Energy partnership’s environment award

AN energy partnership involving Uttlesford District Council has won a top environmental award.

The Herts Essex Energy Partnership (HEEP), which offers grants, loans and discounts to homeowners and private tenants in the Uttlesford area to help generate and save energy, has just been notified that it is among the major winners in the Green Apple Awards to be presented in November.

This is the second award the scheme, which involves 15 local authorities, has received recently, having won ‘Best Environmental Project’ in the Hertfordshire Green Awards. The award was presented to HEEP by BBC’s Ethical Man and star of the One Show, Justin Rowlatt.

Judges described HEEP as “not only a brilliant green project, but also a way to improve people’s lives”.

The partnership was set up in July last year to help alleviate fuel poverty and increase the income of fuel-poor households by helping them cut their fuel bills.

Among the initiatives offered by HEEP, subject to qualifying criteria, are free loft and wall insulation, free boilers, 50 per cent interest-free loans for renewable energy technologies and free installation of energy-saving items such as insulation, photovoltaic panels and air source heat pumps.

If you choose to install a form of technology that generates electricity, you may even be entitled to receive money from the government, under its “Feed in Tariff”.

Uttlesford District Council senior building surveyor and energy manager, John Farnell, said: “This is a very good opportunity for people to get subsidies for all kinds of work to save energy in the home.

“HEEP offers generous loans on high-value energy-saving products and qualifying households can get measures such as insulation and replacement boilers absolutely free, if not heavily discounted.

“We’re very pleased to be a part of the initiative.”

To find out more about what HEEP has to offer, call free on 0800 980 6026 or visit heepgrant.org