Vulnerability Team and Business updates
How NGN will spend our money
New VCMA Collaborative Projects
- AR CO project – All 4 GDN’s – NGN Leading
- Parsley Box – All 4 GDN’s
- Think CO App – All 4 GDN’s
- Eleven Miles – Winter & Summer CO & PSR awareness campaigns – all 4 GDN’s
New VMCA NGN Projects
- CA Northumberland
- CA Bradford
- Noah’s Ark
- Cafs
- Yorkshire Coast Sight Support
- Fuel Bank Foundation
- Cleveland Fire Authority
- Northern Cancer Voices
Continue to target support to greatest need using data/research
NEA Vulnerable Customers and Community Resilience project: A Cross-Utility Study
Utility networks are responsible for ensuring that communities have access to safe and efficient utility (gas, electricity, water and communications) supplies. They recognise that supporting the most vulnerable members of society in times of adversity is a necessity.
However, how we understand vulnerability, the range of vulnerabilities in existence, and how different vulnerabilities interact or emerge in the context of different types of utility is complex. There is an equally complex and diverse range of non-utility stakeholders that provide support services to vulnerable utility customers. As the utility networks prepare for a challenging energy systems transition, a comprehensive and consistent approach to ensuring community resilience will be required to safeguard vulnerable individuals and communities.
To respond to this challenge, NEA worked Northern Gas Networks to undertake a cross-utility review that considers the range of support currently being provided, who those providers are, and what good practice means for community resilience and consumer safeguarding, both in the current energy landscape and during the future energy transition.
This project aims are as follows:
- Identify how we currently understand vulnerability
- Forecast short-term and short-term risks to community and customer resilience, including the energy justice implications associated with the low carbon transition
- Identify current network activity to support customers and communities
- Make recommendations to ensure that networks are equipped to provide the most appropriate support for vulnerable members of society during the energy systems transition
- Strengthen existing partnership work between GDNs, DNOs and water utilities and highlight potential cost efficiencies on the delivery of respective social obligations
- Highlight opportunities for relevant parties, and their partners to innovate, collaborate and coordinate so that assistance is better targeted to customers most in need
- Develop best or innovating practice recommendations to support customers in vulnerable situations and frontline workers in a cross-utility network
Findings: Guideline 3: Debt and Affordability:
For companies with direct billing and charging relationships with customers
For all utility-related organisations (with billing and/or non-billing relationships with customers)
Bespoke vulnerability mapping research carried out September 2023
NGN commissioned bespoke vulnerability mapping research in September 2023. It focused on our hard to reach customers and who NGN should be engaging with first. The below chart shows NGN hard-to-reach mapping – category level:

NGN have developed 5 broad categories which support our colleagues to recognise and embed our strategy, these are:
1. Financial hardship
2. Physical challenges, inclusive of communication issues, physical space.
3. Mental wellbeing
4. Rural vulnerability
5. Temporary vulnerability
Through the research carried out on the following slide the findings show that the 5 main categories have now evolved to 10 categories. These are:
- Physical challenges, inclusive of communication issues, physical space.
- Mental wellbeing
- Financial hardship
- Temporary vulnerability
- Socio Demographic
- Household composition
- Rural Vulnerability
- Accessibility Including language
- Medical Dependant on Energy
- Cultural
NGN are therefore looking to align projects with the findings of the research and look at the hard to reach as identified below:

The top right-hand box on the next slide shows the main areas NGN should be focusing on. These themes will also help us with our GD3 planning.
Business updates
Any questions on our general business updates, please just get in touch with Eileen – ebrown@northerngas.co.uk
GD3 – 2026 to 2031
- Work has started on our next business plan, which will run from April 2026 to March 2031. Ofgem have indicated that they do not expect to see significant change between our current and future business plans. However, they will be looking in depth at our commitments on vulnerability, how the VCMA is set up, and how our impact should be measured.
Decarbonisation of heat
- There has been lots of energy-related topics covered by the news – many of them focussing on the hydrogen v heat pumps debate for decarbonising heat. Our approach at NGN is to make sure that customers have choice through the energy transition, and that due consideration is given for those customers for whom a heat pump isn't appropriate. We are still awaiting a government decision on Redcar – installing either hydrogen or all electric solutions to c 2000 homes and businesses.