Warm Home Prescription is a new service invented by Energy Systems Catapult and is being trialled across England and Scotland, helping people who struggle to afford energy and have severe health conditions made worse by the cold.

Millions of people in the UK have health conditions – such as respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses – that are made worse by living in a cold home. With over 10,000 people dying each year in England and Wales.

Experts in our Fair Futures team realised that there must be a better solution to providing support. Drawing on previous research and studies aimed at supporting people with health conditions made worse by the cold, they asked the question:

What if the health service could prescribe a low carbon warm home to households who need it?

Buying the energy that the most vulnerable people need but cannot afford could help keep them stay warm and well at home, rather than becoming ill and needing costly care. Targeting can be significantly improved by working with the NHS, who know about the population’s health and the costs associated with living in a cold home.

First piloted by Energy Systems Catapult in Gloucestershire over winter 2021/22 with local NHS partners and local energy advice organisations, we then undertook the largest trial of its kind in 2022/23, supporting 823 vulnerable and low-income individuals in Aberdeen, Middlesbrough, Gloucestershire and London. These groups are identified in the national health and social care advice (NICE Guideline NG6).

Findings from the 2022/23 trial provide strong support for the impacts of the WHP project. Positive outcomes were reported by WHP recipients and healthcare professionals alike.

This trial aims to determine how providing a low carbon warm home can improve people’s health and reduce their use of the health service, saving the NHS money overall and easing pressure on frontline staff. A warm and healthy home must be central to any consumer-centred vision we have for changing how people use energy in their home as we move towards a smart, flexible Net Zero energy system.

Watch the Gloucestershire case study:

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), along with energy regulator Ofgem commissioned a study to review how innovation could enable Low Income and Vulnerable (LIV) consumers to participate in a smart, flexible energy market.

This may include new technologies and appliances in consumers’ homes, access to smarter tariffs, interaction with a broader range of service providers and new infrastructure in their local area, such as: smart metering, demand-side flexibility, electric vehicles, electric heat pumps and domestic energy storage.

These changes to the energy system raise a core concern about whether low income and vulnerable consumers could be less willing and less able to access, purchase and use smart energy products and services.

The review summarised evidence to answer the following questions:

1. How do low-income and vulnerable consumers participate in a smart energy market? What barriers prevent their participation?
2. Does existing innovation activity help them engage in this market?
3. How will new innovation activity ensure they are engaged in this market?
4. How could innovation put them at the forefront of the smart energy transition?
5. What risks could emerge when, and how could innovation prevent them?
6. Where should future innovation focus?

Energy Systems Catapult in partnership with the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC) has been awarded funding for a programme to Enable Inclusive Innovation and Sustainable Choice.

The funding comes from the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme, which are payments distributed from energy companies that may have breached rules. Projects must “support energy consumers in vulnerable situations”.

The Enabling Inclusive Innovation and Sustainable Choice programme will work with disabled and older consumers to deliver new research and assets that support the development of innovative, accessible smart and low carbon energy products and services, and to inform consumer and policy decision making.

The RiDC pan-disability consumer panel of over 2,500 people will deliver the research through a programme of six insight and test evaluation projects, including co-design workshops, accessibility and usability evaluations and mystery shopping.

This includes adding 50 new households with disabled consumers to Energy Systems Catapult’s real world test environment – the Living Lab – including developing co-design solutions that explore how the increasing electrification of heat and transport could result in new vulnerabilities emerging. Giving particular consideration to identifying potential changes to how those on the Priority Services Register might be best served.