Highlights from 24/25
- Continued pace of spend to ensure full allowance committed for final year of GD2
- Forecast year 4 was £8.8m however actual spend was 15% lower, owing to delays with some larger projects and phasing of spend
- Targeted effort to reach into local communities and specific vulnerable groups e.g. Centres for Warmth and Warm Homes Healthy Futures (WHHF) projects
- 91 live VCMA projects
- Spend focus during year 4 (strategy informed by partners and stakeholders):
- Health – WHHF project live (NGN led, highest cost VCMA collaborative project to date)
- Addressing remaining gaps against bespoke vulnerability mapping
- Extension and expansion of successful existing projects (tiers 1 & 2 focus)
- SBtM evolution – moved to in house delivery
- Centres for Warmth – achieved target of 20 centres for GD2
Customer Support Fund (CSF):
NGN/Shareholder funded - £150k per year (increased to £600k for 2022 – 2023 due to the cost-of-living crisis). In place for 2021 – 2026. This fund was created to plug gaps in existing funding streams. Designed by customers and stakeholders and reviewed every year, to ensure it is addressing funding gaps and reaching those in most need.
Highlights from 24/25
- Moved projects out that could be funded under VCMA – ensure maximum impact for this fund
- Continuation of the utilisation of unbilled energy (Theft of Gas) revenue – commitment for GD2
- Continue to predominantly support tier 1 (high needs/intensity of support)
- CE project – continuation of Off Gas Warmth project. Predominantly supporting people of pensionable age, with low income and multiple health issues (filling funding gaps)
Spend focus during year 4 (strategy informed by partners and stakeholders):
- Continuation of enhanced compensation payments for customers left without gas through emergency supply interruptions – an additional, early payment was introduced at 4 hours, to support increased energy costs. A decision was taken to reduce this offering to Priority Services Registered (PSR) customers on single supply incidents only
- Support first time gas connections/central heating
- Outside In Project – engaging with lived experts to better inform delivery/best practice for customers in vulnerable situations
Community Partnering Fund (CPF):
- NGN/Shareholder funded - £50k per year. This fund has been in place since 2016. It was created to identify grass roots projects, that can potentially be grown through the VCMA.
Highlights from 24/25
- In 2024/25 we recognised gaps in projects sourced from the County Durham and Tees Valley areas and therefore committed to work with Point North (previously County Durham Community Foundation), to fund projects based in the North-East area
- We have developed 5 new projects using this year's fund:
- Bullion
- Pioneering Care Partnership
- Building Self Belief CIC
- EVA Women's Aid
- YMCA
3 Tier Model:
This year we have continued to use the 3-tier model to categorise the support that we provide funding for.
- Tier 1 - Includes projects focused on appliance repair/replacement, in-depth case work and targeting support towards high-risk groups, where there may be complex barriers to accessing or engaging in support
- Tier 2 - Includes projects focused on direct awareness and lower-level advice
- Tier 3 - Includes projects focused on awareness campaigns, lighter touch and self-initiated support
Combined NGN & collaborative VCMA projects (years 1-4):
Key findings:
Collaborative projects continue to have a higher SROI value on average, although NGN SROI values have a more consistent range
Higher % collaborative spend on Tier 1 projects overall continues to be the trend
- NGN continue to consistently reach more people through individual awareness campaigns (Tier 3)
- % spend on Tiers 1 and 2 has increased as per our strategy (doubled), although average cost to serve has reduced for these tiers
Performance update for Year 4:
We asked all participants the below 3 questions about our performance to date: -
Your reflections on our Year 4 performance (Free text)
- Have we performed better or worse than expected? (Options - better, worse, don't know)
- Score performance (1-10, 1 being poorest and 10 being best score)
- I think the ongoing collaboration is great - the fact you managed to increase commitment is noteworthy for community engagement. it also looks like you have managed to substantially increase projects
- Sharing this information, I find it really useful and interesting. As an organisation delivering activity on the ground, it's great to see the bigger picture and how it fits together
- Good performance. Like the focus on in depth support. Alos like how collaborative you are. 9
- There seems to be an very large incremental increase in the number of beneficiaries of your service which is great. Also, think it is a really good idea to support organisations
- It's absolutely fantastic to see what's been done off the back of feedback from partners & what's been achieved for customers in vulnerable circumstances - so it's a 10 from me
