The role of community benefit funds in tackling fuel poverty and energy efficiency
Energy efficiency work can fit well with a more strategic approach, bringing a range of benefits at local level. In addition to reducing fuel poverty and improving comfort directly, energy efficiency projects create employment, and also help boost local economies in the longer term by releasing spending for more productive uses. Also, energy efficiency measures help reduce climate change emissions further, building on the reductions in emissions achieved by the development of renewable energy in the first place.
More widely, this change in the level of resource available is also important because:
- larger sums will widen considerably the actions which communities can take, and it is critical that support is available to enable them to make best use of the money
- larger sums may also result in tensions between neighbouring communities where one is in receipt of funding and the other is not
- ultimately, all consumers pay for the infrastructure and, by extension, for the Community Benefit Funds. Consumers have a right to expect CBFs to be used effectively and transparently