National Energy Action (NEA) has launched Warm Homes, Healthy Futures, a Great Britain-wide fuel poverty and health programme, with the first phase of local delivery beginning in May 20241. The charity announced the programme at an evening reception in London in March 2024, describing it as evidence-based and multi-year1.
The programme is delivered with NEA's sister charity Energy Action Scotland and is supported by the gas distribution networks Cadent, Northern Gas Networks, SGN and Wales & West Utilities, alongside delivery partners across England, Wales and Scotland1. NEA says it will connect health professionals and local public health bodies with energy advice and other specialist services, coordinated nationally and delivered locally in communities with high need and limited existing support1.
Services offered include energy advice, income maximisation, debt support, frontline worker training, appliance servicing, and help with grants and measures1. NEA states the aim is to make a tangible difference to tens of thousands of people's lives1.
"The importance of this programme goes far beyond the individual packages of support and measures that National Energy Action can deliver. It is also the vital collaborations, lines of communications and partnerships, nationally and locally, that makes this programme distinctive."
The programme sits alongside NEA's wider health work. The charity states that NHS England spends more than £1.4 billion a year treating conditions linked to cold homes, and that wider societal costs exceed £18.6 billion2. NEA estimates that more than 10,000 people across the UK die each year due to living in a cold home2. It also reports that in England and Wales, excess winter deaths rose by nearly 20% in the winter before the added pressures of Covid-192.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| NHS England annual spend on conditions linked to cold homes | More than £1.4 billion2 |
| Wider societal costs | More than £18.6 billion2 |
| NEA estimate of annual UK deaths from cold homes | More than 10,0002 |
| Health and Innovation Programme funding | £26.2 million, assisting more than 9,000 households2 |
Why it matters for households
The programme routes support to households through the health sector and local partners rather than through a single national application route. NEA says it gives health professionals and trusted local bodies access to fully funded services, including energy advice, income maximisation, debt support and help with grants and measures2. For a household, that means the point of contact may be a GP, a social prescriber or a council public health team rather than an energy supplier or a national scheme.
The measures described are the same categories that appear across the UK's home energy grants and schemes: advice, debt help, servicing and physical improvements. Eligibility is framed around health need and area of high need rather than a published national criteria list, and no eligibility thresholds, funding amounts per household or application process are given in the programme's published material1. Households in England, Wales and Scotland are covered, with separate national grant routes described in the guides to England, Scotland and Wales.
NEA's earlier health-linked work gives some indication of what delivery involves. Its Warm Home Prescription pilot in Tees Valley, delivered with Energy Systems Catapult, issued 292 prescriptions during winter 2022/23, with 79% of participants reporting better physical health and 70% reporting improvements in mental health2. In its Connecting Homes for Health research, over 80% of households reported their homes negatively affecting health before help, falling to less than one in ten afterwards2.
What happens next
The first phase of local delivery began in May 20241. NEA describes the programme as multi-year and says it plans to leave a lasting legacy, but no end date, phase two timetable or total funding figure has been reported1.