The government launched 36 pilot energy advice services on 14 August 2023, backed by £20 million of funding, to trial new ways of delivering expert advice to households across England. More than 125,000 households are expected to benefit, with the projects targeting people in hard-to-treat homes such as listed buildings and those described as hard to reach, including the elderly and people without internet access1.
The pilots include new energy cafes in Birmingham, backed by over £800,000, where residents can drop in to find out how to make their homes more efficient. In North Yorkshire and Cumbria, a new "green doctor" service, backed by £302,000, will offer home check-ups for older and low-income households and advise on which energy efficiency measures would suit their homes1. Other projects include a retrofit electric bus bringing on-the-road energy saving tips to customers around North Yorkshire, and an electric energy van travelling to rural parts of Lincolnshire to explain how government schemes can help people reduce their energy use. Schools and community hubs will also be used to pass on advice1.
The initiative is expected to help more than 19,000 households install retrofit measures, ranging from loft and cavity wall insulation to draught proofing, better heating controls and new heat pumps1.
Amanda Solloway, Minister for Energy Consumers and Affordability, said:
"We want everyone to be able to get expert advice on how to make their homes more energy efficient, no matter where they live, so they can save money."
The support forms part of what the government describes as a £6.6 billion energy efficiency drive, with a further £6 billion committed from 2025 to 20281. It follows resources launched earlier in 2023, including an online tool for finding ways to save energy at home and an energy efficiency phoneline. Households can also access the Home Upgrade Grant, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme1.
Why it matters for households
The pilots test a different route to home energy advice in England: face-to-face contact rather than online information. For households in listed buildings, rural areas or without internet access, that distinction is practical, because those groups are named as the ones the schemes are designed to reach1. Advice on which measures suit a particular property is the stated purpose of the green doctor home check-ups1.
The measures the pilots are expected to prompt, such as insulation, draught proofing and heating controls, are the same categories covered by the wider grants and schemes landscape, and the retrofit measures named include heat pumps1. Households in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not covered by these pilots, which apply to England only; separate Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland advice arrangements exist. The pilots sit alongside the regional retrofit advice services already operating in parts of the UK.
What happens next
The announcement gives no closing date for the pilots and no date for when results will be published. The £6 billion of further funding is committed for 2025 to 20281. No detail has been reported on how households will be referred into the pilots or how the 36 services are distributed across England.
Sources1 cited
- Bespoke Energy advice, ciphe.org.uk