.”
- Lynne Hunter added: “It can be a nightmare trying to contact your energy company if your first language is not English. Energy companies don’t make translators available, which is a big issue that needs addressing. It would make it so much easier to deal with any issues, which are often very simple to resolve.”
- Alex said: “When communication with energy companies is over the phone, people can get pushed around the system and issues don’t get resolved. Having advocates who can engage with customers person to person could be a good way to improve engagement.”
Ultimately, the way the energy sector operates may need systemic reform in order to create an enduring solution to the fuel poverty issue.
- Fiona Cameron said British Gas was working at the highest levels to achieve a more enduring strategic solution. She said: “We’ve been lobbying Government to abolish standing charges, which are inherently unfair and disproportionally impact those on lower incomes. While we need to cover infrastructure costs, we think this should be included in the unit charge instead.” She added: “We would also like to see the introduction of a social tariff, which will help those in need, either because they are financially disadvantaged or because they need to use more energy, perhaps to power medical equipment. We’ve signed up to join a working group with the Scottish Government, which is very keen to pilot a social tariff, to help demonstrate how this might work.”
Common themes
This was the fifth in a series of seven roundtables discussions being held around the country, which have so far focused on physical and mental health, young people, rural communities and carers, and several common themes are now emerging:
- Fuel poverty is rarely an issue that exists in isolation and a holistic approach can better understand and address all the factors that contribute to fuel debt.
- Front line organisations from different sectors (funders, charities, housing associations and local authorities) can work together more effectively to deliver support in this way.
- Longer-term funding provision can help front line service organisations plan more strategically and build stronger connections with the local community, ultimately delivering meaningful support. This needs to be prioritised in rural communities, with the vast geographical areas and distances taken into account, as well as the time it takes to develop the relationships.
- Those in debt, including energy debt, can experience feelings of shame and disillusionment, making them reluctant to seek help. There is a need to create an environment where they feel comfortable asking for help, recognising self-serve and digital is not suitable for the highest deciles of need.
- While providing ‘sticking plaster’ support such as fuel vouchers does not provide a long-term solution, it is an opportunity to build trust and establish longer-term relationships that can enable more permanent resolution.
Read more about the Trusts roundtables here.