Make Fuel Poverty History

Hello My Friends

Apologies once again for my absence - Ive been rather busy recently !! Hope youre all well.

I had the opportunity to attend the NEA 25th Anniversary Conference in Nottingham last week. The venue was set in beautiful surroundings and the glorious weather we enjoyed also helped to lift spirits. It was great to see all the Local Authority attendees who were present sitting around on the grass on the banks of a lovely lake swapping stories and discussing the topics from the various forums. It was akin to perhaps how some of them may have been in their 'younger days' !

There were several guest speakers including Andy Hunt from Trafford MBC - Sustainability Policy Officer - who gave an excellent talk about the use of renewable energy technologies. Andy certainly does talk the talk and walk the walk - he has a solar panel on his house and a biomass system I believe? And he is passionate about his subject - very refreshing indeed.

During the questions session of the segment that heard Ian Pearson MP express his personal wish for EE3 to be alteast 50 - 100% more than target levels in EE2 - Ian would prefer it to go to 100% - A lovely gentleman from Stewart Energy urged the Minister remember that the insulation industry in particular would be called upon again to resource up to enable the target savings to be achieve within the timeframes, and let us all hope there will still be sufficient numbers of good quality contractors around to help install numbers with better planning (far less feast or famine please !)

Hopefully with all the consultation the is taking place - doesnt this industry appear to talk a lot ? Then we can have some action - positive action and outcomes for EEC going forward. I understand that the energy suppliers are waiting with fingers and toes crossed and baited breath to find out what the PG split will be and what the main measures will be etc. Two simple factors that are meaning that most people are tinkering around whilst we wait for the Tablets Of Stone from the mountain in December 2006, when forecasts for the content of EEC3 will be published (we all hope)!

There also seems to be an industry shift where less of the energy suppliers are prepared to work with Managing Agents/Programme Managers, especially if they have developed their own in house teams. However there is still room for the trusted, experienced local programme manager to act as an independant, impartial part of the customer team and one who will arrange and attend meetings locally and manage installers, get involved in client awareness days, performance monitoring and scheme delivery.






From Your Friend The Energy Angel