Energy company British Gas is going on the offensive with a number of projects to help thousands of people on low incomes cut their energy use and lower their fuel bills.

A multi-million energy efficiency programme has seen British Gas sign agreements with ten communities across the country to help local authorities and charities assess the best energy efficiency measures to install on a community-wide basis.

British Gas say this will be a campaign worth around £70 million and measures will include insulation, draught-proofing and heating schemes, as well as home energy assessments across a wide range of housing stock.

The approach to be adopted by British Gas is known as ‘whole house’ and means that measures will be decided according to what best fits local housing and will involve the entire house instead of a single measure on a one size fits all basis.

British Gas use Walsall for an example, where work is expected to include external solid wall insulation and switching homes from high cost electricity heaters, to lower cost gas central heating.

Work in all the projects will not just take in energy efficiency measures, but will also include a range of related services such as benefits assessments. In the case of Walsall, it represents part of The Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) which is a joint initiative between energy suppliers, power generators and the Government. The total value of energy efficiency measures installed here will be around £350 million.

Over 90,000 households are expected to benefit from The Community Energy Saving Programme which targets low income families. The programme is unique in helping the hard to reach people who have typically not benefited from other national energy efficiency initiatives.

And the programme is also thought capable of saving four million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Phil Bentley, Managing Director of British Gas said:
“Households account for a quarter of the UK’s total CO2 emissions. By focusing on homes, and in particular vulnerable communities which have been traditionally hard to reach, we can make a significant impact on our national carbon footprint and cut the bills of Britain’s most hard-pressed families.

“As the country’s biggest energy supplier we are well-placed to take the lead in helping people become more energy efficient. This is why we’re very pleased to be the first energy supplier to begin CESP projects.”

On behalf of the Government, the Energy and Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock lent her support to the first wave of CESP projects and said:

“I’m pleased that British Gas has been so quick off the mark to begin work in these ten areas and identifying the communities that will benefit. The Community Energy Saving Programme will help some of the lowest income households across Britain tackle fuel poverty. I look forward to hearing about the other energy company plans which will ultimately benefit around 90,000 homes over the next three years.”

As well as working with local authorities, British Gas will also liaising with a number of charities including Scope, Help the Aged, Money Advice Trust and the RNIB.

Sian Mexsom, Head of Fundraising Partnerships at Age Concern and Help the Aged, said:
“We’re delighted to be able to support British Gas in such a tremendously important programme. Through our work, we reach out to disadvantaged older people across the UK who tell us how they’re forced to live in just one heated room of their house in the colder winter months. We’re hopeful the CESP projects will help change this.”

Homes in Birmingham, Chester, Dundee, Glasgow, Haringey, Swansea, Knowsley, Preston, Southwark and Walsall will be in the first wave of The Community Energy Saving Programme.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is one of 150 companies that is backing a campaign initiated by the Government to create a further 85,000 ‘opportunities’ to get young people into work.

The opportunities include apprenticeships and form part of the ‘Backing Young Britain’, a cross-Government campaign bringing together public and private industry, and the voluntary sector, to provide more opportunities for young people to find work, or training, or gain work skills or experience.

Sam Laidlaw, Chief Executive of Centrica, said:
“We are pleased to support the Backing Young Britain Campaign. Our programmes are all about investing in people, especially young people, and providing them with the skills to implement the technologies that will help our customers cut their energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint.

“Our business depends on highly trained people to give the best possible service and advice to our customers. Our apprenticeship programme and the creation of skilled jobs sit at the heart of our business’ growth plans. We are proud to be creating 3,200 new jobs by 2012 and growing our apprentice numbers by 1000 over the next 18 months.”

The Government campaign, backed by Prime Minister Mr Brown, will see £1 billion invested in the hope of creating 100,000 new jobs for the young, plus a further 50,000 jobs in ‘unemployment hotspots’.

The campaign comes at a time when latest figures show that about 935,000 young people in England are not in employment or training.

The Campaign kicked off with an event at Birmingham City FC’s stadium featured a ‘Question Time’ panel in which Sam Laidlaw joined Yvette Cooper, Works and Pension Secretary, Martina Milburn, chief executive of the Prince’s Trust, Jill Youdis, director of talent at Virgin Media, and Imran Hakin, inventor and entrepreneur, who won funding from two ‘dragons’ in the BBC TV Dragons Den programme in 2007.

The panel faced questions from an audience of around 250 young people. They ranged from school leavers and apprentices, to university graduates and people on work experience placements. Also in the audience were British Gas’ apprentice of the year Adam Grimes and Centrica graduate Katie Alloway.

It also gave British Gas a chance to talk about their Energy Academy which overseas their training programmes, including highlights:

• Outstanding Grade 1′ (Ofsted);
• five training sites across the UK;
• more than 5,000 apprentice engineers trained to NVQ Level 3 equivalent’
• £30 million invested per year;
• £60 million to be invested in training over the next two years;’
• £30,000 invested in training each apprentice;
• 96% of Academy recruits complete their training;
• 90% or recruits remain with the company for five years or more;
• 50 applications for each position.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

It might come as a welcome surprise to many who feel that British Gas is a little unwieldy to deal with, but the giant energy company has been ranked as one of the U.K. top 50 places to work.

The accolade actually goes to two businesses inside British Gas: British Gas Business and British Gas Services.

The rankings are put together by The Financial Times newspaper and announced recently at the eighth annual U.K. Best Workplaces Awards ceremony which took place in London recently.

In fact, British Gas Business received a Financial Times Laureate Award for companies that have maintained a position on the list for five consecutive years. To date, only ten organisations have achieved that standard. It’s the second time for British Gas Services.

Badar Khan, British Gas Business managing director, said:
“To come in the UK’s top 50 places to work again is a fantastic achievement. We’ve got a ‘legendary’ employee engagement score at British Gas Business and this award just goes to prove that this means a great deal to the team.”

The Great Place to Work Institute run the awards and they are based on a survey plus organisation questionnaire.

Another newspaper, this time The Sunday Times, also gave British Gas a thumbs up as a great place to deal, making it 17th in its list of top employers.

British Gas is one of th world’s major energy companies and as a residential supplier, is the biggest supplier of gas and electric in the British domestic market with more than 16 million customer accounts.

So, next time a customer is waiting patiently on the telephone being told that an engineer is sure to get there, just remember, at least the souls at British Gas are happy in their work.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

British Gas owner Centrica has been reported to be buying a stake in British Energy, the U.K. nuclear power, for some £2.3 billion.

This represents 20% of British Energy, which is owned by French company EDF, but is less than the 25% (for £3.1 billion) than was first reported.

Talks are said to have stalled after the world recession forced down electricity prices. And the deal which saw EDF snap up British Energy for £12.5 billion was only itself concluded in January 2009.

EDF and Centrica have ambitious plans to grow the business which currently operates eight nuclear power stations throughout the U.K. At the heart of the expansion is a plan to build four new nuclear power stations on the existing sites. This will be necessary in order to meet the government’s plan to generate more power from nuclear than fossil fuels.

The current eight British Energy nuclear sites are at Dungeness B, Hartlepool, Heysham 1, Heysham 2, Hinkley Point B, Hunterston B, Sizewell B and Torness. Together they generate around 15% of the U.K.’s domestic energy.

The four new plants are expected at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk. Depending on regulatory permissions, the first new plant is meant to be operational by 2017.

EDF is currently the world’s biggest operator of nuclear power stations. It’s acquisition of British Energy was at the time criticised by MPs and action groups. EDF is 85% owned by the French government and many were concerned that the U.K. was unnecessarily passing on control of one of the country’s main assets, and threatening energy supply security.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

An Eaglestone pensioner who opted for a free gas meter upgrade found herself with a bill of £168.

And what made matters worse, she was left with no heating, or hot water.

The 73-year-old responded to a British Gas offer to update customer’s technology which is part of a countrywide initiative.

An engineer made the visit, fitted the new meter and then tried to relight the pensioner’s boiler. After three attempts he gave up and left, saying it was no longer his responsibility, leaving the boiler unlit and the house cold, and without hot water.

After repeated calls to British Gas to try and resolve the situation – and with British Gas doing their best to distance themselves from the problem – she was told that they would send an engineer out to fix the problem, but that it would cost £168.

The pensioner refused the offer and had the foresight to ring her local newspaper to tell them about her predicament. Within two hours of the call a British Gas engineer was round to her house, the boiler was relit and there was no word about a bill.

Corporate apologist Sara Powell-Davies of British Gas apparently said: "As a gesture of goodwill, we did arrange for one of our engineers to visit … on Friday afternoon and he was successful in getting her boiler relit. We advise all our customers to have their boilers serviced on an annual basis to ensure they remain in good working order."

So, there you are then. We are left to decide that whilst making their apologies, British Gas were making the point that the pensioner’s boiler had not actually been regularly serviced.

Gas boilers must be serviced every 12 months by an engineer from the Safe Gas Register. If you don’t, you could face worse than an unlit boiler, but death by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Guest Article by Neil Camp