National HECA Awards 2005

1. National HECA Awards 2005

2. East Pennine John Manton North East Lincolnshire Council Despite North East Lincs being an area of only 60,000 households North East Lincs Council has been one of the best performing authorities in the lot 2 region of Warfront since its inception - drawing in over £3.6 million of measures to date, which for a small authority is exceptional! In 2001 North East Lincs was launched as lead authority on SHEEP heating and insulation scheme in partnership with NLC following a successful HECAction bid.

3. Scotland Heather McQuillan Dundee City Council Heather's commitment comes from the heart and this drives her tireless energy. Working with Claverhouse she has managed, what is possibly an imperfect product, and endeavoured to make a genuine difference to the energy efficiency and levels of fuel poverty in Dundee. Her commitment and genuine desire to make a difference deserves recognition.

4. North West Ed Kingsley Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council Ed has introduced several new initiatives in the short time since his appointment for Wirral MBC with responsibility for HECA. This includes establishing partnerships with utilities to bring a range of projects to Wirral Council, which has saved almost £1m of the council’s own resources for priority projects. Health Through Warmth referrals are the highest in Merseyside and Wirral has received one of the highest numbers of Warm Front Grants.

5. Wales Pam Walters Swansea City Council Some of Pam and her team at the Swansea EEAC’s achievements are: A massive £4.2 million of both HEES and EEC funding has been drawn into the city, installing at least 2 energy efficient measures to over 6,000 households during 2003/04. The average SAP rating of properties has increased from 37 in 1996 to 50 in 2004.

6. West Midlands John Burns Birmingham City Council John has been the driving force behind the City’s HECA activities for 10 years. He has been involved in most of the major initiatives and domestic energy programmes in Birmingham over the decade and is universally regarded as the ‘technical expert’s expert’.

7. East Midlands Benjamin Agbasi Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council Ben has successfully developed a number of initiatives within the borough to promote home energy efficiency. In particular he implemented a successful interest free loans scheme called Energy Vision. Working hard to promote energy efficiency, particularly to old people, he was instrumental in obtaining an Energy Champion grant for the manager of the local Age Concern group. Amongst other projects Ben has worked with schools and developed multi media resources to promote the subject.

8. London Jean Roberts Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Jeremy Hopkins Westminster City Council The London HECA Forum selected ‘The Flagship Home’ for the London award, a joint project between the two councils. The Flagship Home is a five story Georgian terrace house comprising if bed sits and one self-contained flat, a representation of the housing stock in London and other cities. The project aims to show the positive contribution to a low carbon economy while maintaining traditional character of the building and adhering to planning constraints.

9. North East Chris Mills on behalf of the Newcastle Affordable Warmth Steering Group The Newcastle Affordable Warmth steering group has won the North East HECA award for their achievements over the last year. To mention only a few of their achievements, in 2002 the Affordable Warmth strategy was launched and aims to eradicate fuel poverty and securing affordable warmth by 2010. Also launched earlier this year with funding in the region of £8m is the Newcastle Warm Zone project. This is a partnership between a number of organisations and has assessed nearly 8,000 and installed 3,330 insulation measures. Other projects include Accelerating to 2008, Health Through Warmth and the Asthma Project.

10. Eastern Paul Bourgeois Broadland District Council Paul was nominated for his outstanding and enthusiastic contribution to the adoption of sustainable energy projects in Broadland and South Norfolk District Councils. He has strongly promoted solar water heating in the area by developing the area’s own local badge and promoted Broadsoll Scheme. Through this scheme 40 households received training and then went on to install systems in their own homes.

11. South West Peter Nobes Kennet District Council Government funding secured through HECAction was used to set up a project between 5 local authorities in Wiltshire, which itself has developed into Warm Hearted Homes, Wiltshire’s successful Energy Efficiency Advice Centre. Pete is keen to take his messages out into the community and has been working with 2 rural communities on energy conservation project. Pete is also keen to keep its own house in order and leads an internal team that monitors the level of energy consumption by the authority.

12. South East Louise Shrubsole Seven Oaks District Council Some of the achievements listed in her nomination included the set up of an action group with the local primary care trust, establishing and promoting local Health Referral scheme and holding regular road shows promoting energy efficiency. Louise also plays a leading role in the development of a county wide action plan to tackle fuel poverty and has attracted over £200,000 in external funding for improvement measures over three years.

13. Northern Ireland Andrew Frew Northern Ireland Housing Executive Andrew was one of the first people in Northern Ireland to provide energy ratings for homes and became one of Northern Ireland’s leading authorities on SAP. After working on behalf of the N.I.Federation of Housing Associations for a time, Andy has been employed on a consultancy basis by the Housing Executive and is currently developing a number of energy efficiency projects. One of the main projects he is currently engaged in is the major review by the Housing Executive of its heating policy. He is also involved in a number of studies relating to energy efficiency, air quality and health.