Thousands living in fuel poverty benefit from £50,000 grant

Over 3,300 households dealing with fuel poverty in Liverpool have benefited from a partnership between energy giant Scottish Power and Mayor Joe Anderson’s Hope Fund.

The ScottishPower Energy People Trust, a charity which provides funding to registered companies to help vulnerable people out of fuel poverty, awarded a £50,000 grant to Mayor Joe Anderson’s Hope Fund last October.

Around 14 per cent of households in the city are living in fuel poverty, the worst rate in the country.

It is estimated poor housing conditions cause up to 500 deaths and 5,000 illnesses requiring medical attention each year.

Over the last 12 months, trained energy advisors from the city council’s Healthy Homes team have been working with local families to help them reduce energy costs, including switching to cheaper tariffs, checking they are claiming all the benefits they are entitled to and improving energy efficiency.

The grant provided was used to bring in additional funds and in total it helped 3,312 households. This includes: £230,000 worth of energy efficiency improvements including repairs to boilers and radiators, gas safety checks, whole house draught-proofing and the installation of LED light bulbs; £33,060 of fuel debt assistance to help people pay gas and electricity bills; and making sure households were claiming all the benefits they were entitled to worth £213,000 for 122 households.

Th team also attended 57 community events and visited GP surgeries to raise awareness of fuel poverty. 39 frontline staff were also trained in giving energy efficiency advice.

Joe Anderson, Mayor, said: “The funding from the ScottishPower Energy People’s Trust has made a huge difference – we have turned the £50,000 into almost half a million pounds worth of improvements for local households.

“Tackling poverty is a priority for the city because there are far too many people struggling to make ends meet due to the impact of austerity.

“We have also set up our own electricity and gas supplier, The Leccy, to offer competitive tariffs and have also established the Mayoral Hardship totaling £2 million over the next three years to alleviate growing pressures on low income households.”