Warm Homes scheme brings hope, says community benefit co-operative

A Sussex community benefit co-operative is hopeful that a new government scheme to make homes more energy efficient will have a positive impact on the people it supports.

Energise Sussex Coast, which is part funded by British Gas Energy Trust, distributed 1,170 energy vouchers from the Fuelbank last year worth over £69,000, with this emergency support coming to the aid of many people struggling to pay their energy bills.

But with the government’s new Warm Homes Local Grant scheme due to open in April, the organisation says the future could be brighter for local residents.  Under the scheme, eligible properties could receive up to £15,000 towards energy efficiency measures such as insulation.

Kate Meakin, Director of Energise Sussex Coast, said: “We are hopeful that this new grant will be more accessible to local people in need and will offer a larger range of funded measures – everything from insulation to solar panels. We hope that the scheme will be better designed than previous years with higher caps for each funded measure.

“Significantly, the scheme will be open to all energy-inefficient properties, whether privately rented or privately-owned with postcodes in the bottom 20% of Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) nationally; so it will apply to a large proportion of properties in Hastings and Eastbourne.”

In 2019, almost a third of Hastings’ 53 neighbourhoods were ranked in the bottom 10% of IMD, with two (in Baird and Tressell) among the most deprived 1%. Roughly 40% were in the bottom 20%. Likewise, roughly 20% of neighbourhoods in Eastbourne were in the bottom 20% of IMD. In addition, according to an April 2024 report from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Hastings ‘has the highest percentage of fuel poor households in the South East’.

Kate added: “Everyone should have a right to a home that is warm and dry in the winter. Yet the fact that our energy advice service alone generated over £69,000-worth of fuel vouchers in 2024 is testament to the persistence of fuel poverty locally. Dealing with the underlining causes of this means insulating houses. Yet, confronted by a bewildering array of different schemes and / or the obstacles created by private tenancies, many fuel-poor households have thus far been unable to access support necessary to do this.

“As the government’s new Warm Homes scheme becomes available we urge local residents – whether landlords or tenants – to make contact with us so that we can offer them free help to navigate the new system and work together to get to the root of fuel poverty in East Sussex.

“In our area we have lots of older housing stock, predominantly Victorian and Edwardian, often big houses divided into flats. These homes are expensive and often tricky to upgrade energy efficiency wise. Funding schemes such as ECO 4 and the Great British Insulation scheme have a price limit for how much can be spent for each measure, this often doesn’t cover the high costs of scaffolding for tall buildings which then means the upgrade can’t take place.”

Through Energise Sussex Coast’s British Gas Energy Trust-funded work last year, they answered more than 9,000 calls to their energy helpline and supported more than 3,500 people with energy advice support sessions. The financial benefit of the service added up to £446,116 through helping people to bring down the cost of their energy, access financial support and save energy.

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