We put our customers at the heart of what we do and we’re consistently reviewing our approach to provide our customers with the right service and support.
We support the vulnerable and fuel poor, help society to access energy and to use it efficiently by providing customer focused products and services.
Read more about the different ways we’re meeting our customer needs.
Energy Right
Mrs B is a 76 year-old providing support as a carer to her husband who suffers from dementia. The cost of heating her home was one of her main concerns and caused her stress, it was an issue that she felt she had no control over due to her income. After talking to our EnergyRight advisers, we realised that Mrs B was eligible for free cavity wall insulation. After the first meeting, Mrs B said “I now feel less stressed and more in control of my situation and don’t fear my energy bill any more”.
The Caring Energy Fund
Mrs R was referred to the CaringEnergy Fund by a colleague within the StayWarm call centre. She was worried that her gas central heating system, which was over 25 years old, would break down over the winter. Although she is on a small income, she does not receive any benefits that would qualify her for help from WarmFront.
Her application was approved for a new gas wet central heating system which was installed in 2009. Although it’s too early to say at the moment, it should mean lower consumption and bills. She’s already benefiting from a greater peace of mind and wrote to us to say thank you!
Challenge 100 Project
In November 2009, we began a project called Challenge 100 to find out what the most effective way was to deliver support to families in fuel poverty. We have been helping our vulnerable customers for many years now and committed to spend £59m on tariffs and services between 2008 and 20011 to help them affordably heat their homes. But with energy bills on the rise, and the Government looking at new schemes for helping families in fuel poverty, we wanted to make sure that the support we provided was making the biggest difference possible. Through our Challenge 100 project, we worked with 100 families, in 100 homes across the country with the aim to see a positive change in fuel poverty levels within 100 days.
One Stop Shop
In order to provide all the support required in a coordinated and tailored way, we set up a ‘One Stop Shop’ which provided:
free energy efficiency measures such as wall and loft insulation
high efficiency central heating or draught proofing
simple energy efficiency advice
information on tariffs and payment methods
benefit entitlement checks
We worked with a coalition of 12 expert partners to make sure that this package of support met the needs of the families that we worked with and we published the full results of our Challenge 100 project in October 2010. You can access the report below.
Challenge 100 facts
We eradicated fuel poverty for 42 families
We help families in Birmingham, Luton, Manchester, County Durham and South Staffordshire
We struggled to help those families who needed more than energy efficiency measures and advice to take them out of fuel poverty
Some people didn’t want to talk to us about their finances, or were happy with their current energy tariff/payment method
Sometimes the right energy efficiency measures weren’t available under the Government’s framework
