|
New Borough to GoWarm
Thousands more homes across the North East will benefit from a partnership formed by GoWarm and a Teesside Council.
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is the most recent council to link up with GoWarm to help their area in the fight against fuel poverty.
GoWarm, which aims to reduce fuel poverty and ensure that households are as energy efficient as possible, has already begun assessing the 30,000 households in Redcar & Cleveland that could benefit.
The homes currently being assessed are spread across the Redcar wards of Kirkleatham, Zetland and Dormanstown Once these wards are complete, Go Warm will move on to other areas within the Borough.
Karen Hindhaugh, director of GoWarm, said:
"It is essential that innovative and forward thinking councils concentrate their efforts in fighting fuel poverty in their wards, this in turn will promote a reduction of carbon emissions from their borough and lead to residents benefiting from homes with increased energy efficiency."
"This is great news for the residents of Redcar & Cleveland, and we urge them to welcome our Assessors who all carry identity badges and can be easily spotted by their forest green uniforms."
For those who are worried that they may miss the assessors calling, they can visit the GoWarm website (www.gowarm.org.uk), which boasts a special feature that allows people to self assess online. Alternatively householders can call 01642 777976 to speak to an advisor and ensure they receive an assessment.
The Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing & Neighbourhood Renewal, Councillor Lynn Pallister said :
"Our partnership with Go Warm is an excellent opportunity for households still in need of insulation and heating works to get help that may otherwise be unavailable to them. The scheme offers great discounts that anybody can access, even if they do not qualify for a full grant."
GoWarm focuses on delivering insulation and heating measures, benefits assistance and energy advice to home owners in deprived pockets within areas of the North East that so far have been overlooked by schemes offered by other organisations.
The GoWarm team is currently working in Chester Le Street, Teesdale, Middlesbrough, Sedgefield, Stockton, City of Durham, Wear Valley, Derwentside and Easington and has already made an impact on residents in these patches. Many have had cavity wall and loft insulation installed and many benefits unlocked to which they didn’t know they were entitled.
Back to News Listings <<---------->> Back to Top of Page <<---------->> Print Article
GoWarm goes live with state of the art hand held computers
A North East organisation has invested a pot of money in a bid to change doorstep assessments forever. GoWarm Assessors have trialed hand held computers, which will now replace the traditional paper-based assessment method.
The assessors are visiting households across the region to establish if there are any measures that can be introduced into the home to ensure that it is as energy efficient and comfortable as possible. Once a property has its measures installed, the project team then help residents with a free benefits check.
Assessors will now be able to input the assessment results directly into the hand held terminal so the information is sent straight from people’s homes to the GoWarm database.
GoWarm has invested £15,000 to develop the software and interface of the hand held computers which were designed by Universal Systems Solutions (USS), a North Eastern IT company which installs and supports IT infrastructures.
Stephanie Hansell, Assessing Manager, GoWarm said:
“Whilst there was a lot of work involved in ensuring that the hand helds captured the correct information and that they would perform as we wanted, the training was in fact quite simple. The hand helds are so user friendly, the Assessors were comfortable using them after a very short time!”
Karen Hindhaugh, Director, GoWarm, said:
“The main benefit of using the new hand held computer is that it is a live system, which not only keeps us up-to-date with technology, but also cuts out hours of data processing by our admin staff. Money previously spent on data processing can now be redirected towards ensuring that there are plenty of Assessors visiting households within our designated areas.”
As well as speeding up the assessment process, the terminals also act as safety devices for the Assessors who are inputting household data live and on-site, and therefore, can be exactly located by the GoWarm headquarters.
GoWarm is an organisation focusing on delivering insulation and heating measures, benefits assistance and energy advice to home owners in communities across the North East that so far have missed out on schemes offered by other organisations.
Currently working in Chester Le Street, Middlesbrough, Sedgefield, Stockton, City of Durham, Wear Valley, Derwentside and Easington, GoWarm has just started in Redcar and Teesdale.
Since the start of the year over 58,000 homes have been visited by GoWarm, who so far have installed measures in 13,000 homes. The benefits advice team has unlocked £300,000 for home owners, and is on target to hit a total of £800,000 by the end of 2008.
GoWarm was launched with support from DEFRA’s Community Energy Efficiency Fund (CEEF) and has funding from National Grid and ScottishPower.
Back to News Listings <<---------->> Back to Top of Page <<---------->> Print Article
|
If you are not connected to the gas mains network and would like to be GoWarm, working in partnership with Northern Gas Networks may be able to arrange a free standard connection for you.
GoSolar is a brand owned by the CES Group of companies. CES is a non-profit distributing community interest company. They offer advice and assistance to social housing providers, local authorities, businesses and individual householders on how to to reduce their energy bills, eliminate fuel poverty and cut carbon emission through the installation of eco-friendly, renewable and innovative technologies.
Solar PV panels are mounted on the roof of your home. They comprise of a number of cells made from two layers of material that generate electricity when exposed to sunlight. The stronger the sunshine, the more they produce but they still work even on a cloudy day.
Every year millions of pounds in benefits go unclaimed.