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Transforming lives through affordable warmth: Warmworks

Warmworks
www.warmworks.co.uk
LinkedIn: Warmworks

With fuel prices set to rise this summer, thousands of families are already nervously looking at their winter budgets. Leading the way in tackling fuel poverty is Warmworks, a specialist organisation working in partnership with the Government, councils and contractors to deliver upgrades to the UK’s energy inefficient housing stock. Here, chief executive Ross Armstrong talks to N magazine about the company’s expansion into the North East, the push for meaningful strategy around fuel poverty and why a letter from Coco the schnauzer made his day.

For a growing number of UK households, putting the heating on isn’t a matter of flicking a switch – it’s a considered choice.

Millions of people are already preparing for another winter in homes they can’t afford to heat, confined to one room or rationing the heating to a couple of hours a day.

Ross Armstrong has spent more than two decades listening to the stories of families living with the strain of trying to stay warm.

As chief executive of Warmworks, the Scotland-headquartered organisation managing the rollout of publicly-funded warm home schemes, he can already see the pressure building, with energy costs rising by 13 per cent in July and forecasts to rise again in September.

He says: “I’ve found people don’t identify with the idea of fuel poverty, even when it’s happening to them, so I think of it now in terms of affordable warmth.

“When you can’t afford to be warm in your home, it’s not just the physical consequences of not being warm or living with damp, it’s the mental stress that’s building too.”

That focus on affordable warmth sits at the heart of Warmworks’ ethos.

Set up in 2015 as a joint venture between the Energy Saving Trust, Changeworks and Sureserve, the organisation delivers Government-funded programmes designed to tackle fuel poverty by improving homes’ energy efficiency.

Founded on a mix of social purpose and delivery capability, it took on larger energy firms to secure a £7 million contract with the Scottish Government in 2015.

But there was a problem.

Ross says: “They won the bid, but nothing existed outside the documentation they put together.

“The whole thing had to be up and running, working with the public and spending the money, within four months.”

Newcastle-based Ross, who was already established in the sector, soon received a call for help to mobilise the business.

He says: “I said I’d give them six months, as it didn’t seem feasible to live in Newcastle and work in Scotland over the long-term.

“That was 11 years ago, and I’m still here.

“I know the East Coast Main Line between Newcastle and Edinburgh like the back of my hand.

“It’s become an extension of my office; I’m on first name terms with some of the crews!”

Starting with 40 employees, Warmworks has grown into a £100 million business with more than 180 staff in five offices, delivering energy efficiency programmes across Scotland, England and Wales.

Households in need are referred to Warmworks for help and, after assessing what changes will make the biggest difference to the individual property – from insulation and central heating upgrades to solar panels – the company manages installation, supporting the customer throughout the process.

Ross says: “Not everyone can go out, find trusted tradespeople and navigate the system.

“We exist to help the people who can’t, or won’t, go through that process themselves.”

Warmworks’ largest contract outside Scotland is with Newcastle City Council, where a multi-year partnership is seeing energy efficiency upgrades rolled out at scale.

More broadly, Warmworks’ Newcastle office, in St James’ Gate, is engaging with councils and partners across the North East looking to improve housing stock and reduce residents’ bills.

That expansion extends into regional strategy, with Ross a member of the North East Strategic Mayoral Authority’s Warm Homes Taskforce, which is helping to shape funding and delivery of energy efficiency improvement schemes across the region.

He says: “It’s really important work to help shape the strategy, and we’re pleased Mayor McGuinness has made the issue one of her priorities.

“We’re proud to play a big part in that mission.”

Warmworks uses local contractors wherever it operates, with clear expectations around quality and conduct.

Ross says: “At the end of the day, we’re sending people into a vulnerable person’s home.

“We hold ourselves to the same standards; it’s deliberately stringent and something I make no apology for.”

Warmworks has supported more than 50,000 households to date, but Ross says it’s the individual stories that mean the most.

He adds: “I had a letter from a lady in Glasgow, with a picture of her little dog, Coco the schnauzer, because she wanted me to know what it meant to her to be warm in her home.

“That’s what it’s all about.”

Closer to home, Ross met a Newcastle couple who proudly showed him their 60th anniversary card from the King before telling him what a difference Warmworks had made to their lives.

He says: “They could only previously afford to heat one room in their home; they can now afford to heat the whole house and live comfortably.

“It transformed their lives.”

However, for all the progress and pride, Ross admits he’d rather fell into the sector.

After graduating from Durham University and still deciding what to do, he took a temporary job for a business similar to Warmworks.

He says: “Listening to the lengths some people went to stay warm made a big impression on me.

“I wanted to do something meaningful and know I was making a difference.”

More than 20 years on, having risen to the top of Warmworks, Ross is blunt about the scale of the issue.

He says: “It’s a national social crisis, we need to be very clear on that.

“People are living in environments they can’t afford to heat or live in comfortably.”

The Government recently announced £15 billion funding through the Warm Homes Plan to replicate established schemes in Scotland and Wales.

And Ross is pleased to see a national strategy, though he does have a warning for Westminster.

He says: “Now isn’t the time for fiddling around the edges or running pilots of ten to 20 homes; we need to get cracking.

“The work of our team over the last 11 years has proved this type of programme works – and works at scale.

“If we get lost in talking shops, that’s not going to keep an old lady warm in a flat in Elswick.

“We need to make this happen.”

To learn more about Warmworks and the services and support it provides, visit the website at the top of this article.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by N Magazine .