With new figures revealing the extent of fuel poverty in Britain reached 5.5 million in 2009, in the last year more than 500 Coventry families have benefited from a scheme to help combat fuel poverty in the region.
The Home Energy Action Team (HEAT) was established in 2001 to provide help for households struggling to pay their fuel bills. HEAT can offer assistance and advice to help people implement energy saving improvements to save both money and energy around the home.
The service offers personal home energy advice visits, as well as home energy advice surgeries, and is particularly targeted to provide energy debt advice and support for the most vulnerable of Coventry’s households, including parents with young children, ethnic minorities and older householders.
However, the HEAT project was very nearly scrapped last year, when national funding ran out. Thanks to not-for-profit-energy supplier Ebico stepping in, the project was able to continue and has flourished over the last year.
“The funding from Ebico has enabled us to build on this vital work and help remove people from fuel poverty and therefore ensure people can enjoy a good quality of life,” said Saleem Shiekh, from the Home Energy Action Team (HEAT).
As energy providers continue to implement price rises, more and more families continue to be plunged into fuel poverty.
