Communities
The findings from The Big Energy Shift public dialogue suggested that households could benefit significantly from joined-up ‘packages’ of support, delivered locally in the community, to help them reduce home energy consumption and make deep cuts in their carbon emissions.
Such packages could include, for example, smart meters, home energy audits, access to local demonstration homes, leadership from local schools, businesses and public buildings, and more hands-on support navigating advice and determining which energy efficiency measures and renewable technologies are right for them.
Northumberland National Park Authority believes that this type of integrated approach, involving technological solutions alongside community and household-level behaviour change, and delivered via new collaborations between local public, private and third sector organisations, will be critical to achieving the carbon emission cuts we need.
One of the challenges of the recession is how our communities will cope with the threat of fuel poverty. A fuel-poor household is one that cannot afford to keep adequately warm at reasonable cost. Community-scale initiatives, like that at Kielder, are one way of addressing fuel poverty on a larger scale, leaving a legacy for years to come. In the current climate, fuel poverty is when 10 percent or greater of a person’s income are used to heat their home.
The potential beneficiaries include households, community buildings, and businesses. No matter which type of community-scale initiative is adopted, the chances are that excess electricity can be sold back to grid at a profit, with the income retained in the sustainable community, and put to use for other initiatives they would like to undertake. Northumberland National Park is in a position where it can win over the hearts and minds of the communities, finding local champions to take these demonstration projects forward. Two of the locations already identified as potential low carbon communities are at Bryness and at Harbottle.
Northumberland National Park fully supports the development of Community Interest Companies in rural areas, which have the desire to do business with primarily social objectives. Such social enterprises tackle a wide range of social and environmental issues and operate in all parts of the economy. By using business solutions to achieve public good, it is believed that social enterprises have a distinct and valuable role to play in helping create a strong, sustainable and socially inclusive economy.
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