Do you worry about your fuel bills and staying warm at home in the cold weather? Or staying cool at the height of summer?
Healthy Homes Ealing is a free service from Ealing Council that can guide you all year round.
Extremes of weather, hot or cold, can have a detrimental effect on someone’s health. This is particularly the case for those who are elderly, very young or with a medical condition.
By providing advice and support, Healthy Homes Ealing hopes to show residents what they can do in their own homes to save money while also staying warm, well and independent.
You could even be eligible for a ‘green doctor’ home visit. These provide tailored advice and support and sometimes provide free energy efficiency measures, or items for staying warm or cool. Where necessary, in-depth fuel debt advice can also be given.
Call Healthy Homes Ealing on 0800 083 2265 (free) Monday-Friday, 9am-5.30pm, or use the online referral form.
Helping more homes to use less energy
The council recently announced that it will also continue to help low-income and vulnerable households benefit from a national energy efficiency scheme for another four years.
Since April 2020, the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), has seen energy efficiency measures installed in 286 homes across the borough to help reduce the amount of fuel it takes to keep them warm – with better insulation at the forefront of these improvements. It will continue to be available for eligible Ealing residents until March 2026.
ECO works by the government requiring larger energy companies to fund the work.
If you live in the borough, you could qualify for ECO if your home has poor levels of energy efficiency and you have been identified as being a low-income household, or if your GP has said you have a condition making you medically vulnerable to living in a cold home.
Councillor Deirdre Costigan, the council’s cabinet member for climate action, said: “We are committed to providing support for local people to cut their energy use and ECO is just one of several support programmes available to Ealing residents.”