How does a Warm Zone work in practice?
Since 2000, Warm Zones has developed a proven, and cost-effective way to deliver help to households who are struggling to keep warm or to pay their fuel bills. Warm Zones normally adopt a ward-by-ward programme with the following stages repeated in each ward:

Awareness raising
General and ward-specific marketing, promotion and direct mailing;

Assessment
A five-minute doorstep questionnaire to gather selected information in confidence about the household, to determine if it qualifies for free measures.

Discounted schemes
For households that do not qualify for free measures, discounted schemes will be made available to householders who wish to take advantage of low-cost measures at preferential rates.

Surveying
Surveyors employed by insulation and/or central heating contractors will complete the necessary surveys for each qualifying household to determine what can be installed;

Installation of physical measures
Insulation and heating measures by Warm Zone selected contractor partners, followed by monitoring and quality control checks carried out by the Warm Zone team;

Delivery of benefits and energy efficiency advice
Warm Zones can normally provide free energy efficiency advice and a ‘benefits health check’ to see if any additional benefits are available;

Who benefits from a Warm Zone project?
All Warm Zones projects work on the basis of ‘something for everyone’. Therefore a Warm Zone project can benefit all homes across all tenures.

Subject to funding, Warm Zones can provide free or low cost insulation measures to:

• All households who are found to be in fuel poverty
• All households on certain benefits

Free central heating measures will be available, subject to need, location and available funding, for:

• Households who are found to be in fuel poverty or on certain qualifying benefits

Warm Zones can also provide a free benefits advice check and support (to help increase household income) and free energy advice (to attempt to save unnecessary household expenditure) to all households.

For households who do not qualify for free measures, Warm Zones can offer significant discounts on insulation measures. So, all households in a Warm Zone can benefit.

How is a Warm Zone funded?
Warm Zones are typically funded through partnerships with local government, European Union agencies, energy companies and other supporters.

What is fuel poverty?
The word poverty conjures up all sorts of images of deprivation and poor housing conditions. No one wants to be classed as being poor or in poverty but the fact is that many homes are fuel poor, as many as 1 in 3 in some areas of the country.

A household is defined as being in fuel poverty when it has to spend more than 10% of its income on fuel in order to keep warm. Fuel poverty is caused by a combination of factors including poor household energy efficiency, high fuel costs and low household income.

Warm Zones aim to eradicate fuel poverty by delivering cavity wall and loft insulation and central heating measures as well as benefits and energy advice to as many households as possible. Increasing household income is another way of removing a household from fuel poverty. More income = more money to pay energy bills.

So what’s the catch?
There isn’t one! Warm Zones are operated on a not-for-profit basis with the sole aim of making life better for families who are fuel poor, who live in cold damp homes or who just can’t afford to keep warm. Whatever the circumstances, there is always something that can be done to improve things.