LEAD: free home energy assessments for rural Rother

In order to help households in rural Rother improve energy efficiency and reduce energy bills, we are offering free professional energy assessments of homes (worth up to £500), carried out by our experienced delivery partners (see info further down this page), which will be followed up by home visits from Citizens Advice 1066’s trained advisors to help households understand the assessment report and decide on a course of action. We can help with accessing grants, form-filling, and understanding how to avoid scams. This work is part of the Local Energy Advice Demonstrator (LEAD), funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero working in partnership with the Greater South East Net Zero Hub.

If you live in a rural part of Rother District (i.e. anywhere other than Bexhill), and are a homeowner, landlord or private tenant then you may be eligible to participate in this project. While we are focusing on vulnerable households and those at risk of fuel poverty, anyone who is in a ‘hard to reach’ demographic or a ‘hard to treat’ home, such as older buildings and those not on mains gas, can be included. The programme runs until early 2025, and will provide over 200 retrofit assessments.

If you are interested in having a free energy assessment on your home, please contact us by calling 0800 1456879 or filling in this form.

If you leave a message - one of our team will call you back to arrange a home visit or a meeting at one of our offices. Advisors will also be available for drop-in visits at community venues around rural Rother in the coming months; the locations and timings are shown below, and new dates and locations will be added over time:

Drop-in venues to enquire about LEAD free home energy assessments

Rye

• Tilling Green Community Centre, Wednesday mornings 10am-1pm
• Hub on Rye Hill, Wednesday afternoons 2pm-5pm

Bexhill

• Citizens Advice 1066 Drop in session at our Bexhill office with Citizens Advice Advisers, the Bexhill Primary Care Network, Rother District Housing Options Team and Digital inclusion Specialists TechResort.

Our LEAD delivery partners

If you are eligible for LEAD, we will arrange for one of our delivery partners to visit your home to carry out an in-depth retrofit assessment, which takes a few hours and involves taking photos inside and outside your home. Please do not contact these partners directly, you can only get a free retrofit assessment by going through our LEAD programme. We are pleased to be working with the following businesses on LEAD:

AgilityEco

Furbnow (see this video from Furbnow describing their process)

Retrofitworks