This guidebook has been produced as part of the FinSH project - Financial and Support Instruments for Fuel Poverty in Social Housing.
This guidance document summarises the main issues to be considered relating to the successful improvement of energy efficiency in social housing. Since behavioural change can result in potential savings that should not be underestimated and helps tap the full potential of efficient technical solutions, the guidance given includes both “hard” (installations and building work) and “soft” (communications and behaviour change) measures.
It is designed for anyone working within this sector, including social housing providers, residents and supporting organisations of all kinds. We intend it to be useful to those wishing to improve performance with respect to addressing energy poverty in social housing, or to assess their performance against good practice.
Energy or “fuel” poverty is a term used to describe the situation a household finds itself in when it is not able to afford the energy bills for its everyday needs, such as heating, lighting and hot water. This is only one of many potential difficulties faced by people living on low incomes, but has become the subject of particular attention all over Europe with rising energy costs, and energy bills forming such a large part of household expenditure.