New green energy deal to combat fuel poverty

● Ethical firm offers tariff to help households facing heat or eat choice

An Edinburgh-based ethical energy firm is launching a new green power deal that allows customers to help some of the four million households across the UK facing the stark choice of whether to heat their homes or eat.

The new Uk-wide tariff, on offer from not-for-profit company Our Power, is not the cheapest rate available but is still competitive, potentially saving customers £80 a year.

At the same time it will cuts costs for people who are struggling to pay for power, allowing them to heat their homes for an average of 54 more days a year than they could on a Big Six standard variable tariff.

Plus all energy supplied through the new +Impact tariff comes from 100 per cent renewable sources, including community energy providers.

For every home to sign up, Our Power can offer cheaper

0 Housing association resident Sheena Macvicar and Our Power chief executive Dawn Muspratt prices to a lower income or fuel-poor household.

Any additional profits will be invested in communities across the UK, with plans to provide new jobs and training opportunities.

A household is considered fuel-poor when the cost of powering and heating the home to an adequate level of warmth costs more than 10 per cent of total income.

Official figures show 4.5 million households, 17 per cent of the total across the UK, are living in fuel poverty. The situation is even worse in Scotland, with 26.5 per cent of homes struggling to afford energy.

Our Power, set up in 2016, is owned by social housing providers, community groups and local authorities. Its tariffs are available to everyone, regardless of how they pay.

Founding chief executive Dawn Muspratt says the company’s aim is to eliminate the discrimination faced by the least well-off members of society, who can be charged as much as 25 per cent more for power than those with access to the cheapest deals.

“The reality is that the people in the worst circumstances pay the most,” she said.

“Our goal is to reduce and eradicate this ‘poverty premium’. It’s our job to get the lowest price we can for the energy and pass that on to customers.

“Fuel poverty is a real issue for around four million households in the UK. With +Impact we aim to change this and challenge the status quo.”

She added: “It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Pensioners Sheena and Robert Macvicar, housing association tenants living in Douglas, Lanarkshire, switched to Our Power last year.

The move has seen their electricity charges slashed in half.

“We were really struggling with our energy bills and the cost was only ever going up,” Mrs Macvicar said.

“When we heard about Our Power and that it was possible to switch to a cheaper supplier we jumped at the chance.”