G.HEAT, Glasgow Home Energy Advice Team, is helping to change the lives of families and households in Glasgow with assistance from The ScottishPower Energy People Trust.

The project, managed by the Wise Group, with funding from The ScottishPower Energy People Trust and working in partnership with Glasgow City Council received a £100,000 grant from the Trust in September 2009 to help alleviate fuel poverty in the city. 

Funding enables G.HEAT to provide face to face advice to vulnerable residents in fuel poverty.  Information covers a variety of areas including energy billing, obtaining the best tariffs, benefits health check and providing advice on the best use of energy in the home.  The project expects to support up to 27,000 fuel poor people in Glasgow over a three year period.

Raymond Jack, ScottishPower’s Director of Energy Retail, visited the project to find out how successful it has been so far.

Raymond said: “It’s always great to visit projects and see first hand the good work they are carrying out with help from our funding.  It gives an informative view of how we are helping members of the community and enables us to direct funds to areas in which we can help the most.

“Projects such as this one are invaluable in providing assistance to those who need it most and can only be a good thing.

“The team at G.Heat are doing a fantastic job and putting a lot of effort and hard work into the project to help change the lives of many people living in Glasgow for the better.“

Billy Sloan, Assistant Director of Delivery at the Wise Group, said: “G.Heat has been a great success so far.  We’ve already visited over 400 homes and helped reduce people’s fuel bills as well as providing energy advice.

“We are very grateful to the ScottishPower Energy People Trust as funding given to G.Heat enables us to help a range and greater number of people than we would have otherwise been able to reach.”

Baillie Liz Cameron, Glasgow City Council’s Executive Member for Development and Regeneration, said: “Our objectives are to help households reduce their fuel bills and to enable them to make more efficient use of money they spend on fuel, and where practicable lift them out of fuel poverty.  We’re already making a difference to the lives of a number of people in Glasgow and aiming to help many others over the duration of this project.”

As part of the project, staff from G.Heat linked up with ScottishPower’s Customer Liaison Manager to give the project’s trained energy efficiency advisers an understanding of how ScottishPower support vulnerable customers.

Fuel poverty exists where a householder has to pay more than 10% of their disposable income on energy for the home.  It is estimated that over 100,000 households in Glasgow currently have to pay more than 10% of their net income to keep their homes warm, with around 35,000 households paying more than 20%.

For further information on the G.Heat project or to receive a home energy visit, please call 0800 092 9002.

For more information contact:
Susanne Grant, The BIG partnership, on 0141 333 9585 / 07824 388 472 susanne.grant@bigpartnership.co.uk
Or
Kim Munro, The BIG Partnership, on 0141 333 9585 / 07966 224 910 kim.munro@bigpartnership.co.uk

Note to Editors:

• The ScottishPower Energy People Trust does not provide funding directly to individuals but provides funding to not for profit organisations which represent the vulnerable/fuel poor. People described as living in fuel poverty are those who spend more than 10% of their income on energy bills.
   
• There is no time limit in organisations applying for funds as the Trust is a long term registered charity. The decisions on the awards to organisations are made independent of ScottishPower by the Board of Trustees of the charity.
   
• To apply for a grant from The ScottishPower Energy People Trust, log onto www.energypeopletrust.co.uk  or email enquiries@energypeopletrust.co.uk or call 0141 568 3388.
   
• The ScottishPower Energy People Trust is just one of a number of ScottishPower initiatives which assist some of the UK’s most vulnerable people. As well as working closely with the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, ScottishPower employs Community Liaison Officers who visit people in their homes. The energy supplier has also insulated thousands of homes across the UK through its Energy Efficiency Commitment and has supports the Home Heat Helpline which focuses primarily on tackling the issue of fuel poverty.

G.Heat
G.HEAT has been developed through a Partnership arrangement between Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, the Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations, the Glasgow Advice and Information Network (GAIN) and the Wise Group, who will be responsible for delivering the service.