Community warming - minimising fuel poverty

By Cathering Cotterill

Do you remember the news headlines and shock surrounding the energy price hikes planned for the winter of 2022/23? We were introduced to terms such as ‘fuel poverty’ and ‘heating or eating’.
The winter looked bleak for so many families, especially those living in properties where insulation had not been a priority and good practice had been neglected. 
Local councils rushed to find ways to create support and limited resources were gathered to provide advice and warm spaces. 
Our group were contacted by Stocksbridge Town Council and asked if we could help in anyway. We considered what would be the easiest way to help people keep their homes warmer instead of simply turning up the thermostat. Our ideas involved making thick curtains and draught excluders to block draughts from external doors, giving away foil insulation for the back of radiators and tape to stick over the gaps in windows. We could also lag any exposed hot water pipes and replace old light bulbs for new LED ones

Our client base would come from people in fuel poverty on benefits or pension credit. Fuel poverty as defined by the National Energy Action Charity is any family or individual spending more than 10% of their income on energy.  We contacted all support agencies in the area to ask them for referrals. This was a long list! GPs, Drop-in centres, Social Prescribers, Food banks, Churches, Social Care, Schools and more.

In September 2022 funding applications began in earnest and since then we have been generously sponsored by The Bridge Shop Stocksbridge, The National Lottery Community Fund, Northern Powergrid, South Yorkshire Community Foundation and Sheffield City Council.
In the interests of economy, we wondered if we could adapt existing curtains or make them from donated fabrics. We were very lucky to buy a large quantity of fabric form The Barnsley Hospice shop and had pre-used curtains delivered, now we just needed someone who could sew……

The WI were great and sent volunteers to our now regular sewing workshops. We measured, cut, sewed and stuffed aided by tea and Pete’s delicious cake and a stock of curtains began to build up. Other stock was ordered and we awaited our first clients.

After this, the next task was to survey properties and fit the products. Members of the group gave their time to complete the surveys of prospective clients and the tasks from each property were allocated to our two handy people – Mike and Josette, who were ready and waiting. But, all of this needs to run smoothly and the project is ably coordinated by Janet our project administrator.
So, over a year down the line, we are still going strong ie: we still have money left to spend! We have been a little surprised and disappointed that 

the number of clients has not been as high as we’d first thought, but we go on trying to increase awareness of our service. We have also added new eligibility criteria to try to ‘catch’ more people. We now include people with cardiovascular conditions, respiratory disease, limited mobility and immunosuppression. 

You may know someone who would benefit from the Community Warming project, if so please let us know.