West Midlands hotline opens to help heat up homes

West Midlands residents are being urged to call a free hotline to get advice on how to increase their homes’ warmth while cutting down their fuel bills.

which supports people who are finding it difficult to keep up with their fuel payments or may be living in damp, cold homes that could be damaging their health.

Warmer Homes West Midlands is run by the charity Act on Energy, which is a member of the West Midlands Combined Authority’s (WMCA) fuel poverty and regional retrofit partnership set up by Energy Capital, established to develop solutions and secure funding to tackle the problem in the region.

The West Midlands has some of the highest rates of fuel poverty in England, second only to the North West region.

As well as making homes more fuel efficient by helping people keep their homes warm, addressing fuel poverty will also help to improve people’s health by eradicating damp homes, and improve their economic situation by making energy bills more affordable.

‘The WMCA is utterly committed to tackling the region’s climate emergency, and addressing fuel poverty is a key part of our plans. We have too many old homes in the region that are poorly insulated, leading to high energy bills,’ said West Midlands mayor, Andy Street.

‘So, to help combat this we have helped set up a Freephone line for residents this winter who are looking for both a warmer home, as well as cheaper energy bills. This is part of our major retrofitting programme, where we are looking to retrofit 50,000 old, poorly insulated, homes.

‘By addressing fuel poverty not only we will be helping households save money at such a difficult economic time for many, but we will also be taking a strong step towards our goal of carbon neutrality by 2041.’

Photo Credit – Ri (Pixabay)