Everyone has an energy story – this is a 2021 Islington Faces project which will see locals asked what puzzles them about trying to change our carbon hungry habits & find and share solutions from people who live locally.
Everyone has an #energystory #12.
Q: If I’m renting a place which leaks heat, how can I make the rooms warmer and the bills cheaper?
Each Energy Story interview is inspired by the questions local people ask Islington Faces about cutting carbon/tackling the climate crisis. For this interview our question looks at how to be more energy efficient especially if you are at home more and struggling to pay bills – in other words when it’s not a summer heat wave and you have to choose between eating or heating.
Everyone has an energy story – and sometimes that energy story is about how to get help to sort out a cold and damp, mouldy place. Here’s how energy advice can help people who are renting and have very little spare cash. Interview with energy Advice Officer Nicola Branch by Nicola Baird. Photos by Kimi Gill.
Nicola Branch, Energy Advice officer: “I’d have liked to have thought that Covid would have woken people up to conserve energy and have healthier homes. I sleep with my window open because every adult breathes out a pint of water during the night, and if you’ve not got a window open that water has got to go somewhere. Obviously, there’s a safety element but if your home is overcrowded or you’ve got three generations and pets too then definitely open the window. Wherever I stay to sleep if I cannot open a window I really struggle and feel all congested.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
If everyone has an energy story then the person who’s probably helped turn many uncomfortable and damp living situations around is Nicola Branch. For the past 18 years this keen cycle commuter has been giving energy efficiency advice to householders which will make their homes more comfortable to live in and save them money. Although she doesn’t do home visits, she often has long phone calls with people to help resolve their energy crises. Currently she’s working from home – based at her brother’s place in Stamford, Lincolnshire, with his partner and their parents – but hopes to be back in her Southwark apartment soon.
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Nicola has worked in Islington on and off for nearly two decades and has also spent many after-work evenings at gigs, warehouse parties and comedy clubs in the borough. Despite this close connection to Islington her perhaps surprising first love in the Premier League is West Ham – in part because her Dad, now 95, lived in Barking and introduced her to the Hammers.
Currently Nicola’s working for SHINE (an acronym for Seasonal Health Interventions Network) which has its main office in N7 Islington. This far-sighted programme helps people who are struggling with all their utilities, including energy, and also helps people to deal with their debts.
Nicola Branch, Energy Advice officer (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
“The best part of my job is saving people a lot of money,” says Nicola pointing out that for some people it might be thousands of pounds. “In our July newsletter I saw that one of the team managed to save Mr Q over £3,000 off his bills and managed to clear the debt he had with his gas, electricity and water accounts. He was really struggling with health issues and it’s taken a long time – they’ve been working with him for over a year. Getting people out of debt makes a huge difference to their lives. “
Although it’s not part of Nicola’s role, some of the Energy Services team deal with council energy – such as community heating, heating infrastructure and all the council buildings with heating (such as schools, leisure centres) as well as innovative energy projects, like Bunhill 1 and Bunhill 2. “The district heating system at Bunhill2 uses waste energy from the London underground. It’s run in conjunction with TfL, because there’s a lot of waste heat from the tube. It’s the first in the world using waste heat from the underground to heat houses, shops and the leisure centre. And they work very closely with the council on the carbon zero targets for 2030.”
“Islington has a massive difference between people who are very rich and own their properties and those who rent and have hardly any say in the efficiency of their property. We are hoping that in Islington by 2030 we can reach our Net Zero Carbon target by trying to make sure that there are no properties in the borough below a B rating for Energy Efficiency,” says Nicola. You can read more about Vision 2030 – Islngton’s Zero Carbon strategy here.
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Nicola Branch, Energy Advice officer is a huge fan – and friend – of versatile comedian Phill Jupitus (she calls him Porky as he introduced himself to her as Porky The Poet) who she met after making a trip from Brighton to London for a gig in 1986. “Porky was at Go Disks, I was a huge fan of The Housemartins and heard they would be on the Whistle Test. We’ve stayed friends for years. At my Mum’s 90th in March, Porky was on the birthday Zoom call. Mum’s adoration of Phill Jupitus is bigger than anyone’s. He’s been so sweet to Mum and Dad – he’s made sure they’ve had tickets to see shows in London, Plymouth or Bristol. And we loved his musicals. Hairspray was so good.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
Places Nicola Branch loves in Islington
- Finsbury Park mosque is a place that I’d heard about on the news for all the wrong reasons and has had to cope with really nasty racist attacks. I went along and met the chairman Mohammed Kozbar (interviewed on Islington Faces here) and have been to open days. The mosque also allowed me to collect for Medical Aid for Palestinians during Ramadan. It’s such a welcoming place and at the iftar (meal to break the fast) on St Thomas’s Road, N4 I’ve had delicious food.
- The Caledonian Clock Tower and Caledonian Park. For lockdown I’ve been in Lincolnshire but when I’m back in the office above the Waste and Recycling Centre there are huge windows and a massive vista so you can see sun setting behind the clock tower. The Tolpuddle Café is really nice and has a mural of the Tolpuddle martyrs. It’s run by the guys who run Kafeteryam, at 467 Caledonian Road, N7 next to Caldeonian Road tube station. Union Chapel has great concerts. I saw two of the Osmonds there (Jay and Merrill) and found out I was sitting next to Jay’s wife, Mrs Osmond. She saw me recording the drumming and said, ‘That’s the best I’ve ever seen him play could you send me the recording?’ Which I did. My favourite song has got to be Crazy Horses because it’s an environmental song – not many people know that, they were back saving the environment in 1972. I’ve seen Holy Holy (the band that do all the David Bowie songs with Tony Visconit and Woody Woodmansy, showcasing new artists and their work). I’ve also seen Paloma Faith, and Idiot Bastard Band (with Ade Edmondson Phill Jupitus, Neil Innes and Rowland Rivron).
- I love the bit of Seven Sisters Road that runs from Holloway to Finsbury Park as it brings up all sorts of memories: The first ever gig I went to was at the Rainbow in November 1979 to see the Boomtown Rats, which was my 14th birthday present from my brother. Further down you had the Red Rose Comedy Club where I’ve seen Mark Thomas, Mark Steel, Porky (Phill Jupitus), Kevin McAleer with his hilarious sketch with a photograph of owls – and Jenny Eclair. I’m a south London girl, from Orpington, Kent so for me to go all the way up from Bromley to watch comedy was a big thing. There are also really lovely eateries, and the best PM that we never had lives along there, but it does need a physically protected cycle lane…
- Really liked seeing Ian Prowse play at The Islington, 1 Tolpuddle Street at Angel, near Sainsburys.
- I went to some great warehouse parties at the area around where Vue cinema and the hotel is now – 30 years on I’m still friends with some of the people I met at those parties.
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Tackling fuel poverty
Nicola Branch, Energy Advice officer: “People are living in cold properties where the damp and mould is really appalling.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
“There’s a massive problem with poverty in Islington and throughout the UK. A colleague of ours had really noticed it’s not just fuel poverty – the original definition was conceived by Brenda Boardman in the 1980s – it was people who have to spend more than 10 per cent of their disposable income on heating and hot water. It’s been redefined by the government, but there are still a lot of people in fuel poverty and during Covid a lot of people lost their jobs and a lot of people were at home constantly so their energy use and bills have increased,” says Nicola.
The health element is really important too. Nicola explains that: “People in fuel poverty tend to suffer from health problems as well, such as asthma and chest infections, and all these are really linked with Covid because if you are living in a cold, damp property that you can’t fully afford to heat you are more likely to have chest problems.”
Nicola Branch, Energy Advice officer: “You don’t have fuel poverty in Scandinavia because their houses are built with far better standards. We have a lot of cold properties. Even our new ones have building standards that are nowhere near the rest of Europe.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
For Nicola her job is a way of making life better for everyone: “The fact we have fuel poverty in this country in 2021 is an absolute disgrace. I remember it was horrible having silver fish in the bedroom when I was in my 20s and 30s because the flat was not properly insulated; the wall was north facing and there were single glazed windows.”
Shockingly cold, damp properties with mould rented by private landlords and even housing association properties are a particular British problem she says. “You don’t have fuel poverty in Scandinavia because their houses are built to far better standards. We have a lot of cold properties. Even our new ones have building standards that are nowhere near the rest of Europe.”
Which is why there’s a big need across London for SHINE (part funded by the GLA and EDF energy) to help sort out the damp, mould and if needed, debt, once a household has been referred or contacted the energy officers for help by using the free phone number.
SHINE can make life better for anyone struggling to pay for gas, electricity or water bills. Nicola points out that, “it’s not just debt we help with, there are also discounts and grants for households on a low income (up to £25,000) or to help if the property is old and very difficult to treat there may be grants for energy efficiency measures,” she adds.
“At full capacity there are 14 of us, including four energy doctors, eight advisers and then some project workers and two senior energy officers,” says Nicola who is busier during the colder months but tends to make good use of the “quieter months in the summer by doing events and talks (now online) for groups like the Royal College of Physicians to 90 GPs or to the Irish Community Centre or a church group – anything where there are people who can benefit from energy advice.”
Nicola Branch, Energy Advice officer: “We do work collaboratively with the Home Energy Advice officers and Energy Services team in part to get to net zero housing which means improving homes of Islington residents.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
Q: What’s a typical day?
Nicola: “I’m put on to a rota to offer specific energy efficiency advice which can include a phone shift in the morning or afternoon or I can be working on mail boxes, dedicated email lines or if the phone lines are really busy and an adviser can’t take the call then we’ll have voice mail to answer. The top referrers between April – June 2021 have been Age UK, Barking & Dagenham Council, Newham Council, North London Cares (an agency with befriending clubs), Help on Your Doorstep, Peabody (housing association) and Fair Finance (which offers general financial advice).”
Q: Any tips to save energy (carbon) and keep your home healthy?
Nicola may suggest you switch energy suppliers but her top tip is, “If you are on certain benefits and over 65 or have got a young family or a medical condition that is effected by being in a cold, damp home there’s a warm home discount of £140 you can get off your energy bills that’s been going for 10 years. And there are water discounts that can let you get up to 50 per cent off your water bills.
“You hear people say, ‘I can’t believe it’s June and I’ve got the heating on.’ But the answer is in the old adage, ‘Don’t put the heating on, put a jumper on’. Our attitude to heating is rather skewed compared to our European neighbours who dress appropriately for the weather. If it is cold put a jumper on! I’ve got a fleece top on today (July). We’ve got a huge climate crisis in the world but also our homes are incredibly energy inefficient.”
Q: How do I get energy advice or debt help for me – or a friend – from SHINE?
Energy Advice is surprisingly easy to come by thanks to Nicola Branch and the team at SHINE. If you’re based in Islington – or anywhere in London – and have a problem then ask to be referred or call the free phone number. When it comes to efficient energy use one of the best ways to get your problem sorted is to ask for help – and of course to dress appropriately for the season and weather.
- SHINE advice Line (free phone) 0300 555 0195
- email shine@islington.gov.uk
- http://www.islington.gov.uk/energyFollow us on Twitter @shine_network and @IslingtonEnergy
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Do you have any questions about how to decarbonise your life or tackle climate change, eg, about travel, food, energy use? If so, please send us a message on email to: islingtonfaces@gmail.com
Over to you
Also if you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via islingtonfaces@gmail.com If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola
