Struggling Thanet residents receive ‘warm packs’ to help tackle fuel poverty

Eve Lockton-Goddard, Sustainable Energy Projects Lead, and Lucy Bantin, Home Energy Assistant from TDC with a warm pack

Warm and Well Packs have been distributed to hundreds of Thanet households in privately rented accommodation who were identified as being in fuel poverty.

The packs were distributed by Thanet District Council and Social Enterprise Kent thanks to grant funding of £30,000 from UK Power Networks. Residents received materials to help them cook cheaply and to help them to tackle draughts and stay warm in their homes.

Each pack contained an electric blanket and air fryer, draught excluders for doors, windows and letterboxes, reflective radiator foil and other cold weather kit. The packs also included information on support services to help residents to access advice on energy and food affordability, support vouchers and debt support.

The residents who received Warm and Well Packs live in privately rented properties with low EPC ratings, or are facing high energy bills. They had all received energy advice previously from the council. The scheme is now closed.
The council says its Energy Advice Service continues to seek ways to help householders to keep warm over the winter.

Claire Shelton, Director of Wellbeing at Social Enterprise Kent, said: “It is great to be working in partnership with Thanet District Council to provide valuable support to our community. The items in the pack will be very helpful for householders to reduce bills and provide warm food.”

Bob Porter, Thanet District Council’s Acting Director of Place, added: “We welcome the support from UK Power Networks which helped us to provide real material impact to residents across the district. Providing practical support to people who may be struggling to stay healthy and warm at a time when costs are rising, is a priority for the council.”.

In Thanet 19.2% of homes (12,300) are facing fuel poverty, particularly as costs increase. Households with low incomes, older people and people with disabilities are hardest hit.

NEA, the lead in UK fuel poverty analysis, estimates that due to the energy price rises and the reductions in household income, there has been a national increase in fuel poverty of 50%.

Thanet council has a home energy team which is responsible for submitting grant bids and sourcing external funding for residents of Thanet to support households who are struggling with their  energy bills. Between the months of June and August 2021 the service received 76 referrals. But for the same months in 2022, referrals rose to 250 – an increase of more than 200%.

Farina Farrier, Social Sustainability Manager at UK Power Networks, said: “Our customers are facing unprecedented challenges which is why we have expanded our fuel poverty support, working collaboratively with others to deliver practical support that will make a real difference to people’s lives during the current cost of living crisis.

“We are delighted to be able to support the work of Social Enterprise Kent and Thanet District Council to provide tangible support to households that would otherwise struggle during the cold weather.”

 

5 Comments

  1. Weird as recently keep seeing brand new Tower Air Fryers being sold on Thanet Chat and Marketplace – perhaps this is why?

  2. Not had any notice about these, do not know anyone who has received these packs and no information on how to get one of these packs, to me it looks nothing more than a PR exercise by TDC.

  3. All this scrabbling around to set up schemes, and to get small financial grants, to help people plunged into poverty by our deteriorating economic system! If we all had decent wages, and proper benefits if not working, we wouldn’t NEED these packs etc. We could look after our selves!!
    The only people that would need extra help would be those with severe mental and physical health issues And the help would consist of advice in getting what they are entitled to anyway. What a waste of good, helpful volunteers time, having to fill out applications to hope to get small grants when proper benefits and wages would cover these issues automatically.
    We are heading towards Third World status when we have got the wealth to avoid all this. But the money seems to speed upwards to those with a lot already. And very little seems to trickle back down to those that need it.
    Plenty of money for a Third World War, though. We won’t need much money after that!
    It’s being so cheerful that keeps me going!

    • Yep.
      I note that water companies spend twice as much on repaying loans to their investors as they do on fixing leaks and so on.

  4. Electric blankets and Air Fryers???
    If they are in Fuel poverty, how are they going to pay for the electricity they use ??

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