A community energy project on the Wirral, which has received funding from the proceeds of penalties levied on energy companies by Ofgem was visited by the energy regulator this week. 
 

Jonathan Brearley, CEO of Ofgem, visited Energy Projects Plus on Tuesday, 31 October 2023, to see how the charity helps energy customers from Birkenhead to Bollington, with household energy saving tips, understanding bills, how to contact suppliers and accessing grants and schemes for home energy improvements, all as part of its mission to reduce fuel poverty.  
 

The charity receives £446,898 over 2 years from the Energy Redress Scheme for its “Warm and Well” project. The Redress Scheme was set up by Ofgem to redistribute penalty payments collected by the regulator from energy companies who have breached its requirements. This can range from poor customer service to not keeping effective records, to not supplying customers with their final bills in a timely fashion.  
 

The fund is administered by the Energy Saving Trust, which uses the money to give out grants to the right places, people and projects. Since 2018, Energy Saving Trust has redistributed over £100 million from Ofgem fines to targeted projects, meaning that over 500,000 households have also been reached with energy advice. 


Ofgem CEO Jonathan Brearley said:- "We set the Redress Fund up to make sure that charities like Energy Projects Plus benefit from the money received through Ofgem’s enforcement action in the form of penalty payments. Winter is a particularly tough time of year for many vulnerable customers and the help and support being offered to vulnerable residents across Merseyside and Cheshire was great to see. However, from speaking to the people being helped by the charity, it's clear that suppliers need to do more to support their customers. We recently published tough new standards setting out our expectations on energy firms around customer service and we will be monitoring this closely."  


Energy Projects Plus Chief Executive, Peter Owen, said:- “The Energy Redress scheme provides vital support to our organisation. It enables us to give free advice and assistance to vulnerable residents across Merseyside and Cheshire, meaning they can keep warm and well in their home at a cost they can afford.”  

With a rise of 100,000 in the number of fuel poor households in England to 3.26 million in 2022, meaning that 13.4% of households in England are in fuel poverty, this support is now more vital than ever. For Cheshire and Merseyside, this figure is even higher- at 13.9%.
 

At the visit, Jonathan Brearley met customers and staff and heard how the service customers are getting from some energy suppliers is still not as good as it should be, with many customers still unable to get through to their supplier on the phone.  
 

Energy Projects Plus has helped over 9000 households across the Wirral over the last year alone, and is pioneering joined up approaches such as GP heat referrals, as well as a pilot study with Liverpool University.