On 17 April, the Warm Welcome Campaign held a special Evensong event at St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate Warm Welcome Spaces across the UK. Volunteers, partners and those working with, alongside, and benefiting from the campaign, attended to show their support and join national celebration.
The Warm Welcome Campaign began in the autumn of 2022 in the midst of the worst cost-of-living crisis for 75 years, when Gordon Brown, faith leaders and Good Faith Partnership came together to see what could be done to support struggling communities. Thousands of local organisations such as libraries, community centres, places of faith and local businesses stepped forward to provide warmth and welcome under the banner of the Warm Welcome Campaign. What started as a crisis has grown into a campaign with the ambition to enable a more deeply connected society through community spaces made by and for everyone.
Last winter (2023/24) the network of 4000 Warm Welcome Spaces hosted over two million visits: over 120,000 visits every week. They are supported by 10,000 volunteers, giving up their time for free. In the first two years of operation, over 50% of respondents to Warm Welcome surveys told us that without the spaces, they would have been at home with the heating off.
With Warm Welcome Spaces set to continue to serve communities across the country this coming winter, it is bleak to imagine a reality where almost half of these spaces are unable to operate due to failing to meet energy efficiency standards, and with a minimum of close to £1,000,000 being required to get EPC assessments for all warm welcome spaces, a costly reality.
Community energy has been a hot topic for discussion within the third sector over the past year, with current research areas for Social Investment Business being district heating, energy efficiency measures (heat pumps, solar panels etc), energy audits, and EPC analysis. EPCs are required in most cases for domestic and non-domestic properties, with a handful of exemptions, as well as being indicators of a property’s current and potential energy efficiency. EPCs are a central part of net-zero related legislation, with a current minimum E requirement, and a proposed C requirement by 2030.
Working alongside Warm Welcome Spaces, we extracted EPC data for all available spaces. Looking to the available EPC data, availability of information, and trends within asset ratings, results varied based on space type (as classified by Warm Welcome). For example, only 8% of churches had an EPC, compared to 71% of Sport/Leisure spaces.
With a match rate of 29%, the first thing we learn is that over 2,000 spaces do not have an EPC certificate. Based on market rates for non-domestic EPC assessments, it would cost over £700,000 to get EPCs for the 71% remaining spaces.
Having no energy information for 70% of community spaces leaves a lot of uncertainty about how future net-zero targets will impact the third sector. For Warm Welcome in particular, this has implications for spaces such as Churches who may wish to seek out energy improvement opportunities. Given the cost of an EPC is roughly £270, with the cost of an energy audit being quoted as “1% of total energy bills”, these spaces need to spend a minimum of at least £300 just to understand where they stand in relation to energy efficiency targets.
Even if a space has an EPC, this does not necessarily mean they are in the clear. Out of the 29% of spaces with an EPC, a quarter of these have a certificate more than 10 years old, therefore expired. This would increase the cost of getting EPCs for all Warm Welcome Spaces by over £50,000.
Further, proposed changes to the minimum energy efficiency rating from E to C by 2030 means that an additional 357 spaces will not meet the new standard, meaning potential fines or expenses on energy improvement measures to meet the C requirement. For buildings of an older age or design, this is not always possible, with ONS research showing older buildings are proven to suffer from worse energy efficiency ratings. Even within the Warm Welcome Spaces EPC data, only 39% of spaces who had an existing stock benchmark of a C or above were within the benchmark range, meaning 61% of spaces did not meet this benchmark.
Despite all the above, the data is able to highlight some positive trends within community buildings, for example 95% of spaces are within the current regulations of a minimum E rating:
With the majority 97% of spaces using grid supplied electricity or natural gas, it is difficult to interpret any trends between fuel type and EPC rating, however it is notable that of the 6 spaces using biomass, 100% had a minimum rating of C, with other fuel types performing as follows:
Whilst EPC analysis cannot guarantee methods for every community-used space, it does highlight major trends in the sector. Based on similar portfolio analyses conducted by SIB, the patterns from the Warm Welcome data can be seen across other community-based portfolios – match rates tend to be low, and ratings tend to be a majority of C and D, with grid supplied electricity and natural gas accounting for over 95% of fuel type in all portfolios. By showing the costs involved in getting the basics in terms of energy data, there is a clear demand for energy-related funding and incentives in the third sector, a sector which already sees individual organisations suffer from low cashflow and lack of funding for energy improvements.
Warm Welcome Spaces are doing more than just supporting the community – Warm Welcome is taking an active role in understanding how energy relates to their network. Not only are they engaging in EPC analysis with SIB, but they have also explored how they can collaborate with their network to seek out research and opportunities in relation to energy efficiency. In addition, Warm Welcome has entered into a partnership with the National Grid Electricity Distribution.
The new partnership between the two organisations will create opportunities for National Grid Electricity Distribution employees to volunteer in local Warm Welcome Spaces through the winter and ensure that more spaces are given the support they require to thrive as a community hub for those in need.
The aim is to create a co-ordinated ecosystem of support for vulnerable consumers, with signposting and referrals between local Warm Welcome Spaces, home energy advice, and other sources of support such as National Grid’s Priority Services Register (PSR). The PSR provides extra help and additional support during a power cut for elderly, very ill or disabled people, or those who rely on power for medical equipment.
It is clear that within the third sector, a vital part of tackling community energy issues lies in the sharing of data and resources between all those involved in the sector, both funders and recipients of funding, as well as those involved in policy and net-zero initiatives.
To find out more about the Energy Resilience Fund click here.
