National Energy Action (NEA)

National Energy Action (NEA) is a national fuel poverty charity. Their recent online conference brought together a wide range of people and organisations working to prevent and respond to fuel poverty*. It came just days after the government announced an ‘Energy Price Guarantee’ to help tackle rising energy bills.

The ground-breaking work of Smartline feeds into these issues and we were delighted to contribute to the debate, highlighting research which is gathering live data on internal home environments and exploring the impact on people’s health and wellbeing.

Some key themes from the conference:

The government’s intervention buys time but winter will still be hard for many people

Josh Buckland at Flint Global welcomed the government’s announcement, although acknowledged it would have been better if it had come earlier. Better targeting would also have been welcome, but at least the broad-brush approach allowed the government to move at speed.

Despite the support, though, energy prices are still high - more than twice what they were a year ago – and the future is uncertain.

The acute ‘cost of living crisis’ comes on top of a long period of chronic stress

The Resolution Foundation’s Emily Fry pointed out that “we are coming into this crisis on the back of fifteen years of stagnating incomes.” Dominic Watters and Caroline Rice spoke about their experience living in fuel poverty, particularly the stress and isolation. Dominic commented, “Fuel poverty isn’t experienced in isolation – you’re dealing with multiple inequalities that impact on your ability to function in the world, engage with society.” Caroline said, “it’s exhausting, it’s time consuming, it sucks the goodness out of anything you try to do.”  

Both touched on the issue of stigma. Dominic highlighted the difference Marcus Rashford had made by speaking out about this issue, while Caroline commented, “Before the pandemic I would have felt stigma and shame, but that’s for the government which has failed.”

What else is needed in the short-term: better targeting, more support for people on the lowest incomes

Noone knows how much the energy price guarantee will cost government. It won’t be sustainable to keep it going, so they will need to look at targeting it more closely.

Speaking about Smartline’s experiences, I highlighted the important role of housing associations in supporting customers, and the potential for digital technology and internal sensors to help identify issues early on. This can help provide support and advice for customers and prioritise maintenance work that can help keep costs down.

What else is needed in the longer term: energy efficiency and social tariffs

Panellists agreed that there is a big gap in what the government has announced to date.  Still critical is reducing demand for energy, and how to transition to net zero in a fair and sustainable way. Developing social tariffs, as we have for broadband, was highlighted as a sensible long-term option.  

Dr Isobel Braithwaite from the UCL Institute of Health Informatics spoke about the work she is doing around the impact of cold and leaky homes on health - very relevant to Smartline’s research which seeks to understand in more detail how internal environments are impacting on people’s health and wellbeing.

A common theme across the whole conference was how to ensure that low-income and vulnerable households remain front and centre. This is the foundation of Smartline’s work and something we will continue to focus on over the months ahead.

You can catch up with the whole conference on NEA’s Youtube channel.

*Fuel poverty relates to households that must spend a high proportion of their household income to keep their home at a reasonable temperature. Fuel poverty is affected by three key factors: a household’s income, their fuel costs, and their energy consumption (which in turn is affected by the energy efficiency of the dwelling).