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Warm Front Report

Green support services company Eaga has today announced that the Warm Front Scheme helped a record number of households last year.

The Government-funded Scheme provides heating and insulation grants to low-income households across the country.

In the year to the end of March 2008, around 268,900 households - including many of those hit hardest by spiralling energy bills - have benefited from the scheme.

Since its inception in 2000, Warm Front has now assisted more than 1.7 million households, making their homes warmer, healthier and more affordable to heat.

By improving domestic energy efficiency, Warm Front is helping to cut residential carbon emissions and lower fuel bills. This means it is both helping to tackle environmental challenges such as climate change and addressing fuel poverty issues, where households are unable to meet the cost of keeping warm in the home.

Speaking at the launch of this year's Warm Front annual report, Environment Minister Phil Woolas said:

"The Warm Front scheme is crucial in our fight to help those in fuel poverty. It makes homes energy efficient, reduces domestic carbon footprints and it helps slash fuel bills."

"In the current economic climate fuel bills are high and we need to ensure those vulnerable to fuel poverty receive the financial assistance they need. It is a challenge but it's one that we will do everything we can to meet."

Mr Woolas also paid tribute to diverse range of stakeholders, charities and voluntary groups working in partnership with Eaga to ensure Warm Front reaches as many people as possible.

Paul Varley, from Eaga, added: "Warm Front is more popular, more visible and has a higher profile than at any other point in the history of the scheme. Working together with our referral networks, contractors and all other partners we have been able to change the lives of more than half a million households in the past two years."

Last year was also a record year for the number of Benefit Entitlement Checks (BECs) offered through Warm Front. BECs are designed to help customers who may not be claiming benefits to receive what they are entitled to.

Around 50,000 BECs were carried out last year, with almost a third of those customers helped going on to receive additional income worth on average almost £1,480 a year.

With the threat of more energy prices on the horizon, Warm Front is expected to play an increasingly important role in efforts to tackle fuel poverty and deliver the assurance of affordable warmth to those who need it most.

Notes to Editors

  • Eaga plc is the UK’s largest residential energy efficiency provider. The company is a leader in the provision of innovative and sustainable services, products and solutions that address the environmental, social and energy efficiency objectives of Government and the private sector both nationally and internationally.
  • Working in partnership with central and local government Eaga is positioned at the heart of policy-making and front-end delivery of social and environmental improvement programmes. Eaga operates across the UK and in the Republic of Ireland, India and Canada employing over 3,500 people.
  • Eaga was established in Newcastle in 1990 to lead government funded efforts to improve the living conditions of vulnerable people living in cold, damp and energy inefficient homes across England. Since its inception, Eaga has made a positive difference to over 5 million disadvantaged households across the UK, by installing energy efficiency measures and central heating.
  • Eaga holds the contract to deliver the £1.5 billion Warm Front programme in England, the cornerstone of government's target to eliminate fuel poverty by installing energy efficiency measures in vulnerable homes by 2010. Eaga also works with devolved nation governments to deliver similar schemes across the UK.
  • As a co-owned business, Eaga is one of only a handful of UK organisations where every employee with over a year’s service is entitled to a share in the success of the business. Eaga’s commitment to co-ownership is an integral part of the values that define the ethos of the business and what it means to be an Eaga employee.
  • The Government has set targets for all local authorities to have all social rented homes meeting Decent Homes standards by 2010. This requires homes to be fit for habitation, in a reasonable state of repair, with reasonably modern facilities and services and a reasonable degree of thermal comfort.
  • Since 2000, Eaga has invested over £3 million in the independent Eaga Partnership Charitable Trust which funds research into solutions to fuel poverty.

Media Contact

Rik Kendall
Media Relations Manager
Eaga plc
07852 134 154
0191 245 8342

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