As fuel poverty increases the lifeline Energy Solutions closes

Planet House bathed in Autumn sunshine

Brent Council has confirmed that Energy Solutions, based at Planet House in Birchen Grove, Kingsbury has closed. The Council cuts its £50,000 grant in 2015 despite it having saved its clients in excess of £717,000 in disputed or refunded gas and electricity bills, trust fund applications and ECO funded affordable warmth measures (heating and insulation) since 2012 and contributing to the borough's carbon reduction programme.

I made the case for the continuation of the grant in January 2015 but to no avail. LINK

The charity soldiered on seeking alternative funding and curtailing its activities but finally appears to have decided it couldn't go on, much to the loss of the local hard-pressed community.

 Energy Solutions was based at the end of Birchen Grove in a building that was constructed as a chapel for the lawn cemetery which had been planned in the 1930s but never materialised. I understand that the surrounding area, which includes the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre (taken over by Thames21 after it too lost its grant) and allotments is still consecrated ground.

A Brent Spokesperson said today, 'Energy Solutions is unfortunately closing down. Brent Council is planning to market Planet House on a leasehold basis.'

Here is a reminder of  Energy Solutions' valuable work. I am sure that readers will join me in thanking the staff for all that they did for the community.

 

Dawn Butler gives Brent FoE her views on pressing environmental issues

Brent Friends of the Earth have issued the following account of their meeting with Dawn Butler, Labour, Brent Central, when they lobbied her over Climate Change.

 

Six members of Brent Friends of the Earth (Brent FoE) met with Brent Central MP Dawn Butler at the House of Commons this Wednesday 17^th June as part of a climate change lobby of Parliament.

The campaigners joined thousands of concerned people from all around the country to take part in 'For the Love of' – a mass lobby to urge MPs to take urgent action on climate change. The Brent group focussed their views on fracking, solar schools, fuel poverty, and airport expansion, and found much common ground with their newly-elected MP.

On fracking, Dawn is now as signatory to Labour MP Geraint Davies' “Fracking (Measurement and Regulation of Impacts) (Air, Water and Greenhouse Gas Emissions) Bill”, which hopes to stop fracking through making the contamination of water used and the emissions created by the process illegal. Fracking uses vast quantities of water along with toxic chemicals to extract shale gas. Forcing companies to clean this up would make extraction too expensive. She supports Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham MP in calling for a moratorium on this controversial technology in order to concentrate efforts on supporting renewables. Both Wales and Scotland already have moratoriums in place.

Viv Stein, Spokesperson for Brent FoE says, “With a decision due next week on whether to approve the UK's first fracking site in Lancashire, it is vital that we put a stop to fracking now. Giving the go ahead to this dirty fossil fuel there could pave the way for more fracking up and down the country, including a proposed site at Park Royal in Brent. It would also reduce the chance of preventing irreversible climate change. We need to leave shale gas in the ground and invest in renewable energy instead.”

“Fracking companies and the Government need to know they will find huge opposition wherever they plan to drill. We were pleased that Dawn Butler agrees that we should put a stop to fracking now, and that renewable energy is the way forward to secure our energy needs.”

On renewable energy, Brent FoE have been instrumental in setting up a local community energy co-operative, 'Brent Pure Energy', to put solar panels on schools and public buildings. Dawn favours extending the scheme to local churches and a mosque in Willesden Green, and she is also setting up a 'Green Cabinet' to focus attention on sustainability in Brent.

Dawn this week was voted Vice Chair of PRASEG, the All Party Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group - a group of MPs and senior industry stakeholders working together to promote issues around sustainable and renewable energy in Parliament. As Vice Chair Dawn will play a leading role in helping PRASEG hold the government to account and ensuring the UK plays a leading role worldwide on energy and climate change.

Ensuring warmer homes and ending fuel poverty is also a particular concern for both Brent FoE and Dawn. As a Magistrate she sees many people in court penalised for defaulting on energy bills. She wants to end the high tariffs charged by pre-payment meters, and to encourage landlords to insulate homes. NHS budgets will also benefit as cold homes mean poor health.

Dawn Butler, Labour MP for Brent Central says, “Ending fuel poverty and protecting tenants against excessive fuel bills are high on my agenda. I'm on board - Friends of the Earth are pushing on an open door with me on this, but it's not so open it's letting all the energy out!”

On airport expansion Dawn opposes the proposed expansion at Heathrow, but is not convinced that future expansion might be needed based on 'the business case'. She supports London Mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan, who has come out against Heathrow. FoE believe airports should not be allowed to expand, and that most of the extra capacity is for transfers so would not make much impact on UK business. The group did not agree with Dawn's belief that there are 'greener' planes. We believe the only 'green' plane is the 'solar impulse' a solar powered plane, which recently paused its round the world flight. Flying still remains the most carbon-intensive form of travel.

The lobby of Parliament is was organised by the Climate Coalition – the UK's largest group of people dedicated to action on climate change. For more details see http://fortheloveof.org.uk/. Brent FoE has a website at www.brentfoe.com. To sign FoE's urgent petition to keep Lancashire frack free go to https://www.foe.co.uk/act/psfl.

Energy Solutions must stay to protect the poor from fuel poverty

One of the most troubling aspects of the current round of cuts is that organisations that contribute to long term stability and long-term savings in expenditure are losing their funding in order to balance current budgets. Sometimes those long-term costs are paid by individuals or departments outside the Council: cost shunting.  This is the case with the Stonebridge Adventure Playground and the Youth Service where long term costs of the loss of those services may be picked up by the criminal justice system or mental health - much more expensive in the long run and often at the social expense of ruined lives.

Energy Solutions is another such case:

Energy Solutions who are housed in the chapel building close to the Welsh Harp Environmental Study Centre in Birchen Grove also threatened with closure, have a long term aim of reducing the carbon footprint of the borough contributing to the fight against climate change.  In the process they are helping residents, landlords, schools and businesses reduce fuel bills and emissions and providing a vital educational function.

They work with local organisations such as Citizens Advice Bureau and AgeUKBrent.
 
 

--> During the period since January 2012, Energy Solution clients have benefited in excess of £717,000 in disputed or refunded gas and electricity bills, trust fund applications and ECO funded affordable warmth measures (heating and insulation).
This figure could have been considerably higher if DECC/ECO funding for heating and insulation upgrades had not dried up early in 2014, and if Energy Solutions had been able to find funding for health and wellbeing based referrals.

Much of their time is spent trying to find funds from pension funds, friendly societies and other legacy organisations, this has resulted some good outcomes - recently the banking benevolent fund paid for a new boiler for a pensioner who didn’t qualify through benefit proxies but was none the less in hardship.

It is cases like these that the organisation find most challenging, where need is great - and often urgent, but  proxy profiling takes no account of individual circumstances, so there is little they can offer other than a personal visit and the provision of advice on how to make the most of the assets they have in terms of behavioural change, tariff or energy company switching and energy saving advice.

Their new ‘Boilers on Prescription’ funding approach is aimed at Public/NHS health and Adult Social Care services in Brent and is unique in that it proposes to prioritise patients/residents living in cold homes based on their clinical need rather than the benefit proxy. Health and wellbeing first and all the other, often conflicting issues, around housing, family ‘obligations’, and conflicted interests later.
Energy Solutions’ approach to Social Prescribing has been described elsewhere, but the ‘Boilers on Prescription’  LINK hub concept they propose could be extended into long term help and assistance from the third sector to make it easier to move vulnerable private tenants into more suitable housing, and provide a holistic circle of support to help improve social isolation, loneliness and mental stress - saving countless ££££’s to the local authority, Public Health and the NWLHCT, the CCG.

In the words of Dr Tim Ballard, Vice Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, “What’s not to like?”


The proposal in Brent Council's budget consultation states baldly:

Cease grant to Energy Solutions. Discontinuation of grant  for the provision of energy efficiency / fuel poverty advice.

The grant is just £50,000.Energy Solutions must stay

It comes with the virtual abolition of the Environment Department and the ending of many of Brent's green initiatives. The Council has made public statements about fuel poverty and only in December 2014 announced a series of roadshows on energy saving LINK

In his 'My Priorities' blog in  December 2012 LINK   Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council said:

Too many people in our community live in fuel poverty - unable to afford to turn the heating on over Christmas. That is why we will launch a Brent Collective Switching scheme.

But the answer is more than just switching and the work that Energy Solutions does with the poor, the elderly, the sick and with schools and other organisations is absolutely vital.

If the Council's aim is to protect the vulnerable, then Energy Solutions must not be cut. If it is serious about its commitment to combating climate change, then Energy Solutions must not be cut. If it wants to invest in the long term wellbeing of the community, then Energy solutions must not be cut.

 More about Energy Solutions work and contacts HERE  

Energy Solutions also collects donations to help those in fuel poverty. Older people who received the extra DWP winter fuel allowance but are not in need may be particularly keen to donate HERE 

Rise up against the Coalition on Climate Change and Fuel Poverty

Left to Right: Sophie Neuborg, Suzanne Jeffery, Martin Francis (Chair) Ruth London, Murad Qureshi

There were stirring calls for action on climate change and energy when Brent residents met together at an urgent meeting on 'Energy Crisis, Climate Crisis - What is the solution?' at Chalkhill Primary School, Wembley.

Suzanne Jeffery, from One Million Climate Jobs, said that the Coalition Government had been exposed by the recent floods. The recognition of the connection between extreme weather events and climate change revealed Cameron's dismissal of 'green crap' as particularly ill-timed. In fact the government had locked the country into rising emissions that accelerated climate change through the 'dash for gas' and fracking, and Osborn's collusion with the oil and energy industries in his budget statement. Deregulation of planning regulations and cuts to the Environment Agency had worsened the impact of the highest ever rainfall last month.

With scientists predicting devastating consequences of a failure to act, campaigners had to use this period of heightened awareness to press home the message that there is still, just, time to act. There needed to be investment in renewable energy and a massive programme of insulation and other green measures through the creation of one million climate change jobs. As well as contributing to reducing energy usage and thus carbon emissions, they would also boost the economy.

Ruth London, from Fuel Poverty Action, said that 'climate change is poverty' as people unable to heat their homes or cook their food because of the high costs of energy were impacted by cold and damp and resulting ill-health and strain on relationships. Education was affected when children did not have a comfortable place to do their homework.  Fossil energy is subsidised and renewables are actually cheaper. The London Pensioners' Association had recognised this when they had passed a resolution calling for safe, clean energy.

Government policy meant that Housing Associations were scrapping insulation schemes and that some attempts at market solutions to the problem had been abandoned.  She said that the probloems was built into the nature of the market where the primary purpose was acculumation. The market was the opposite of caring:: 'what's good for thje market has nothing to do with what's good for people'.

Sophie Neuborg of Friends of the Earth said that there was a major crisis with 7 million people paying over 10% of their income to keep their houses warm and this would be 9m by 2016. FoE believed that energy saving measures should be supported from general taxation rather than levies on fuel bills. More incentives were needed to persuade landlords to make their properties energy efficient and hypothecated carbon taxes needed. She called for a revolution in the way energy was produced through community production of renewable energy.

Link to FoE actions including petition on fracking HERE

Murad Qureshi, London Assembly Member and chair of its Environment Committee, spoke about the highest rainfall levelo for 250 years, record river flows and rising ground water levels. The Thames Barrier, which had saved London from major flooding, and built by the GLC, would not have been built in current times.

He called for work envisaged for the future on flood defences to be brought forward. The Thames should be seen as an extension of the sea into London to bring home the issue. River restoration was needed in terms of London's hidden culverted rivers to protect the 24,000 London homes at high risk of flooding and there needed to be a stop to the concreting over of gardens that had removed the equivalent of 18 Hyde Parks from the capital.* We have to learn with live with water through adaptation and mitigations. Surveys had shown that 80% of the population were concerned not with housing or transport but with the high costs of gas, electricity and water. 68% had reduced their energy consumption because of the cost and half a million were depednent on food backs.

Boris Johnson had failed to take on the energy companies with EDF failing to deliver on their Olympic promises. The Mayor's retrofitting scheme had failed to meet its target with only 99,000 properties tackled amongst the millions in London.

In the discussion that followed there were calls for mass demonstrations on climate change, re-nationalisation of the energy and water companies on a more participative and response model that previously, action against British Gas in particular, campaigns against pre-payment meters and how they make the poor pay more - including Can't Pay-Won't Pay, pickets of the BBC over their insistence on 'balancing' discussion over climate change giving equal time to the sceptics, demand new housing incorporates solar ppwer roof tiles, and the need to reach out to faith groups about the issue.

Videos of the event can be found here:

Introduction and Suzanne Jefferies http://youtu.be/MbzDUNHynxQ

Ruth London http://youtu.be/7gSPwiWXHvw

Sophie Neuberg http://youtu.be/RbyATRY5NFY

Murad Qureshi http://youtu.be/VLb45JLTBRY

Questions and discussion 1  http://youtu.be/qWBtR2xGn0Y

Questions and discussion 2  http://youtu.be/JlzAru-abnc

* I am disappointed that so much of the Quintain development around the Civic Centre and Wembley Stadium is hard landscaping with potted shrubs. We were promised new parks which I imagined would include grassed areas and flower beds - as well as children's play faciltities.. A question of maintenance costs?

EMERGENCY PUBLIC MEETING: MORE FLOODS, MORE FUEL POVERTY?

ENERGY CRISIS, CLIMATE CRISIS – WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

Emergency public meeting organised by Brent Campaign Against Climate Change and Brent Friends of the Earth. Supported by Brent Housing Action, Brent Trades Union Council and Brent Fightback. Speakers: Sophie Neuburg (Friends of the Earth), Ewa Jasiewicz (Fuel Poverty Action), Pilgrim Tucker (Unite Community), Suzanne Jeffery (One Million Climate Jobs Campaign)

Thursday 20 February, 7.30 pm, Chalkhill Primary School Sports Hall, Anton Place,  Bowater Road (off Chalkhill Road), Wembley Park. Free admission – all welcome.

Wembley Park Tube or buses: 83, 182, 245, 297

 

Please donate to Brent CAB Winter Warmth Fund

Campaigns against the 'Big Six' energy companies and for the nationalisation of energy companies have taken off recently as the issue of fuel poverty becomes more dire. Essential if the long term problem is to be tackled.

Meanwhile there is an immediate need by some individuals and families for help with their fuel bills as they face the grim choice of whether to 'eat or heat'. Brent Citizens Advice Bureau and the Tricycle Theatre are again running their Winter Warmth Fund which is now in its fifth year. To date it has raised £14,469 plus £2,619.04 in Gift Aid.

The Fund has provided 101 awards for a total £13,714 to people receiving benefits, elderly people, people with disabilities and families with young chidren.

All payments are made direct to the utility suppliers to help reduce gas and electricity arrears.

Among the donations are those from better off pensioners who donate their Winter Fuel Allowance to those they consider worse off.

Cheques should be made payable to Brent Citizens' Advice Bureau (Winter Fuel) and sent to:

Brent Citizens' Advice Bureau,
270-272 High Road,
Willesden
London NW10 2EY

Greens put the heat on energy companies and the three main parties

The Green Party today accused the Coalition and Labour of “political point-scoring” in the energy bill debate, arguing that meaningful measures to address the problems of cold homes, fuel poverty, and soaring bills are being sidelined.

In a new briefing paper outlining its vision for a low-carbon, affordable energy future, the party calls for a major nationwide programme to make all homes energy efficient.   If funded through ‘recycled’ carbon taxes this could bring an estimated nine out of ten homes out of fuel poverty, quadruple carbon savings, and create up to 200,000 jobs across the UK.   

It also argues for a transformation of the energy market to allow community energy firms priority access to the Grid, and for greater financial support for renewable energy companies.

The paper criticises the Coalition’s changes to the Energy Company Obligation, arguing that “watering down efficiency commitments at precisely the time they are most needed

In a section on Labour’s policy, the Green Party says it welcomes the relief that a short term price freeze would bring, but questions why Labour is not pushing for greater local ownership and democratic control over our energy infrastructure.  

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:

It’s a scandal that the big energy companies are making large profits whilst many people are struggling with high bills and cold homes.  Sadly, by focussing on headline grabbing schemes, both main parties are sidelining  meaningful solutions to the energy bill crisis.

The failure of both main parties to seriously get behind serious energy efficiency measures is a key reason that energy bills remain high.   

We need a nationwide programme to make all homes super-energy efficient – with full insulation, modern boilers, and renewable energy sources.  By funding this through carbon tax revenues, the Government could bring nine out of ten homes out of fuel poverty, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

View the briefing paper HERE

Lucas: PM's 'green crap' comment betrays his contempt

Commenting on reports that the Prime Minister has dismissed fuel bill levies that fund energy efficiency measures, as “green crap”, Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:

“These levies include funding for energy efficiency measures which help low income households cope with soaring energy prices.

“Whatever language the Prime Minister has used to describe them, his determination to roll them back says everything about his contempt for the most vulnerable, and his lack of interest in serious action to tackle climate change, or to bring down fuel prices in the long term

“By focusing the debate on green levies, which represent only a fraction of energy bills, the Government is obscuring the real reason for rising costs – which is the increasing wholesale price of gas, and the profits of the Big Six energy companies.

“If the Prime Minister really wanted to help families with their fuel bills, he’d be investing in a major energy efficiency programme to super-insulate the country’s housing stock.  This would bring nine out of ten homes out of fuel poverty, quadruple carbon savings, and create up to 200,000 jobs.”

London Green MEP Jean Lambert also  added her voice to the debate.

Ms Lambert has challenged the Prime Minster to set out some alternative proposals for reducing energy use and helping fund the next generation of clean, renewable power generation.

She said: "Given that the green taxes Mr Cameron is today reported to have described as 'green crap' are designed to reduce energy use and help pay for the next generation of power through clean renewable sources, the question is: how will he achieve those goals by other means?

"As over 60% of the rise in bills is due a rise in wholesale prices of energy from 2010 to 2012, how will bills be reduced if there is no comprehensive effort to reduce energy consumption and provide alternative, domestic renewable resources?

"There is much the Government could do to improve the way in which this money is spent in order to reduce the amount of energy people use and they should concentrate their attention there, not on cutting revenue for essential measures - unless they plan to pay for them in other ways, in which case - let's hear those proposals, if they exist."

Lucas: Government must retain obligation to tackle fuel poverty

The Green MP Caroline Lucas will today accuse the Coalition of trying to “weasel out” of a long-standing duty to eliminate fuel poverty.

Ahead of today’s Commons debate on fuel prices she has drawn attention to a move by the Government to abolish its statutory obligation to eliminate fuel poverty.  

Under the 2000 Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act, the Government has a duty to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016.   However, the Coalition tabled an amendment to the Energy Bill in the Lords, which would replace this duty with a commitment merely to address the situation of people living in fuel poverty, without any targets or timescale.

Lucas has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for ambitious fuel poverty targets to be reinstated, with the support of other MPs on the cross party parliamentary fuel poverty group.

The motion urges Government and parliament to support an amendment from crossbench peer Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan, which reintroduces energy efficiency targets in order to ensure robust action to eradicate fuel poverty.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:

It’s a scandal that millions of households in England are currently in fuel poverty, with this figure set to grow dramatically as wages fall and energy costs rise. The Coalition is weaselling out of its duty to help people struggling with cold homes and high fuel bills.  Without targets set in legislation, there is no guarantee that this or any future government will take the necessary action on fuel poverty.

The Coalition must rethink its decision to downgrade its commitment to ending fuel poverty and recognise that energy efficiency provides the only cost effective long-term solution to unaffordable energy bills.  This needs to be a higher priority for all politicians. Having clear fuel poverty and energy efficiency objectives in primary legislation is a crucial first step.

This would help drive a nationwide upgrade to the housing stock, which would be a great boost for the energy efficiency industry and jobs too.