Penny Walters talks about her experience of growing up in a cold home, highlighting the challenges and hardships faced by households in fuel poverty. Penny will also talk about the solutions to poverty in the UK. Penny, an activist with a passion for the underdog and people, is a food ambassador for Food Foundation as well as North East Pantry Coordinator for feeding Britain.

Welcome address and reflection by Adam Scorer, Chief Executive, National Energy Action.

National Energy Action (NEA) has been fighting fuel poverty for 45 years. In this session, NEA’s Chief Executive, Adam Scorer, will be in conversation with Brenda Boardman, an academic who literally ‘wrote the book’ on fuel poverty; Rt Hon Caroline Flint, chair of the Committee on Fuel Poverty, and Ian Preston from NEA’s partners in fighting fuel poverty the Centre for Sustainable Energy. They will discuss what has been achieved in that 45 years, and what needs to be done in the coming decades.

The Warm Homes Plan will give strategy and direction to efforts to decarbonise homes and combat fuel poverty within this parliament and beyond. Once committed to paper though, the time comes to translate it into action, and ultimately into ensuring that fuel poor households can adequately heat their homes.

This session explores how digital exclusion deepens and exacerbates fuel poverty, leaving many households unable to access support, manage energy accounts, or benefit from online tariffs and advice. Drawing on front-line experience and sector experts, it will examine who is most affected, the importance of building trust, and practical ways organisations can design more inclusive, accessible support for people facing fuel poverty.

How do you go from the availability of grants and a choice of energy efficiency measures to a successful outcome for the household? This session will consider the different approaches to engaging people about the benefits of retrofit, how to enable the right measures to be installed, and how to support people throughout the process, including appropriate aftercare.

In 1980, the Black Report revealed how poverty, housing and living conditions drive health inequalities. A year later, National Energy Action was founded to turn that evidence into action. Forty-five years on, cold and damp homes still cause preventable ill health, but the solutions are clearer than ever. This session considers the journey from early evidence to today’s Warm Homes, Healthy Futures Blueprint, bringing together voices from different sectors to explore how we scale, fund and deliver flexible, health-connected fuel poverty programmes for the decades ahead.

Join members of the North East Combined Authority’s (NECA) Warm Homes Taskforce to learn about the work of NECA in reducing fuel poverty, and to feed in to the Mayor’s upcoming strategy towards warmer homes in the region.

Across the UK, millions of children are living in fuel poverty. This session will shine a light on the toll fuel poverty takes on children’s health, wellbeing, education, and life chances, and explore how intersecting inequalities compound its effects. The session will examine the causes, consequences, and solutions to child fuel poverty in the UK. It will explore how structural factors – including racial inequality, welfare policy, and the cost-of-living crisis – are driving child poverty and deepening the energy crisis for families. As well as a focus on the realities of child fuel poverty, the session will offer practical and strategic pathways forward. It will explore what can be done – by government, by industry, by charities, and by communities – to protect children from the cold, and ensure every child has the right to grow up in a warm, safe home. Whether you’re a policymaker, practitioner, researcher, advocate, or someone who is simply concerned about how social inequality impacts children, this session will provide compelling evidence, powerful stories, and a call to action to put children at the heart of the fight against fuel poverty.

• Adam Scorer, Chief Executive, National Energy Action

• Martin McCluskey MP, Minister for Energy Consumers

Combined authorities play a vital role in the fight against fuel poverty. Positioned at the intersection of local knowledge and strategic influence, they have the power to convene a broad range of stakeholders and focus their efforts on the most pressing issues for their areas and residents. Whether that focus is on improving housing quality, tackling health inequalities exacerbated by cold homes, delivering retrofit programmes at scale, or addressing child poverty, combined authorities can respond to the specific challenges and opportunities within their regions. Join us to explore the unique ways in which three combined authorities are working to tackle fuel poverty in their regions.

Partners’ Panel: This closing plenary session will reflect on key learnings, celebrate collaboration and look ahead to collective next steps. There will be a mix of partner panel and audience engaged discussion. The session will look to discuss key themes, take outs, and future opportunities from a range of perspectives.