Partnership secures £400k to help householders achieve affordable warmth

October 7, 2015 at 6:05 pm

AffordableWarmthOct2015 — Robert Leslie, Peter Rickard and Mike Cooper, of the Affordable Warmth Partnership, which has secured £400,000 funding from the British Gas Energy Trust. Missing from the picture is Ali Gunn. (www.theorcadianphotos.co.uk)

A major project to help households in Orkney to heat their homes affordably is about to get under way after a partnership, led by local charity THAW Orkney, secured almost £400,000 from the British Gas Energy Trust Healthy Homes Scheme.

The Affordable Warmth Partnership — involving THAW Orkney, Orkney Care & Repair and Orkney Citizens Advice Bureau — will see the creation of a project team to help folk through the often confusing world of energy efficiency programmes.

Advice will also be provided on energy saving, energy switching and income maximisation.

The team will be made up of three THAW Orkney employees, along with the creation of new posts at Orkney CAB and Orkney Care & Repair. Recruitment will start this week.

THAW Orkney chairman Peter Rickard said: “The fuel poverty figures for Orkney are currently 58 per cent according to the Scottish House Condition Survey, rising to 82 per cent for pensioner households and THAW Orkney came to the conclusion that there was a need for a project to co-ordinate help for those that need it the most.

“These are often the people who miss out on help because it is reliant on having internet access or on filling out complex forms.

“Basically, by providing a hand-holding service through the process, our aim is to ensure that more people who really need help get it.”

Following recruitment to the five posts, and any initial training, it is planned that the service will be up and running and accepting its first referrals in December.