Fuel Poverty
Speakers
Ian Preston Ian is a Senior Analyst at the Centre for Sustainable Energy with extensive research expertise covering fuel poverty, retrofitting the existing housing stock, behavioural change and scheme evaluation. He recently worked with the Department for Energy and Climate Change to model the distributional impacts of the UK Government’s proposed climate change targets. The research shows that the increases in bills associated with climate policies will be spread unevenly among different types of household. Higher income households will face a greater absolute increase in their bills, but this represents a much smaller proportion of their income than for lower income households. He also managed the ‘How much?’ study a major modelling project for Eaga PCT, which included ACE and Dr Richard Moore, to assess the cost of upgrading the thermal performance and low carbon heat and power supply of homes of the UK’s fuel poor to meet the Government’s target of eliminating fuel poverty by 2016 and to calculate the economic benefit to ‘UK Plc’ of achieving this goal. He has a background in academic research in Public Health and Epidemiology examining; “If winter climate affects the seasonal morbidity and mortality rates in the West Midlands”. This study investigated the relative importance of sex and age, in the established pattern of excess seasonal mortality attributable to bio-meteorological interactions between health and a number of climatic variables. He is CSE lead fuel poverty policy advocate and is a member of the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes Fuel Poverty Strategy Group, National Right to Fuel Campaign, and Public Utilities Access Forum. |
Professor Jim Skea Professor Jim Skea OBE is an academic with a special interest in energy, climate change and technological innovation. Jim has been Research Director of the UK Energy Research Centre, based at Imperial College, since 2004 and previously directed the Policy Studies Institute and the Economic and Social Research Council’s’ Global Environmental Change Programme. He has operated at the interface between research, policy-making and business throughout his career. He is Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III (climate change mitigation) and is a Board member of the Stockholm Environment Institute and Renewables East. He was Launch Director for the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership and for several years chaired the Scottish Power Green Energy Trust. He recently chaired the Technical Advisory Group that developed the British Standards Institution specification for assessing the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services. |
Jenny Holland Jenny Saunders is Chief Executive of NEA. Jenny is responsible for the general and financial management of the charity, as well as its relations with government and policy development. Before this, Jenny was Director of Communications at NEA, where she has worked for 22 years. She is a member of the UK Government’s Fuel Poverty Advisory Group; the energy regulator, Ofgem’s, Social Action Strategy Group; and sits on the Warm Front Scheme Management Board. Jenny chairs a subgroup of the government’s Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, which considers microgeneration in low income households and is a member of the Micropower Council. Jenny also serves on the governing body of NEA's sister organisation, Energy Action Scotland. After graduating in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Jenny worked in Norway for almost three years for the Norwegian Tourist Board and as a tour operator. She then trained in youth and community work and worked as a development officer and manager for three years for a community youth training programme prior to joining NEA. Having helped to establish a grant-making fund at the Community Foundation for Tyne & Wear and Northumberland to assist women to achieve their full potential, Jenny served on the Women’s Fund Committee for five years from 1999-2004. She is a trustee of the British Gas Energy Trust, which provides grants to relieve debt and provide money advice with a current fund of £13.5m. |
Pam Wynne Pam Wynne has been involved in the field of fuel poverty for a number of years and leads the fuel poverty policy team within Household Energy Efficiency and Fuel Poverty Division in the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The team is responsible for taking forward fuel poverty policies in England and provides Secretariat for the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group. DECC also manages and funds the Warm Front Scheme, the major funding Scheme targeted at private sector households in England. Pam has worked in a number of Government Departments covering a wide range of policies including the social issues around development in London Dockland, local environmental quality and sponsorship of the construction materials industry. |
Professor Alan Maryon-Davis Professor Alan Maryon-Davis FFPH FRCPPresident, Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK and Chair of the Royal Society for Public Health Professor Alan Maryon-Davis is President of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK, Chair of the Royal Society for Public Health and honorary professor in public health at Kings College London. After an early career in hospital medicine and general practice, Prof Maryon-Davis entered the field of public health via health promotion and prevention. He has worked in public health at national, regional and local level over the past 30 years, mainly involved in developing and delivering health improvement programmes, but also in helping to shape the public health workforce itself. As President of the FPH his current focus is on professional standards, assessment, continuing professional development and revalidation of public health specialists. This work increasingly extends beyond the UK, and Professor Maryon-Davis and his team are actively engaged with a number of countries interested in building public health capacity, developing their workforce and strengthening leadership. |
Jenny Saunders Jenny Saunders is Chief Executive of NEA. Jenny is responsible for the general and financial management of the charity, as well as its relations with government and policy development. Before this, Jenny was Director of Communications at NEA, where she has worked for 22 years. She is a member of the UK Government’s Fuel Poverty Advisory Group; the energy regulator, Ofgem’s, Social Action Strategy Group; and sits on the Warm Front Scheme Management Board. Jenny chairs a subgroup of the government’s Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, which considers microgeneration in low income households and is a member of the Micropower Council. Jenny also serves on the governing body of NEA's sister organisation, Energy Action Scotland. After graduating in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Jenny worked in Norway for almost three years for the Norwegian Tourist Board and as a tour operator. She then trained in youth and community work and worked as a development officer and manager for three years for a community youth training programme prior to joining NEA. Having helped to establish a grant-making fund at the Community Foundation for Tyne & Wear and Northumberland to assist women to achieve their full potential, Jenny served on the Women’s Fund Committee for five years from 1999-2004. She is a trustee of the British Gas Energy Trust, which provides grants to relieve debt and provide money advice with a current fund of £13.5m. |
Professor Christine Liddell Christine Liddell is Professor of Psychology and Distinguished Community Fellow at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. She is currently a member of the Northern Ireland Ministerial Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator’s Academic Advisory Panel, and the Northern Investing For Health Partnership. She chairs the Health Psychology Research Group at the University of Ulster, and recent consultancy partnerships have permitted her to collaborate with the Department For Social Development Northern Ireland, National Energy Action Northern Ireland, the Northern Health Board, Save The Children, and the Western Warm Zones programme. In the past 12 months, she has delivered three keynote addresses to the British Psychological Society, as well as invited addresses to the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations, Energy Savings Trust, and the EU Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes. |
Jacqui Frazer Jacqui has worked in both the voluntary and statutory sectors in the fields of community development, European funding, maternity services and fuel poverty. She is currently Fuel Poverty Strategy Co-ordinator for the Northern Investing for Health Partnership (NIfHP) in Northern Ireland. Jacqui is a member of the NIfHP’s Fuel Poverty Steering Group and the seven local Warmer Homes Groups that have been established across the Partnership’s area. |
Christoph Sinn Christoph Sinn is a Policy and Practice Officer at the Chartered Institute of Housing with a background of working in residential care and special needs education. He is currently leading on the Institute’s work around environmental sustainability. Prior to joining CIH in 2004, he has worked for a housing consultancy, the University of Central England and in residential care settings in Germany. |
Jonathan Stearn Jonathan Stearn is a head of programmes at Consumer Focus and was head of campaigns at energywatch. Consumer Focus was formed on 1 October 2008 through the merger of energywatch, Postwatch and the National Consumer Council. Consumer Focus’ strapline is Campaigning for a fair deal, and fuel poverty tops its list of campaign priorities. Jonathan has worked for more than 20 years in campaigning, communications, public relations and journalism. Before joining Consumer Focus and energywatch he was director of the End Child Poverty Campaign. Prior to that, Jonathan was seconded as a communication adviser in the Home Office’s Active Community Unit. He worked for six years at Age Concern England as head of public affairs. He has also worked in the housing field as deputy editor of Housing and Inside Housing magazines and as a campaigner for Shelter. |
Andrew Ellis Caring for the Environment is the number one priority for Harrogate Borough Council He works at a regional, sub regional and local level. Sitting on the Regional Energy Forum, of the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly, The ESCo development group of Future Energy Yorkshire. (Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency*s energy development organisation. Who are working on Carbon reduction, with the Yorkshire Coal fired energy producers and CO2 emitters on sequestration and have recently announced an *8m pellet mill development) The Energy Partnership* , have recently been awarded the 3 year contract for the Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre. |
Nicholas Heath Nicholas joined Changeworks in 2006, and has developed and led award-winning projects to reduce domestic carbon emissions and alleviate fuel poverty in historic buildings. Nicholas has a background in social housing and sustainable energy. He wrote his MSc thesis on environmental sustainability in Scottish social housing, and has a particular interest in the environmental sustainability of older, traditionally-built housing. |
Dylan Katuwawala Dylan has been working for Luton Borough Council for 12 years. He started in Community Development, working in project management and community empowerment. He then moved to the Social Inclusion Team in 2005. Since then he has been working on Luton’s Beacon award project, the Affordable Warmth Referral Scheme, focusing on tackling fuel poverty in Luton. A qualified Energy Advisor, Dylan has recently taken on the coordination and the operational delivery of the Affordable Warmth Scheme. He will shortly be overseeing further growth of the scheme as it develops into a Home Improvement Agency. |
Sarah Allen Sarah has been with the Council for 15 years. She was the lead officer developing the Affordable Warmth Strategy in 1998. Sarah started her career in the voluntary sector moving on to Community Development and Anti-poverty work before leading the Social Inclusion unit for the Council. Sarah has been a leading advocate in tackling fuel poverty for the last eleven years and helped the Affordable Warmth Scheme gain beacon status in 2002. Sarah is also part of the steering group for National Right to Fuel and is Luton Borough Council’s representative to the Parliamentary Warm Homes group. A well respected commentator in fuel poverty Sarah has been briefing, training and passing on good practice to fellow Councils for many years, helping to mirror Luton’s success in supporting fuel poor households, with a holistic approach. |
Dr Brenda Boardman Until September 2007, Brenda led the Lower Carbon Futures group at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. In November 2007, she wrote Home Truths: a low-carbon strategy to reduce UK housing emissions by 80% by 2050 for FOE and The Co-op Bank. She has subsequently provided supporting evidence for the Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged’s Judicial Review of the Government’s policies on fuel poverty in England, now at Appeal. Brenda has, in theory, retired as an Emeritus Fellow of the University of Oxford. Her main focus is on writing Fixing Fuel Poverty – challenges and solutions for Earthscan, due out at the end of the year. |