Boosting home energy efficiency could help struggling families

Cutting down on wasted energy is key to helping families struggling with the costs of heating their homes, according to a fuel poverty study by energy company E.ON.

Through its Challenge 100 progamme, E.ON worked with partners to offer 100 families a full package of help, aiming to lift them out of fuel poverty within 100 days.

Each of the families was offered free tailored support, including loft and solid wall insulation, new boilers and central heating systems, budgeting advice and benefit entitlement checks, via a single freephone number.  

Vicky Bullivant, Head of Corporate Responsibility at E.ON, said: "Changing the condition of the home and the behaviour of the family, through energy efficiency measures and advice, proved far and away the most sustainable way of reducing fuel poverty.

"The findings from Challenge 100 confirmed that helping people to reduce energy wastage at home can significantly lower fuel poverty levels. We lifted 42 of the participating families out of fuel poverty, largely by installing energy efficiency measures and by providing simple tips to save energy.

"Where we weren't actually able to eradicate fuel poverty it was usually because the family income was too low. But every family that received energy efficiency measures through Challenge 100 found that they were less fuel poor as a result."

People can find themselves in fuel poverty for a variety of reasons, and Challenge 100 was designed to help E.ON understand the most effective ways of tackling it for different types of households living in a range of properties.

E.ON has already committed to spending £59m between 2008 and 2011 on services and tariffs to help its vulnerable customers affordably heat their homes, and a focus of this is improving people's energy efficiency.