Energy service and behaviours

Project date – August 2023

Project brief

We had two main aims for this project:

1. To look at how we manage and help our tenants with rising energy costs in our Retirement Living Services
2. Review tenant engagement with our energy efficiency programmes and how we have supported tenants to adopt smart energy behaviours

Recommendations

We found that we've taken action to protect tenants from significant cost increases to date, but as these measures come to an end, both tenants and the organisation could carry out further action to help make our schemes as energy efficient as possible:

1. Investigate the globalisation of fixed service charges to see whether savings can be made by adopting this approach
2. Explore ways in which the risk communal heating systems being misused can be restricted
3. Staff training on maximising efficiency within their schemes i.e., how to effectively operate facilities; how to save costs; how to keep track/record of scheme spending on energy as well as being brought up to speed on what the organisations does to keep costs to a minimum
4. Develop a consistent but tailored energy efficient offer in Retirement Living that helps educate tenants on their role in reducing energy usage and makes best use of specialist external agencies
5. To strengthen our approach to providing energy advice to tenants by outlining our expectations of front-line teams on their roles and responsibilities when supporting tenants
6. To equip all front-line colleagues with the ability to identify where energy advice may be required and what support needs to be provided
7. To develop a method of recording and categorising interactions with tenants relating to energy

Action update