Caerphilly County Borough residents struggling to meet energy bills are being urged to contact a Welsh Government scheme which could pay for home improvements.
Around 600 hundred Caerphilly residents contacted the Warm Homes Nest scheme last year. Of these, nearly 300 households also received free home improvements and saved an average of £477 on their annual energy bills.
Lee Parry, Head of Nest, said: “Nest offers a wide range of support to help people who are struggling to heat their homes and worry about their energy bills. Over 17,700 householders have received free home improvements from Nest in the past four years and saved an average of £477 a year on their energy costs.”
Nest is open to all householders in Wales.
For more information call Nest on 0808 808 2244 or visit www.nestwales.org.uk.
This should be a good, valuable, scheme for low income householders in
Wales who`s homes fall within the restrictive guidelines of the Welsh
Assembly regulations to qualify. Not many houses in Wales currently
qualify.
If a householder qualifies for assistance under the scheme they need to be clear about their legal position in respect to any equipment installed on their property under these proposals.
The fact is that if a new central heating boiler system is installed by
contractors, ( in this Case British Gas), the ownership of the
equipment, for maintainance purposes, and for warrenty and garantee
purposes is retained by the Welsh Assembly. Should something go wrong
with the system, the householder, according to correspondence I have
from the Welsh Assembly and from Mr Lee Parry, Head of Nest, (which is
actually British Gas the firm contracted to supply, fit, and maintain
the system) ), has no rights whatsoever under a householders normal
statutory rights when you buy and install equipment into the home.
Anyone thinking of making an application for this Welsh Assembly Scheme would be seriously warned to seek independent advice from a lawyer before
allowing either the Welsh Assembly or British Gas to make any
alterations to their homes installations of any sort, should you have a
problem both the Welsh Assembly and British Gas will abdicate any
responsibility to the Householder.
A sage warning here, consumers should be on their guard.