Hundreds of thousands of homes throughout the country are set to benefit from specialist in-person advice to make energy efficiency improvements and cost savings, after the government unveiled backing for 36 pilot services.
It has awarded £20mn across a host of projects, which will be trialling new ways of providing expert advice to those most in need. Hard-to-treat homes are a key target, meaning listed buildings, as well as those hard-to-reach groups, which include the elderly and those without access to the internet. It is expected that it could help more than 125,000 households across England.
Examples of services to receive support include energy cafes in Birmingham, which offer people advice on how they can make their homes more energy efficient. The government has awarded £800,000 which will be used to make this advice more accessible to more people. Elsewhere, £302,000 will support a “green doctor” working across North Yorkshire and Cumbria to carry out home check-ups for older and low-income households, offering guidance on which energy efficiency measures would be best suited for their homes.
Other projects to receive support include a retrofit electric bus, bringing on-the-road energy saving tips to customers across North Yorkshire, as well as an electric energy van in Lincolnshire. The van will travel to rural areas of the county, explaining how government schemes can help them reduce their energy usage.
