01592 858458

254a High Street, KY1 1LA

info@greenerkirkcaldy.org.uk

Warm Home Discount scheme

The Warm Home Discount is a four year scheme which replaces the social tariffs some households got from their suppliers. There are two groups the discoiunt is aimed at:

• The Core Group
• The Broader Group

The Core Group is a specified group of older customers on low incomes. For the first year of the scheme eligibility for the Core Group rebate is linked to those on the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit. The UK Government is passing on details of this group to energy suppliers, for them to apply the discount to accounts this winter. The UK government will also write to this group to inform them of the discount.

The Broader Group are low income and vulnerable households who are fuel poor *, or in a fuel poverty risk group. Participating energy suppliers decide the eligibility criteria for the Broader Group, subject to the approval of the regulator OFGEM. Suppliers will decide on their own way of contacting this group. We have details of each supplier’s criteria in the centre and can access further briefings should you wish to check if you might be eligible.

Second update on Lang Toun Energy Savers project

We recently compiled our second short report on the progress of our Lang Toun Energy Savers project from August to October (Acrobat file 1.3 MB). It is very readable and only seven pages long.

This project is funded by the Ebico Trust for Sustainable Development and we are very grateful for their funding.

Green Deal/ECO consultation

You may have heard of the Green Deal and ECO (Energy Company Obligation). These are the UK government’s new schemes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as they have to under the 2008 Climate Change Act. Green Deal/ECO will replace a swathe of schemes in use at the moment, dramatically changing the way energy conservation is undertaken. The Scottish government is looking at the Scottish aspects of these schemes and how things decided in Holyrood fit in with things decided in Westminster.

This is all being done using very much the opposite of a community based approach. All the main decisions have been made by people in London, who have high hopes of the approach they have thought up. There are some great improvements over the current schemes with Green Deal/ECO, but there are also some concerns.

The authors now wish the community to get involved with the details of Green Deal/ECO and seek “your views on the details of the Green Deal and ECO policies that are to be implemented in secondary legislation and under the energy licensing framework”. There is a web site which explains the schemes more and a web site for the consultation. This is your opportunity to have a little influence on the proposals. The closing date is 18/01/2012.

Free cavity wall and loft insulation in Glenrothes

Fife Council successfully bid to the Scottish Government’s Universal Home Insulation Scheme for £575,000 to run the scheme in partnership with Energy Saving Scotland advice centre (ESSac) and the installer Everwarm. Letters about this offer should now have arrived at eligible households.

Anyone who is unsure about this offer should grab it with both hands, as people did with a similar offer in Dunfermline last year.

The areas covered are

• Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch,
• Glenrothes Central and Thornton,
• Glenrothes West and Kinglassie.

More information from Fife Council.

Solid wall insulation pilot in Fife

A Scottish Government pilot scheme to help people with solid wall insulation in Fife (and Orkney) has been announced. This pilot scheme will take the form of an interest free loan for installing insulation. It will be run by the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre (ESSac) and offer a loan of £15,000, to be repaid over up to 10 years. This is not a grant. The insulation would be installed by an appointed contractor.

In Fife the pilot scheme will only run in the following council wards, Howe of Fife and Tay Coast, East Neuk and Landward, and Cupar. In essence this all of NE Fife except for the area around and between St Andrews and Newport. It will not run in other wards. Letters about this offer will be arriving at households in these wards from the 12th of December.

If you are, or know of, an individual in these areas who is keen to install solid wall insulation – either internal or external – and who might want to take up this loan, please get in touch with us and we will pass your details on. Anyone doing a major refurbishment of a property might be particularly interested.

Interested households interested can also

• Come to the event on 19th January at Howe of Fife rugby club, Cupar
• Email advice@se.energysavingscotland.org.uk with your name, address and phone numbers, so you can be called back
• Complete and return a form which comes with the letter to get a call back from an advisor
• Call the advice centre on 0800 512 012. The advice line is open 8am-8pm Monday to Thursday, 8am-5pm Friday and 9-5 Saturday.

The timetable is

• advice visits in January/early Feb, to participate people would need to commit to install in January/February 2012
• apply to the loan fund by mid March
• have the work done by September 2012.

Many people have asked us about solid wall insulation, as they live in properties which are unsuitable for cavity wall insulation. It is worth doing, but more expensive than many people are prepared to pay. The loan would spread the cost.

We in Greener Kirkcaldy are delighted to see a scheme on solid wall insulation and hope it does well. Our only regret is that this pilot scheme does not cover Kirkcaldy.

Solid wall insulation also features in the UK government’s Green Deal/Energy Company Obligation schemes, which are being worked up at the moment and are intended to be introduced from the autumn of 2012. So if this pilot is not suitable there should be another chance, though this will be under Green Deal/ECO terms.