Better Housing Better Health is a support service with a longstanding history.
A little bit about us
Better Housing Better Health (BHBH) is a longstanding service working to reduce the number of people in fuel poverty and improve domestic warmth & wellbeing.
It is coordinated by the National Energy Foundation but involves many other organisations across the following regions, with cross-referral mechanism in place to maximise the benefit to residents of each organisation’s field of expertise.
And what we do:
Our experienced team provides free, confidential, and tailored solutions to meet a home’s specific circumstances including switching energy suppliers, maximising income, signing up to the Priority Services Register, and accessing funding to help support them.
Help that’s there on your doorstep:
BHBH now operate across the region with local staff ready to talk. Find out where…
Northamptonshire
Buckinghamshire
Bedfordshire
Hertfordshire
Cambridgeshire
Essex
Leicestershire
Norfolk
Durham
Northumberland
Tyne and Wear
Kent
West Sussex
East Sussex
London
East Riding of Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
Lincolnshire
Nottinghamshire
Warwickshire
Derbyshire
Staffordshire
Gloucestershire
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
West Midlands
Hampshire
Berkshire
Dorset
Surrey
We aim to deliver a range of support services to the residents who make contact with us, including:
Access to Free
impartial advice
Routes to Energy
bill discounts
Grants and funding
for energy efficiency measures
Measures such as insulation or new
heating systems
Access to other
support services
• Access to free impartial advice: We understand that every home is different and your own individual circumstances will determine how you use energy in your home. Our team are here to work with you to understand your usage and provide outcomes to help you save money and live more comfortably.
• Routes to manage energy bills: One of the quickest and easiest ways to save money is to switch your energy tariff or energy supplier to make sure you’re getting the best deal. The average household can save £300 per year by switching gas and electricity supplier and the BHBH team work with you to look at your energy consumption and help find the best deal to suit your household.
• Support in applying for grants and funding: As well as national funding available to help with paying energy bills and installing energy efficient measures, there is also local funding available to help residents. We can work with households to help apply for any eligible grants and funding to help with a resident’s home energy.
• Measures to improve energy efficiency: Through our own home visit service and a long-standing partnership with LEAP, an expert energy advisor can assess a property’s energy efficiency and provide free measures such as low energy LED lightbulbs, shower savers and radiator panels. All these small measures add up and can help save money on energy bills.
• Ongoing support with additional services: We’re here to help and know that home energy might not be the only cause for concern. If someone in the home is struggling with their mental health, struggling to pay for food or have further needs – we’re part of a network that is here to support residents and will signpost to further services from other charities and local services.
Our Team are here to help residents tackle energy inefficiency in their homes:
Ali Vickers
Caitlin Latimer
Emma Hales
Rose Stroud
Joanna Higson
Emma Brooks
Alissa Pemberton
Request training today . . .
Staff Training
Better Housing Better Health offer free training sessions for people and organisations working directly with the public so that they can spot the signs of fuel poverty, understand the causes and learn more about how we can help and support residents. We talk about the damaging mental and physical effects and how this may lead to behavioural change, along with who the most vulnerable groups are. We then go on to talk about the different grants available and other ways we can support residents, such as signing them up to the Priority Servicers Register and explaining the Warm Home Discount process and criteria.
We run online training sessions each month or if organisations want their own session we can set a up a session specifically for them. Sessions usually take about half an hour without questions. Get in touch now to join us.
Outreach Activities
Better Housing Better Health may be able to arrange visits to local community groups and deliver talks about fuel poverty and energy saving advice. We have delivered events at a range of groups including community lunches, carers groups, retirement or 50+ groups, fairs and flu clinics.
It doesn’t stop there we also have active community focused support programmes
Grants and Funding: National funding is available to help residents who are struggling to pay their energy bills, need measures installed in their homes and those in an emergency. Below are the national schemes available to all residents, but for information about funding provided by your local authority please get in touch.
The Green Homes Grant (GHG) is a £2 billion scheme, launched by central government, to help householders pay for energy saving improvements for their homes by installing measures such as wall insulation, solar panels and air source heat pumps. This is to improve the warmth of homes, cut energy bills and help the UK to be zero-carbon by 2050.
1. GHG Voucher Scheme closed in February 2021.
2. In August 2020 the government launched GHG LAD alongside the GHG voucher scheme providing a £500m funding model for Local Authorities (LA’s) to identify and engage low-income/-cost households in their areas that could benefit from fully-funded energy efficiency measures. LA’s had to apply directly for the fund and outline their delivery models including information on install partners
• GHG Local Authority Delivery (LAD) Phase 1 launched in March 2021 and finished in March 2022.
• GHG LAD Phase 2: In early 2021 the government announced there would be a 2nd phase to GHG LAD led by Energy Hubs. The Hubs would take some of the responsibility away from the LA’s by holding and administering funds and developing their own delivery models and supply chain. Applications finished in March 2022.
Sustainable Warmth is a competition that was launched to LA’s in August 2021 to bring together two fuel poverty schemes (GHG LAD Phase 3 and Home Upgrade Grant Phase 1) into a single funding opportunity for LA’s.
1. GHG LAD Phase 3 will be completed by March 2023:
• focus on low-income households living in homes on-gas grid only (unlike previous Phases of LAD which also included off-gas grid homes)
• E, F and G rated properties
• Privately owned housing (Some social housing is permitted as tenure “in-fill” when part of area-based schemes).
• Maximum average subsidy of £10,000 per home
2. Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) Phase 1:
• Targeting low-income households that are off the gas grid
• EPC band F-G homes should be upgraded to D or above and band D-E homes to C or above
• Privately owned housing (Some social housing is permitted as tenure “in-fill” when part of area-based schemes).
• £10,000 to £25,000 per home depending upon the starting Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of the property and fuel type.
• Higher grant for costs of upgrades should allow for low carbon heating to be installed in the majority of homes.
The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is a government enforced requirement for energy suppliers to help households reduce the costs of their home heating by fitting energy-saving measures. It should focus on ways to help low income, fuel poor or households in vulnerable situations to heat their homes. Energy companies can choose what energy-saving measures they want to install, how much funding they provide and the installer that does the work.
ECO Flex enables Local Authorities to publish a ‘statement of Intent’ online which defines a local eligibility criterion for ECO Funding. Installers are then able to qualify households against the criteria and request a declaration from the LA to confirm this before installing a measure. ECO Flex enables more households to benefit from the funding and LAs to have increased understanding of energy efficiency installs taking place in their area.
(Previously known as ‘Clean Heat Grant’)
The new scheme encourages people to install low carbon heating systems such as heat pumps, which run on electricity and extract energy from the air or ground. the government will offer £5,000 to people in England and Wales to encourage them to replace their gas boilers with heat pumps. Grants are available to both existing homes and non-domestic buildings, but not to those living in social housing or new-build properties. Landlords need to make the final decision regarding the eligibility of private rented accommodation.
The Better Care Fund (BCF) programme is an NHS initiative that supports local systems to successfully deliver the integration of health and social care in a way that supports person-centered care, sustainability and better outcomes for people and carers. It is managed between the local Clinical Commissioning Group and a Local Authority and is most used for Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG)
The BCF has recently expanded to include the objective or reducing excess winter pressures on the health system and can therefore be utilised to improve the warmth of domestic dwellings. As it is health focused it can help provide funding where there are shortfalls or specific terms in other schemes that prevent in Installations taking place.