Park Homes Case Study - Enhancing Community Well-being

Charis were approached by Ofgem and a number of energy suppliers to develop a new initiative to support residents living in park homes.

Research had highlighted that park home owners were an often vulnerable yet forgotten group that were unable to afford to heat their homes. Although the Government offers schemes to help reduce energy bills, and pay for increased heating costs over the winter, the park homes community were mostly unable to access these funds as they didn’t hold direct accounts with the energy providers.

We designed, built and delivered a programme that could both support residents with their energy costs and meet regulatory and policy requirements.

To get the scheme going, we partnered with the Association of Park Home Residents to help us understand the issues they faced. Gaining the trust of the residents was key to being able to understand their needs and deliver the support they needed for their families.

We collaborated with Ofgem and energy suppliers to develop a jointly-funded project that called upon regulatory money earmarked to support the fuel poor and vulnerable. We established a targeted fund that was only available to Park Home residents that would simply allow those most in need to apply for the equivalent of a Warm Home Discount payment. In previous years this was provided as a £140 grant, however, moving forward, this will now be provided as a £150 grant to help people with their winter fuel bills. Alongside supporting them financially we also provided helpful and friendly energy advice.

A small pilot turned into a runaway success and made a real difference to the families we helped. Plus we have also been able to promote the collaborative approach we developed to Government and energy suppliers alike. In 2020/21 Charis had five suppliers all providing funds for the Park Homes project.

What started out as a small pilot has become a runaway success. This year we passed the bitter-sweet milestone of 10k families being supported.

10,000

families being supported

23,777

Park Homes kept warm over winter

£3,328,780

of support with energy costs

£140

rebate delivered to park home residents

Park Homes targets people who cannot access WHD £140 rebate because they do not have a traditional supplier. We know the payments we make are impactful – the families we support are often elderly and living in leaky homes that are hard to heat and keep warm. Coupled with the fact that Park Home residents often have limited or fixed incomes, and are unable to shop around for cheaper energy deals. I am proud because it’s simple, effective, and practical and I have seen the difference first hand. And it’s unique too.

Allyson Broadhurst, Charis

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