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Disclaimer: The views expressed within this publication are individual and not necessarily shared by the editorial committee, the Home Energy Conservation Association (HECA), the Energy Saving Trust, Leicester City Council or our sponsors.
East Pennine HECA ForumYork & Humber
Chair: Paul Maplethorpe 01709 823 [email protected]
Vice -Chair: Jane Mears01482 [email protected]
Secretariat: Simon Tao01484 353 [email protected]
Issue 13 - conference edition 2006
HECA Network News is the quarterly news magazine of UK HECA –the UK Home Energy Conservation Association
Home EnergyConservation
Association
South West HECA Forum
Chair: Colin Anderson01752 307176
Vice Chair: Erica Pretty01202 633 428
Secretariat: Mike Brain01594 545367
Welsh HECA Forum
Chair: Steve Martin01443 864645
Vice-Chair: Bill Jones01978 297 208
Secretariat: Zoë Livermore01633 223111
West Midlands HECA Forum
Chair: Graham Jones01584 813 377
Vice-Chair: Neil Morton
0121 3036 148neil.morton@
birmingham.gov.uk
Secretariat: Ellie Cooper
0121 262 6402ellie.cooper
@hestia-europe.com
Home Energy Officers’ Network(HEON) - North West
Chair:Brian Sexton
0161 242 5803/[email protected]
Secretariat/Vice-Chair:Alison Hartley
0161 242 [email protected]
North East Domestic Energy Forum
Chair: Steve Kent0191 433 [email protected]
Vice Chair: Ian Bloomfield01388 761 [email protected]
Secretariat: Wendi Wheeler01642 777 [email protected]
Northern Ireland HECAAdvisory Panel
Representative: Noel Rice02890 240 588
London HECA Forum
Chair: Ian Lane0208 8708 [email protected]
Vice-Chair: Jeremy Hopkins020 7641 [email protected]
Secretariat: Sarah Hitchcock0845 450 [email protected]
Scottish HECA Officers’ Network (SHON)
Chair: Stephen Cunningham01506 773744
Secretariat: Scott Restrick0141 226 3064
Home Energy Officers’ Network (HEON) - Eastern
Chair: Bruce Pittingale07918 601 [email protected]
Representative: Julia Blackwell01480 388 [email protected]
Secretariat: John Davis01733 262 [email protected]
East Midlands HECA Forum
Chair: Denise Marsdon01933 [email protected]
Vice-Chair:Alison McCafferty0116 299 [email protected]
Secretariat:Ros Badley0116 299 [email protected]
South East HECA Forum
Chair: Kathy Alcock01892 554 [email protected]
Vice Chair: Zoe Leader01903 737 [email protected]
Secretariat: Laura Russell020 7922 [email protected]
UK HECA
Acting Chair: Steve Martin
01443 [email protected]
Acting Vice Chair: Paul Maplethorpe
01709 823426
UK HECA Secretariat:
Helen Atkins
Tel: 0116 299 5133
For more information
on HECA, the Home
Energy Conservation
Association, visit
www.ukheca.org.uk
HECA Network News Edition 12 - Winter/Spring 2006
Home Movers in Chichester are Given Advice on How to Be Green and Energy-efficientHome Movers are being offered help to make their new home green and energy efficient thanks to a new scheme being introduced by Chichester District Council.
Every resident either renting or purchasing a new home from many of the District's estate agents will be given a Green Welcome Pack provided by the District Coun-cil. The Pack gives advice on how to make a home more energy efficient, in addi-tion to providing information on how to adopt a greener, more sustainable life-style.
The packs include: two energy saving light bulbs; a toilet cistern bag with tips on conserving water in the home; a green electricity tariff guide; a Home Energy Check from the West Sussex Energy Efficiency Advice Centre; dates of Farmers' Markets; a shopper's guide to buying environmentally friendly produce, and infor-mation on promotions for discounted home composters and water butts. In addi-tion, there is general information about the District plus much more.
Councillor Melva Bateman, Portfolio Holder for Housing at the District Council, said:
“One of the aims of the Council's Housing Strategy 2002-2007 is to improve the energy efficiency of homes and reduce fuel poverty. The Green Welcome Packs will assist people by giving them information on how they can save money and, at the same time, opt for goods and services that will help the environment,”
The estate and lettings agents participating in the scheme will also be providing all clients with a copy of the Council's 'Energy Efficiency and Your New Home' guide. This booklet will give residents practical advice on how to spot an energy efficient property and how they can improve the energy efficiency of their new home.
Councillor Andrew Shaxson, Portfolio Holder for the Environment at the District Council, said,
“The Green Welcome Pack should not only help residents save money, but will also help combat climate change by encouraging residents to reduce their house-hold carbon dioxide emissions, not only through energy efficiency and buying locally produced goods, but also by raising awareness of the benefits of recycling and water conservation.”
People can request a guide or refer to the Council's website for the 'Moving In, Moving Out' section, www.chichester.gov.uk
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Abbie Brook and Nichola Winserwith Chichester District Council’s new Green Welcome Pack
Big Lottery Fund for Renewable EnergyThe Big Lottery Fund, or BIG for short, is responsible for giving out half the money for good causes raised by the National Lottery, giving a budget of about £630 million a year. Funding covers health, education, environment and charitable purposes. BIG are committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of peo-ple most in need.
The £50 million Renewable Energy programme was launched in 2002 as part of Transforming Communities initia-tive and has been extended to a second round as a result of an under spend on the initial application round.
The programme is jointly delivered and funded with the Department of Trade and Industry with input from the Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs. In the first round, BIG has awarded £10 million to the off-shore wind sector, £29.9 million to biomass fuelled electricity generation and £3.2 million to small-scale biomass fuelled heat installations.
This round will focus on providing support to small-scale biomass heat and combined heat and power projects. This is in line with the recommendations of the Biomass Task Force report published in November 2005.
The programme will have a minimum of £2.6 million available for this grant round. Minimum grants available are £50,000 and up to £500,000. Completed applications for funding must be received by 5:00pm on 31 July 2006. Grants will be offered in September 2006.
The purpose of the second round of the Bio-energy Capital Grants Scheme is to promote the efficient use of biomass for energy by stimulating the deployment of biomass fuelled heat and combined heat and power (CHP) projects. It will do this by awarding capital grants towards the cost of equipment in complete installa-tions.
For an application form and guidance notes, visit the BIG website: www.biglotteryfund.org.ukInformation sourced from www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Wakefield HOTSPOTSHOTSPOTS is an innovative two-way referral scheme set-up in partnership with Wakefield Council Energy Advice Team, Wakefield Fire Service, the Energy Advice Centre and the Primary Care Trust (PCT).
HOTSPOTS was officially launched at Wakefield Fire Station on Monday 20 February. Phil Dobson, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration along with representatives from the Energy Advice Team, Strategic Housing, West Yorks Fire Ser-vice, the Primary Care Trust and the Energy Advice Centre were present at the launch.
Fire Officers perform 52,000 home visits across West Yorkshire every year and during these visits they meet people living in cold homes and in need of energy advice and assistance. With HOTSPOTS, they can now refer these households to the Energy Advice Centre by completing a specially designed prepaid referral card. The Energy Advice Centre will then contact the householder with energy advice and grants information. 25,000 referral cards in tear-off pads have been produced with funding from Eastern Wakefield PCT.
In turn, the Energy Advice Centre will also ask everyone who rings them if they want a Home Fire Safety visit. The initiative has only been operational for a short period of time and already over 80 referrals have been passed to the Fire Service from the Energy Advice Centre.
If it is an urgent case, the Fire Officer can contact the Energy Advice Centre direct using the 0800 number in the clients home.
Starting in January, the Council's Energy Advice Team started a program to train all Wakefield's Fire Officers with a short HOTSPOTS / fuel poverty briefing session. To date, 162 Officers have been trained.
The HOTSPOTS concept has taken off and gone so well that there are already plans to roll it out to Calderdale and other Wakefield frontline services. Other local authority areas in the region are also watch-ing the progress closely.
For more information, please contact Mark Hooton, Energy Advice Manager on 01977 727008 or [email protected].
1
Conference Report 2006After the early sell out of the 2005, Conference the steering group decided to look at larger venues for 2006, extending the capacity with the intention of accommodating all aspects of the conference under one roof. This was an ominous task with only three venues fitting the bill. It didn't take much per-suasion in choosing the Blackpool Hilton as it could accommodate up to 800 delegates and had 250 bedrooms - Slightly over our initial requirements, but our aim was big!
Again, this year, the Conference sold out quickly with 280 delegates and exhibitors attending, making it the
largest conference specifically for domestic energy offi-cers in the UK. One aspect of the conference that bene-fited from the venue's size was the exhibition area. Twenty companies had ample room to encourage offi-cers to sign up to their products and services. The room, which also hosted the gala dinner drinks reception, was the hub of activity throughout the conference.
The main aims of the conference are to provide informa-tion through speakers and workshops and to host a net-working event with opportunities for dialogue between the public and private sector, cementing relations within the energy field. Delegates that opted for two night's accommodation were treated to a pre-conference net-working drinks reception which was jointly hosted by UK
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HECA and our sponsor, Powergen. Time was well spent between the drinks table and chat-ting with colleagues. When prompted on the feedback form about the best aspects of the conference, one delegate summed it up per-fectly “Getting an overview of activity throughout the UK and networking (as always!)”, we couldn't agree more.
Day One
There was a varied selection of speakers on the first day with the previous National Chair of UK HECA, Don Lack, at the helm chairing pro-ceedings. Don welcomed and introduced del-egates to the conference before giving a brief
HECA
www.ukheca.org.uk/conference 4
UK HECA would like to thank the Conference sponsor, Powergen, as well as this year’s speakers, workshop facilitators, exhibitors, and, of course, all of the delegates and everyone else who has helped to make this the largest Home Energy Conference ever!
Visit the HECA Website to download slide show presentations and view videos of many of this year’s main room presentations as well as the Q&A Sessions and the ceremony of the Annual HECA Awards.
www.ukheca.org.uk/conference
5
presentation. He was followed by a welcome address given by the Worshipful The Mayor of Blackpool. This was Councillor Andrews first public engagement as Mayor, after only being app-ointed the day before. With the welcomes fin-ished, the morning session speakers took to the stage. Paul Stowers from the Local Government Office took to the podium first with a national over-view of the Government’s Expectations of the Energy Agenda. He looked at the current energy position, the Government's Energy White Paper, energy review and the role regions play in its deliv-ery. Richard Davies from Marches Energy Agency, a charity based in Shropshire, followed giving a motivational presentation on climate change with a reflective view on the timelines of our changing climate and possible future. He then expanded on this by providing a personal example of how com-munities can do their part in alleviating climate change. The final speaker of the first session was Ray Morgan, now Chief Executive of Woking Bor-ough Council. As Finance Director, Ray was a key driver in many successful energy efficiency pro-jects, which have won the Council awards for their approach and success. The key message from Ray was that securing backing, and subsequently funding, from senior members of the Council is fun-damental for projects to get started and succeed.
Before, and again after, lunch delegates could choose between five workshops per session, three of them repeated in each session (HECA review, Home Information Packs / Energie Cités Display Boards and Resources) and two workshops filled with best practice examples from across the UK. We couldn't, and didn't, anticipate the amount of delegates that wanted to attend the best practice workshops and had to unfortunately turn some del-egates away. We would like to thank everyone who facilitated a workshop and hope that your pro-jects have inspired others. Don't forget that all the slide-show presentations, from both the main room sessions and workshops, can be viewed on-line at www.ukheca.org.uk/conference, along with vid-eos of many of the main room speakers, the Q&A sessions and the HECA Award ceremony.
Colin Green captured delegates' attention after the workshops with a lively and speedy account of how to cope with climate change in the garden. He gave suggestions on appropriate planting for a changing climate, water conservation and envi-ronmentally friendly pest control. Simon Roberts, Chief Executive of Centre for Sustainable Energy, presented next on an effective local authority response to the new Climate Change Programme. Simon focused on 'Wilful Individuals' and the local and regional carbon management matrix, a per-
www.ukheca.org.uk/conference 6
Above: Delegates networking at The Conference Exhibition
Far Left: Registering delegates on the first morning
Centre Left: Sixteen separate presentations were given during the workshop sessions. Thanks to everyone involved! The slide-shows are available to download from the HECA Website
Near Left: Don’t forget, videos of the Q&A sessions are also available to view online as well as videos of many of the main room speakers at: www.ukheca.org.uk/conference
117
formance assessment and improvement tool which aims to move local authorities away from copying best practice examples and becoming leaders. Peter Brunt from DTI gave the final presen-tation of the day with a National Policy Picture.
Gala Dinner
After a hard day's learning, delegates found time to relax in the exhibition area at the Lord Mayor of Blackpool and Blackpool Council's civic drinks reception, another networking opportunity before guests were called to the main room by our Toast-master, aka John Davis. After the four course dinner had been served, John welcomed the Worshipful the Mayor of Blackpool to announce this year's regional HECA Award winners. Congratulations to all the award winners and we hope that you liked your sustainable bespoke awards. After the awards had been presented, a special announcement was made; the second ever Maddock Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Brian Sex-ton of Manchester City Council. Brian gave an impromptu acceptance speech thanking every-one from his aunt to the Debenhams’ Blue Cross
Sale, while inconspicuously trying to hide the pâté stain on his trousers. To celebrate, award winners and colleagues retired to the Trafalgar Suite for a bet on the casino tables while the disco was hotting up in the Royal Suite.
Day Two
While Stewart dashed off to pick up Baroness Maddock, Don held the reins for the morning ses-sion on the second day. Ian Robinson, an inde-pendent environmental consultant, spoke about the issues of implementing renewable technology. He gave an overview of the past, what's going on presently and how we can act for the future. Fol-lowing on, was a presentation given by Debbie Critchley, our second speaker from Government Office North West. Debbie showed how partner-ship working in the North West had proved success-ful with an end result of the public and private sec-tor working together to produce an approved programme of action for domestic energy in 2006/07. David Weatherall from the Energy Effi-ciency Partnership for Homes donned his Energy Saving Trust hat and explained how EST can sup-
Brian ‘the Icon’ Sexton ASBO (Hons), winner of the Maddock Lifetime Achievement Award in the middle of his hilarious, off-the-(Debenhams’-BOGOF)-cuff, acceptance speech (see page 10)
Were you one of the ‘lucky’ delegates immortalised by
the Conference Caricaturist? Visit the Conference website
to see if you recognise anyone.
Casino tables were brought in for the Conference evening entertainment. Don’t worry, It was free to play, so no HECA Budgets were lost!
www.ukheca.org.uk/conference 8
Scenes from the Conference Gala Dinner
Toastmaster John Davis and Official Photographer Paul Mapelthorpe quickly hide the candle when the paparazzi show up at their quiet dinner-for-two
Someone tries desperately to stay in the game by gambling their HECA Award
Many thanks to the hotel staff for their excellentservice throughout the evening
Delegates getting downat the evening disco
9 10
awardsawards2006 Annual HECA
Northern Ireland -Pauline Beattie
West Midlands -Robin Dunleavy
East Pennine -East Pennine HECA Forum(collected byPaul Mapelthorpe)
Scotland -Osato Osaghae
Jarrod Hut - South West
port local authorities with programmes and partner-ships. He also mentioned the new Local Authority Energy Day which is planned for 25 October, 2006, and its supporting toolkit, which will be sent to all local authority officers in July. Baroness Maddock joined the top table and gave an impromptu address, before taking over chairing the remainder of the day's presentations. HECA is close to Diana's heart and she is a keen supporter of the Conference and UK HECA and promised to do her best to be at the Conference again next year.
After the last workshop session, delegates were back into the main room for the final presentations of the Conference. Diana introduced the first speaker, an old friend of hers, Angela Mawle, who is Chief Execu-tive of the UK Public Health Association (UKPHA). In 2005 the UKPHA set up the Housing, Health and Fuel Poverty Forum which consists of key players from both health and energy sectors. The Forum's aim is to
establish ways of minimising fuel poverty. The group has instigated a number of projects such as models for delivery and referral processes. Due to illness, Jerry Harrell was unable to attend the Conference and, at short notice, Lorraine Donaldson from National Energy Action agreed to fill his place. She spoke about NEA's work plan for the next year. It's
thNEA's 25 birthday this year and they will celebrate with a special anniversary Conference in September. Also being launched this year is their 'Heat is On' DVD.
To close the Conference Barry Steele from the North-ern Ireland Housing Executive enticed delegates to the 2007 conference, which will be held at the Europa Hotel in Belfast on 17-18 May, with a video pre-sentation about the city and its many attractions. We do hope that you will join us in Northern Ireland and maybe stay on a few days to enjoy the local attrac-tions. See you next year!
Helen Atkins - UK HECA Secretariat
Wish you’d been here?If you couldn’t make it tothis year’s Conference, don’t miss out on Northern Ireland in 2007!
This year’s Annual HECA Awards were sponsored by the Energy Saving Trust and were presented by The Wor-shipful The Mayor of Blackpool, Councillor Alan Matthews, during the National Home Energy Confer-ence Gala Dinner. The trophies were specially designed by the UK HECA Secretariat and constructed by Roy Tam Design of Dorset using wood from sustainable sources. Special thanks to John Davis who performed his role magnificently as the official Toastmaster for the occasion.
After the regional awards, the second ever Maddock Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Brian Sexton for his tireless work and enthusiasm in housing and energy over the past 34 years. His many achieve-ments include:
! Chair of the North West HEON Group since 1997
! Delivery of the UK's first PFI Energy Scheme for social housing which won many awards
! Production of the UK's first Affordable Warmth Strategy
! Six National Home Improvement Awards for Out-standing Housing Projects
! Managment of over £1 billion of capital spend with mil-lions attributed to energy projects
! Double chartermark success for Excellence in Project Management
The video of the award ceremony, including Brian’s unforgettable acceptance speech is available to download, along with videos of many of the plenary ses-sion speakers’ presentations, from the HECA Website:
www.ukheca.org.uk/conference
Congratulations to all of this year’s award winners!
Baroness Maddockcongratulating
Brian Sexton after hebecame the second ever recipient of the
Maddock Lifetime Achievement Award
Wales -Adrian Roberts and Gerry Baker
HEON NW -Alison Hartley
East Midlands -NorthamptonshireEnergy Efficiency Partnership (collected by Dave Malone)
London -Simon Evans
NEDEF -Ken Ansley
HEON Eastern -Teresa Howarth(Collected by Julia Blackwell )
South East -Verena Skinner(Collected by Brian Mannian)
Special thanks to The Worshipful The Mayor of Blackpool, who presented this year’s awards,
and John Davis, the evening’s compere
good and excellent with only 10% rating it fair. The hotel itself was located within easy reach of Blackpool North Station, the airport was a short jour-ney away and most rooms had a sea view. Unfortu-nately, venues with a train station, airport and motor-way right on the doorstep are few and far between (and the noise would be atrocious!). As mentioned in the Conference Report, we were limited in venue choices as we wanted to extend the Conference capacity to 300 and accommodate all aspects under one roof, something that was achieved. Responses about accommodation were similar to those about the location, with a rough 60/40 split between good and excellent. There were a few 'fair's' ticked which were possibly in reference to the main and workshop rooms being “too cold/hot” and “cramped”. Although delegates didn't mentioned it on our feedback forms, the hotel told us that they have noted the complaints about the lack of low energy bulbs used at the hotel. Let's hope they do something about it!
Although most delegates rated the catering as being either excellent or good there were a number of com-ments about the lack of green and healthy options, especially at the lunch buffet. We also noted this and were disappointed that our specification of a range of healthy options (and less fried food) wasn't adhered to. Even though the menu choices for the Gala Dinner was limited - catering individual choices for 300 people is near impossible - the food fared well with mainly positive comments, although this could be more to do with the free wine rather than the food. The introduction of an early lunch for exhibitors went down very well and will be continued each year.
Literature scored well with nearly half (48%) rating good and 26% excellent. The 10 (20%) 'fair' ratings reflected in some of the comments, which included requests for less “freebies”, inclusion of a note pad and pen and more detailed information about pre-sentation content. As mentioned in the speaker sec-tion, because of the last minute speaker alterations, some of the literature and biography sections were wrong and sticky labels were used to amend the schedule. There was a suggestion to give delegates memory sticks instead of paper, as we did at the launch of UK HECA. However, there are a numbers of flaws with this. In particular, delegates wouldn’t be able to reference the literature at the conference unless near a computer and not all delegates bring laptops with them. In addition, it is difficult to gather speaker presentations beforehand, which, in addi-tion to a desire to save paper, is also a reason why we don’t provide printed copies. Also, each memory stick would have to be manually loaded with the files, which would be very time consuming. Presentations are made available to download from the HECA
Feedback ReportWe asked delegates to give feedback on the eight main points of the Conference by ticking option boxes and writing their thoughts on the best aspects and improvements. They were also asked to fill in a separate workshop feedback form after each workshop session. Separating the two forms gave us a clearer understanding of delegates' pref-erences as well as gaining a better response rate.
The first, and most important, section on the form asked delegates to rate plenary session speakers and provide any additional comments. As detailed in the chart opposite, the majority of delegates were happy with the speakers, rating them good, with nearly 20% rating them as excellent. As with every Conference, the perceived standard of speakers and content varies from one person to another. However, two speakers in particular rated highly, with delegates citing Richard Davies from Marches Energy Agency and Ray Morgan from Woking Council as excellent and inspiring. Also mentioned for his outstanding presentation was Colin Green. Some delegates stated that, even though the content wasn't directly linked with domestic energy, his presentation was interesting, refreshing and a welcome alternative. The lack of Government representation was noted by a few. The former Energy Minister had been booked to make a presentation but, due to the cabinet reshuffle earlier in the month, Government was unable to provide a speaker. There were also a few other last-minute changes to the schedule when speakers dropped out. Replacements were sought, and our thanks go to those who volun-teered, but the flow and content of the schedule were affected. Some other comments received included a request for more relevant topics (such as the Housing Health and Saftey Rating System, decent homes, excess cold, affordable warmth), technical information, updates on renewables and comparing and contrasting the devolved nations’ approaches. Another suggestion was the theme of the conference being 'Working with Primary Care Trusts'. The amount of time given to speakers was an issue for some, as they felt speakers were rushed try-ing to fit their presentations into short time slots. We will look at this for next year's conference.
I'm sure you are bored to hear us, each year, respond to criticisms about location with the same response: we change the location each year to accommodate local authority officers from around the UK that make up the regional Fora of UK HECA. Travel is always an issue with some delegates having to travel quite far to get to the venue, how-ever the rating for location was divided between
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website afterward the event.
Entertainment received a mixed review, but the majority said it was excellent or good with only a small percentage grading it fair or poor. We have excelled ourselves in previous years and decided this confer-ence to scale things back a bit, providing basic enter-tainment but increasing the amount of wine instead. The casino tables were very busy, as were the disco and bar, providing an after-hours networking oppor-tunity with a mixture of work and fun. One delegate found the hotel's size a disadvantage as they thought the “entertainment was disjointed”. However, many people find the loud music in the disco a bit overpow-ering, which is why we separate out the rest of the entertainment from the dance floor. And finally, no, I can't help the delegate who wanted me to fix the champagne draw!
Most delegates were satisfied with the organisation, 58% rating excellent and another 40% good. One del-egate sums up the conference organisation per-fectly: “keeping up a high standard with a minimum cost” and another personal favourite of mine: “seam-less”. There was a good suggestion from one dele-gate to introduce a “buddie scheme for newbies”. This will be trialed next year with an option when regis-tering to attend a pre-conference welcome and introduction and book a seat at the Gala Dinner with other Conference virgins.
The ‘overall' section is also quite important, as it tells us what the most favoured parts of the Conference are and where we can make improvements. Most of the comments about the best aspects of the Conference stated networking; this was closely followed by speak-ers and workshops. Feedback on suggested improve-ments doesn't hold the same trend, with a mixture of comments. The early finishing time on the second day was also noted by some delegates as being a good introduction.
All the workshops seemed to be appreciated, with particular praise for a number of the best practice workshops.
The HECA review and HIP/Display Boards workshop was run over three sessions, while the resources work-shop was held in only two of the three. Therefore the results are an amalgamation of results from the ses-sions.
Workshops that received excellent feedback were those that were innovative and hadn't been show cased or reproduced. There was also more apprecia-tion for workshops that included technical informa-tion, detailed explanations and costing information.
(See www.hecafora.com/conference for full feed-back details of each workshop)
- Helen Atkins, UK HECA Secretariat
www.ukheca.org.uk/conference 12
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Delegate Feedback
excellent
good
fair
poor
Delegates’ Comments:
“Organisation was seamless and flawless - well done! Workshops were good.”
“Speakers on the first day all seemed a bit rushed as if they didn't have time.”
“Richard Davies and Ray Morgan both gave engaging and particularly stimulating presenta-tions - need more high quality speakers like this.”
“A good balance of work and socialising. The networking was excellent! I look forward to Belfast!”
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Conference Chair's ReportIt has been pleasing to receive a lot of positive feed-back following what has been another successful Conference, which again offered excellent network-ing opportunities for delegates and exhibitors. The Conference Steering Group will reflect on all com-ments received from the feedback reports when we begin the planning process for next year’s confer-ence in Belfast.
UK HECA would like to thank our main sponsors Powergen for their sponsorship and support with the Conference, which we hope they found fulfilling. Thanks also to the Energy Saving Trust for their contin-ued sponsorship of the HECA Awards, and congratu-lations to all the award winners. It was particularly pleasing to see Brian Sexton receive the Diana Maddock, Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Conference venue, the Hilton Blackpool Hotel, provided for excellent exhibition space and again the Association would thank all exhibitors for their sup-port in making the Conference a success.
Unfortunately, the UK HECA Chair, Bruce Pittingale, was unable to attend this year’s Conference, there-fore the Association are very grateful to Don Lack and Baroness Maddock for their assistance in chair-ing the Conference. I would also congratulate John Davis for his sterling work during the Gala Dinner and evening entertainment.
A special thanks goes to all plenary speakers and workshop facilitators, for their professionalism and expertise in fulfilling the Conference programme, which, we are sure, can only add value to the work, colleagues undertake in their day-to-day duties.
And finally, (yes) thanks to the Steering Group
What can I say, the Steering Group have now suc-cessfully delivered a number of Conferences, but that does not make the organisation of the Confer-ence any easier. Each Conference brings its own dif-ficulties. However, with the experience gained, we manage to overcome the problems without too much disruption to the Conference programme.
It was particularly pleasing to receive the positive feedback and comments on the organisation of the Conference, and we will endeavour to maintain this standard at next year's Conference in Belfast.
I would like to pass on my congratulations and thanks to all members of the Steering Group for their hard work, and a special thank you to Paul Maplethorpe who volunteered his services to undertake the pho-tography work.
See you next year in Belfast, on May 17 &18.
- Steve MartinConference Steering Group Chair
Don’t forget to visit the Conference website: www.ukheca.org.uk/conferenceto download all of the speakers’ and workshops’ slide-shows, check out the photos and view videos of many of this year’s presentations.
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See you next year on 17 & 18 May in BELFAST...
PowergenSponsors of the National Home Energy Conference 2006
Powergen which is part of E.ON - the world's largest pri-vate-sector energy services company, sponsored the National Home Energy Conference 2006. We were proud to be the sole sponsor and delighted with how the Conference was organised. UK HECA, who have been working closely this year with Powergen, were excited by the sponsorship offered and have enjoyed the support presented by Powergen.
Melissa Cooksey Social Homes Project Manager said afterwards:
“We have enjoyed our close relationship with UK HECA and were proud to be sole sponsors of this year’s Conference, especially as, by HECA standards, this was the biggest yet, bringing together around 280 del-egates. It also proved to be a great opportunity for new colleagues to develop relationships with partners across the UK.”
Powergen’s Melissa Cooksey, enjoying the Conference
www.ukheca.org.uk/conference
The Future is Green with the Renewable Interest-free Loan SchemeResidents in Chichester who want to introduce household renewable technologies, such as solar hot water sys-tems, photovoltaics, biomass boilers and stoves and small-scale wind turbines, can now apply for an interest-free loan of up to £4,000 from the Chichester District Council.
Residents are also able to apply for a grant from the Government's Low Carbon Buildings Programme, which will help to reduce the cost to the applicant.
The aim of the Council's Renewable Scheme is to encourage residents to install renewable energy systems to help reduce the District's energy use and carbon dioxide emissions. Residents will be strongly encouraged to choose the technology that is right for their particular property and needs. With a District that is 70% rural, many properties that are either off the grid or gas network, or use expensive fuels such as oil to heat their properties, may be able to benefit from using renewable technology for their energy needs.
Councillor Melva Bateman, Housing Portfolio Holder, applauds the scheme:
“Each resident of the Chichester District currently emits around 9.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide during a year. This figure is over 11% higher than the average for the South East of England, and a third of those emissions come from the energy used in their homes. In addition to reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, this scheme will help residents of the District to become less dependent on fossil fuels for their energy needs, meaning lower energy bills as well as knowing they are helping to combat climate change.”
For further information or to request an application pack, please visit the energy efficiency section of the Chichester District Council website (www.chichester.gov.uk)
or contact Abbie Brook, Home Energy Efficiency Officer on (01243) 534690, or [email protected]
Solar Hot Water Installation Programme in GreenwichLike many other local authorities, Greenwich Council has, for many years, been improving the energy efficiency of its housing through the installation of insulation, double glazed windows and installing energy efficient boilers. The Solar Hot Water Programme, completed in 2005, has enabled the Council to take it one step further.
150 properties including 21 Housing Association properties have received a system under the programme. As well as installing the solar panels, all properties received energy efficiency improvements including loft insulation top ups, cavity wall insulation (where possible), A - rated condensing boilers and improved heating controls.
Most of the properties in the programme are typically Victorian terraced, individual houses and they were selected because they tend to be the least energy efficient, being solid walled, single glazed and having received little investment in previous years when much of the investment was directed to the larger blocks and estates within the major regeneration programmes. Many of the tenants living in these properties also tend to be the most vulnerable to suffering from fuel poverty (i.e. the elderly or families with young children.)
Solar water heating is the most affordable renewable energy technologies for households and is particularly suit-able for London's urban environment and it can provide up to 70% of hot water free of charge.
The programme was one of the Council's Local Public Service Agreement targets. This was an agreement with the Government where the Council agreed to achieve higher targets in energy efficiency. The Council received £1.1 million pounds of Government funding - £600 thousand grant with approval to borrow £500 thou-sand. This came with the need to achieve targets, including improving the SAP rating by 11 points and reducing carbon dioxide emissions and energy bills by 20% on average.
The programme was carried out in partnership with Sustainable Energy Action who provided expert advice and has helped to bring in £110 thousand in funding through Clearskies.
For more information about the programme, please contact Norma Nyaulingo - Energy and Environment Co-ordinator ([email protected]; Telephone 020 8921 6238)
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HEON - Eastern Annual Conference 2006CHILFORD HALL, CAMBRIDGEMarch 2nd, 2006
In an atmosphere of good humour, generated by a successful and well run Conference, 195 delegates consisting of members of government, local gov-ernment, housing associations and other stake-holders discussed the very serious matters of cli-mate change, carbon emissions management and fuel poverty. The conference was very gener-ously sponsored by Powergen, an E.ON UK plc com-pany.
Professor John Chesshire, Chairman of the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes, began with a pre-sentation that brought the global issues into sharp national focus. With only 1% of the global popula-tion, the UK is still responsible for 3% of the world's energy use and 2% of carbon emissions. The lack of clarity about energy supply, however, must remain unrelated to our ability to improve efficiency in use. Eddie Hyams, Chairman of the Energy Saving Trust, was clear about the need for a clear and synergis-tic framework to bring energy efficiency initiatives to fruition. "We need to translate energy efficiency into something aspirational, not just a solution to a problem; we need to make it simpler, easier and cheaper to use energy efficiently than to waste
energy. The Department of Trade and Industry is in the final stages of detailing its new Low Carbon Buildings Programme, an ambitious project with implications for home energy efficiency at all lev-els. One area where Mr Hyams and Professor Chesshire agree is that local authorities and hous-ing providers are central to successful change. local authorities, being the layer of government closest to the community, are uniquely placed to recognise and bring about the changes that will have maximum impact at a local level. Looking more closely at the role of local authorities was Allan Reid, Chief Executive of Braintree District Council. “Central government needs to make it a priority and incentivise Local Authorities”. “Choose a sustainable energy champion," Mr Reid told local authority delegates. Investment in energy conser-vation projects needs local commitment to long-term, sustainable change. The need to balance energy conservation against quality of life improvements is one with which energy suppliers are familiar. Matthew Thomson, Energy Efficiency Manager for Powergen, was clear about the role of Powergen and its parent company, E.ON, in stabi-lising global emissions. Increased fuel efficiency of appliances and homes needs to make energy more affordable for the most vulnerable in our soci-ety (the fuel poor), whilst at the same time reducing consumption by heavier users.
Mr Thomson suggested that fiscal measures might help, for example by linking Council Tax and Stamp Duty to the energy efficiency of homes. We're fac-ing big challenges. As an energy supplier, Powergen can't be responsible for reducing car-bon emissions - but we do have a supporting role to play. "People dislike Council Tax," Mr Hyams said. Similarly, questions relating to fuel poverty received mixed replies. The Conference ended with seminar and workshop groups addressing various issues, from fuel poverty and climate change manage-ment to the monitoring of energy use and a show-case of innovative developments for renewable energy sources and energy usage reduction.
- John DavisHEON-Eastern Secretrariat
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HEON-Eastern Scoops Regional AwardThe NEA Affordable WarmthSustainable World Award
The £2000 regional award was made to Home Energy Officers' Network - Eastern for its Data Analysis Toolkit developed in conjunction with Powergen (part of E.ON UK), NES Ltd. and the East of England Energy sub-group.
The toolkit enables HEON-Eastern members to analyse relevant data from the vast amount held on the government's Office of National Sta-tistics (ONS) web site. The output helps to iden-tify areas where there are concentrations of potentially vulnerable households so that re-sources can be appropriately targeted.
The Affordable Warmth - Sustainable World Award Scheme is an award scheme organised by fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), in association with npower.
The award was open to all not-for-profit organi-sations working to tackle fuel poverty and pro-mote affordable warmth to vulnerable house-holds in the eastern region.
local authorities across the Eastern Region who were provided with the toolkit free of charge are now using the toolkit to identify communi-ties in small areas, down to groups of 150 house-holds, to assist the marketing of services by them-selves and their private sector partners.
Chairman of HEON-E, Bruce Pittingale, said: “We are delighted that the hard work and inno-vation put in by our Executive and Secretariat has paid off. The funds gained from this award have allowed us to develop a postcode search facility to help members even further and, if we were to win the national award, then we are looking to include Indices of Multi-ple Deprivation figures in the toolkit.”
HEON-E could go on to become the national winner, where it would receive a further £3000 to develop the pro-ject. The national winner will be chosen by the judging panel on completion of the regional events.
William Gillis, NEA Chief Executive said: “Local agencies are at the forefront of work to provide affordable warmth to vulnerable households and it is these organisations this award scheme is helping.”
- John DavisHEON-Eastern Secretrariat
Start screen for the software
Please send any news items, articles or pictures that you would like to see in HECA Network News to: Helen Atkins, at the UK HECA Secretariat, Email: [email protected], Telephone: (0116) 299 5133, Fax: (0116) 299 5137, Address: UK HECA Secretariat, 2-4 Market Place South, LEICESTER, LE1 5HB.
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For more information
on HECA, the Home
Energy Conservation
Association, visit
www.ukheca.org.uk
Warm Homes for Normantona Home Energy Project for the Normanton Area in DerbyWe estimate that approximately 27% of households in the Normanton area in Derby are in fuel poverty, which means that these households are paying 10% or more of their annual income on their fuel bills. This figure is signifi-cantly higher than the average for the city, which is around 18%.
To address this issue, Derby City Council has secured funding from the Normanton Programme to improve the energy efficiency of homes in the area. The Normanton Programme is funded from two sources - the European Commission through its European Regional Development Fund URBANII community initiative and the national Government’s Single Regeneration Budget Round 6 programme. The Normanton Programme aims to increase the participation of local residents in environmental issues.
The project will help local residents in the Normanton regeneration area to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and to reduce the number of households in the area that are suffering from fuel poverty. The pro-ject will employ a Home Energy Advice Worker for the Normanton regeneration areas to deliver this support.
The project will:! provide advice and information to local residents and landlords on how to improve the energy efficiency of
their homes. This will be delivered either on a one-to-one basis in people's homes or to small groups ! provide energy saving products to residents to make their homes more energy efficient to reduce their
energy consumption and household energy bills! help more residents to access the Government's Warm Front grant and the fuel companies' energy-saving
schemes! train at least 10 residents to act as community energy champions to give home energy advice to friends,
neighbours and other people in the area! carry out a survey to assess the level of awareness of fuel poverty amongst front-line staff and residents in the
area! train front-line agency staff to make them aware of the signs of fuel poverty and the knowledge of services to
signpost residents to for support ! develop successful working relationships with front-line staff of agencies operating in the Normanton regen-
eration area! develop an effective and simple to use referral system! offer home visits to Normanton residents, focusing primarily on vulnerable households! refer people accessing the service to other agencies that might be able to meet their other needs
Summary of Project outputs:
Environmental baselines researched and developed 1
Community consultation events 5
Number of dwellings benefiting from measures intended to reduce maintenance or running costs - energy efficiency initiatives 300
For further information, please contact Richard Murrell, Home Energy Advice Manager at Derby City Council on 01332 255317, e-mail: [email protected]
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Home Information PacksAs from 1 June 2007, homeowners will be required to provide a Home Information Pack when marketing their homes for sale throughout England and Wales. The Pack will include a Home Condition Report, terms of sale and any search details.
On 14th June when Government unveiled the detailed contents of Home Information Packs, Housing Minis-ter Yvette Cooper launched the new Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) which will be an essential part of the Home Information Packs to be introduced next year.
The certificates will give home buyers and sellers A to G ratings for their home's energy efficiency and car-bon emissions. They will tell them current average costs for heating, hot water and lighting in their home as well as how to cut costs with energy efficiency measures.
The reports, prepared by qualified home inspectors, will advise consumers on which energy measures - rang-ing from thicker loft insulation right through to solar panels - could cut carbon emissions from their home and improve their energy rating.
For more information about the packs visit www.homeinformationpacks.gov.uk or www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1150984
