Richard Irvin Energy Solutions(RIES) has been appointment as a key provider to deliver heating, insulation and energy solutions on the Scottish Government’s new Home Energy Efficiency Programme (HEEPS2) framework.
The new national fuel poverty scheme, under the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Efficiency Programme for Scotland, concerns the installation of energy efficiency measures including heating systems, insulation and renewables in the homes of people living in fuel poverty. Warmworks Scotland has been appointed as the Scotland-wide managing agent and will be responsible for the delivery of the end-to-end customer journey from assessing the property to arranging installations and inspections. The scheme is worth up to £224m and will run for a period of up to 7 years.
After a competitive tendering process RIES was successfully awarded the Framework contract. The scheme will launch in September 2015 for a minimum term of five years, with the option to extend for a further 2 years. The tendering exercise saw RIES being appointed as a framework contractor across Scotland to support the delivery of the new national fuel poverty programme. The scheme will be centred around the installation of insulation, heating and micro-generation measures in the homes of households who are identified as living in fuel poverty but will be required to service all Energy Company Obligation (‘ECO’) funded measures. RIES along with other framework contractors will be responsible for installing the energy efficient measures across Scotland.
Gordon Duffy, Managing Director Facilities Management of RIES said: ‘RIES is delighted to be awarded this prestigious contract. Our business is ideally placed with offices in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Elgin, Inverness and Glasgow to deliver energy solutions across Scotland. We are looking forward to working with Warmworks to deliver energy efficient measures that will help reduce fuel poverty in Scotland and make a real difference to peoples lives’.
‘At RIES we are committed to the eradication of fuel poverty and it is the main focus of our CSR activity. We have a wealth of experience in working in rural areas across Scotland and, in particular, providing measures to combat fuel poverty in the hard to heat homes of the North East. We hope the knowledge and skills will prove to be an invaluable asset to the Warmworks programme.’
Fuel poverty has a negative impact on individuals, households, and communities. For individuals and households, the main negative impact of fuel poverty is its damaging effects on quality of life and health.
Fuel poverty is quite simply not being able to heat a home to an acceptable standard at a reasonable cost. The Scottish Government defines it stating ‘A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10% of its income (including Housing Benefit or Income Support for Mortgage Interest) on all household fuel use.