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winter

Charis CEO and chairman Graham Ayres outlines the winter preparations the company is making to help housing associations with administering support grants for their more vulnerable residents.

The good news is in - Ofgem has decreased the energy price cap to its lowest level since March 2022. A seven per cent drop to £1925 will potentially be followed by a further drop to £1823 in October according to Cornwall Insight. This is great news for householders who can finally see some breathing space.

However, the landscape is not going to change for millions of residents who are still falling through the cracks when it comes to balancing income with outgoings which continue to be disproportionately high.

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ULEZ

By Joe Bradbury Digital Editor of Housing Association Magazine

In the midst of a rapidly changing environmental landscape, the push towards sustainability and reduced emissions has become a focal point for both the Conservative and Labour parties in the UK.

In this article I delve into two key aspects: the significance of Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ) and their role in the Uxbridge by-election results, and the upcoming challenges in achieving ambitious net zero targets.

 

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energy bills

Water conservation is the key to reducing energy bills.  Heating water accounts for nearly 1/5th of energy use in UK homes.

Reducing hot water demand is an effective way to help occupants conserve energy and reduce bills.  Some uses are fixed, e.g. the washing machine or dishwasher.  However, many are not. 

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energy

Over the last couple of years, consumer trust in the gas and electricity industry has dropped significantly.  This erosion of trust is primarily based on rising bills, particularly when record profit announcements are made by the big oil and gas producers. When headlines announcing that companies like Shell are making profits of $11.5 billion are published alongside other headlines telling stories of pensioners dying alone in unheated homes, it is no wonder that questions are being asked - and so they should be!
 
The complexities of the energy supply chain have resulted in a lot of misery on the streets of the UK. The conflation between energy retailers and energy producers creates a confused narrative that is not necessarily the true picture. The retailing part of the entire supply chain is particularly volatile - which is why the UK lost 28 gas and electricity providers back in 2021, leading to 4 million customers being hoovered up into the larger companies. Overall, the erosion of trust is exacerbating the levels of anxiety in our communities.
 

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golden thread

Peter McAteer, CEO of Sysmax, the compliance, risk and competency software platform now deploying across housing providers and contractors, discusses scalable solutions to solve the Golden Thread and Building Safety Act compliance and competency management conundrum which the sector is currently wrestling with.

Born of involvement in some of the biggest industrial disasters in history, including Piper Alpha and Deep Water Horizon, I established Sysmax driven by a passion for, in its simplest terms, ensuring people with the right skills are in right place, doing things properly. After many years of investing to get Sysmax recognised as ‘the competency and compliance platform against which all others are judged’ in the oil and gas industry, we decided to share our software’s unparalleled benefits across other sectors. After all, whether in energy, manufacturing, farming, utilities, tourism and even on Hollywood movie sets, we need competency and compliance to keep things safe and efficient. The Grenfell tragedy resonated deeply with me due to personal loss and threat to my own and my family’s lives. I offered to be an expert witness based on two highly explosive properties I had experienced. The publication of the Hackitt Report made social housing and the construction supply chain appropriate markets for our platform.

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communities

by Ollie Gray, business development director, Charis

When the EPG Energy Price Guarantee was introduced last autumn by the flash-in-a-pan Liz Truss government, it was set to run for two years, from October 2022 to September 2024.

We all know what happened to Liz - and her EPG promise was also cut short (maybe not quite as short as her tenure in number 10).

Looking back over the winter months of 2022/23, most of the funds and grants allocated to households to help them with rising energy costs have been akin to trying to stop leaking water from a pipe with a roll of tissue. Many households quickly achieved saturation when it came to what they could afford. Although, in part, this was due to the fact that energy prices increased beyond the additional support that was offered, it was also down to the fact that inflation was peaking at over 10 per cent, interest rates had shot up, and in general overall household income was squeezed on all sides, with no equivalent increase to household income.

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