fuel poverty.

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.
 

A new scheme that local authorities can invest their Local Authority Delivery Scheme (LADs) and Home Upgrade Grant Scheme (HUGs) budgets in has received backing from British Gas and So Energy.

By partnering with social housing landlords to deliver a fully-financed and intelligently operated solar PV and battery storage solution, Solopower aims to support local authorities in reaching their net zero and fuel poverty targets.

Addressing the existential threat of climate change is unquestionably the major driver for decarbonisation efforts globally and is consequently something the whole of society can recognise and rally behind. However, as social housing landlords are all too aware, there is another important stimulus for carbon reduction that is seldom talked about in comparison: the growing issue of fuel poverty.

The latest Green Housing Forum, sponsored by Daikin UK, examined the main barriers to the installation of low carbon heating solutions in both new, and retrofit, social housing developments and the eradication of fuel poverty. Here, Nancy Jonsson, Commercial Director for Heating and Renewables at Daikin UK reports on the discussions from the event; outlining the potential barriers to renewable technologies and how they can be overcome.

Hosted in Scotland for the first time with speakers from Energy Action Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership and Sustainable Homes, the appetite and appreciation for renewable heating technology was apparent. Encouraged by the amendments to the Scottish building legislation section 6, air source heat pumps are ideally positioned to tackle fuel poverty, reduce fuel bills for residents as well as achieve Government dwelling carbon dioxide emission targets.