This letter sets out our proposal to update our eligibility criteria for the Fuel Poor Network Extension Scheme (FPNES), in order to reflect associated changes to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, recently announced by government.
The FPNES helps households that are off the gas grid switch to natural gas by offering funding towards the cost of connecting to the gas network. Ensuring fuel poor households have access to affordable energy supplies is a key energy policy priority. Access to gas, usually the most cost-effective fuel for heating, is a key way to tackle this problem. The eligibility criteria of the FPNES reflect commonly used proxies of fuel poverty or reflect criteria employed by related measures and schemes (such as ECO) to help ensure that the households that benefit from the FPNES are more likely to also benefit from related assistance.
We are proposing to remove the criterion that the household must “reside within the 25% most deprived areas, as measured by the government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation…” to reflect the removal of the equivalent Carbon Saving Community Obligation (CSCO) from ECO.
Please provide any views on our minded to position by 24 March 2017 by emailing Samuel.Taylor@ofgem.gov.uk.