Thousands of people across Cornwall could be lifted out of fuel poverty and live in warmer homes following an £8m funding investment over the next year.

Around 36,000 homes in Cornwall are in fuel poverty, with Cornwall in the top 10 of fuel poor areas in England – defined as needing to spend too high a proportion of household income on keeping warm.

The Winter Wellbeing Partnership, led by Cornwall Council and including 30 partners, has secured over £3.5m from National Grid’s Warm Homes Fund to work with thousands of people to stay warmer for less.   

The new fund - ‘Warm and Well Cornwall’ – targets residents who are in poor health or at risk of ill health, or with underlying health issues, or caring for a vulnerable person or worried about their home being cold or damp.   

Warm and Well Cornwall will help 220 private homes, including owners, landlords or tenants and up to 800 social housing homes with first time central heating, such as renewable heating,  mains gas, oil, or LPG, with more to follow in future years.     

Social housing partners Ocean, Coastline, Cornwall Housing, Guinness and DCH are investing around £2.5m to improve heating for their tenants with renewable heating and gas central heating. 

Funding has also been secured from SSE Energy Solutions.  SSE has ring-fenced Energy Company Obligation (ECO) eligible measures targeted at fuel poor and vulnerable households in Cornwall. 

By January 2019 the programme is expected to have helped more than 1,000 homes out of fuel poverty, keeping people warm and well.