This document summarizes the results of a campaign in Birmingham and Solihull, England to engage fuel poor households in collective energy buying. Only 29% of the target number of households registered interest in collective switching, and 32% of the target number switched plans. The campaign was most successful in reaching deprived areas, with 51% of interested households coming from places with average or higher deprivation. The campaign took a strategic approach, partnering with local organizations serving as neighborhood hubs to engage residents. Lessons learned included that the fuel poor only check bills in crises, lack of switching confidence is a bigger barrier than lack of trust, and long-term energy advice is needed rather than just transactional interventions.

1. Success Factors – engaging the
fuel poor in collective energy
buying
Phil Beardmore

2. Birmingham and Solihull Together
– overall headlines
•
About 10,000 households engaged with the
campaign, only 1422 households registered their
interest in being part of a collective switch as against
the target of 4900 (29% of target)
•
158 households made 331 product switches during
the period as against the target of 490 households
(32% of target)
•
Funded by DECC

3. Successful in reaching the fuel poor through a
neighbourhood-based financial inclusion approach
Nechells
Birmingham
Solihull
North Solihull
Engagement level with BST by ward in
Birmingham and Solihull:

4. Reaching some of the most deprived
people in England and Wales
•
Birmingham – 46% of expressions of interest
came from the most deprived 10% of places
•
Solihull – 21% of expressions of interest came
from the most deprived 10% of places
•
Overall – 51% of expressions of interest came
from places below average for deprivation.

5. A strategic approach to community
engagement
•
Understanding that fuel poverty is a financial inclusion issue
•
Recognising where people experiencing multiple deprivation
go for help in their neighbourhood, and why
•
Co-production of the project with a range of 17 organisations
overall, who were paid
•
In Nechells and in north Solihull, focus on Nechells
Community First Network and Colebridge Trust as
neighbourhood hubs and community gateways

6. Some other lessons
•
The fuel poor tend to only check their bills when they are in
crisis.
•
We have developed a rudimentary ‘segmentation’ model to
understand motivations and barriers to switching. Lack of
confidence in the switching process is most widespread, not a
lack of ‘trust’ in an abstract sense.
•
The market is not yet ready for a sufficiently powerful
collective group to be formed that can occupy the middle
ground between consumer and supplier.

7. Some other lessons
•
People need to be able to access energy advice on a range of
subjects, all year round, rather than to be offered a short-
term series of transactional interventions. This should include
tariff advice using an enhanced social brokerage service.
•
Organisations delivering financial services to the fuel poor are
delivering energy advice anyway. Our job is to support and
train them.
•
What we have learned from this project is already influencing
the delivery of other projects in Birmingham e.g. Stay Warm
Stay Well, Community Energy Fit.

8. Thank you for listening
Phil Beardmore
@philbeardmore