Energy solutions for affordable housing providers

The big picture More of us than ever are living in fuel poverty, with many more feeling the squeeze, as energy bills compete with food, rent and other essentials for a share of limited household incomes. To help make a difference to the consumers who need it most, we’re giving affordable housing providers the power to become their own energy supplier – to provide bespoke products and a tailored service that meets the needs of their tenants. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned from being the leading specialist energy supplier to the private lettings industry and applied it to the social sector – to give landlords and tenants more control over their energy.

Energy solutions for affordable housing providers

Three reasons to be with Spark … Reduced void costs and admin Dealing with the energy supplies for empty properties costs you time and money. Our dedicated account managers and automatic data feeds will dramatically reduce your direct costs and administration time. A regular income stream We’ll create an Energy Fund, yielding a regular annual payment that you can use how you like, to improve services for your tenants. Big Six or better prices We’ll always aim to provide tariffs that are as good as or better than the Big Six equivalent. What’s more, we’ll track the market to make sure we’re always competitive.

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What we’re offering We’re Spark, the only energy supplier built around you and your tenants. We’ve been specialists in the UK rental sector from day one, serving over 300,000 customers since our launch in 2007. In that time we’ve grown to a vibrant team of over 200 staff, all committed to providing a We pride ourselves on delivering a uniquely better experience to tenants right across the UK. With lower prices and a better service than their previous suppliers, we’re improving the experience of rental customers from the minute they put the key in the door. If you need proof, just ask our customers. We’re rated 4.5/5 on our impartial review site and the latest Which? customer satisfaction survey ranked us above all of the Big Six. Not only that, we were recognised by the Telegraph as a ‘company to inspire Britain’ in 2013.

Energy solutions for affordable housing providers

Collaboration

Savings

It’s simple; choose us as the preferred energy supplier for all your properties and we’ll collaborate to create bespoke tariffs and

We can even help with your void property costs. Our unique approach to void billing

of your tenants.

add up to tens of thousands of pounds for some providers.

Preparation

Opportunity

As each property becomes available to let, our dedicated team will work with your staff and existing systems to make sure that everything’s set up and ready for the new tenants when they move in.

What’s more, we’re able to offer a commission for every new property we supply. This can be used to further reduce tenant energy costs, fund capital or revenue programmes, provide energy-saving advice – whatever you decide would best serve your tenants.

Management In time we’ll manage the change of tenant process for you, using automated data feeds. This can reduce management costs and to provide an even better service to your tenants.

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Case studies Sanctuary

BlueGEN

One of our first affordable housing partners is Sanctuary, a landlord with around 80,000 social properties across England and Scotland.

We’ve built an exclusive relationship with Ceramic Fuel Cells, the developers of BlueGEN, to trial their small-scale gas-toelectricity fuel cell technology in UK social housing developments.

We’re running a pilot whereby Sanctuary nominates us as the preferred supplier for all their properties, as they become available. We transfer the supply and have everything set up in time for the new tenant moving in. Tenants benefit by moving in with everything ready to go, on our very competitive Pay As You Go Saver rate, with a better service than the Big Six. Sanctuary benefit by only having to deal with one supplier, using automated data feeds, thus vastly reducing admin costs. What’s more, we don’t bill Sanctuary for void periods. Although this might only be a small cost for each property, when multiplied up to tens of thousands of properties it represents a real economy of scale and major saving for them.

Energy solutions for affordable housing providers

Each unit – about the size of a washing machine – can generate sufficient electricity for 4 homes, whilst the host home benefits from 200 litres of “free” hot water per day as a by-product. Whereas traditional coal-fired power stations lose 60-70% of fuel energy as heat, each BlueGEN fuel cell allows up to 85% of fuel energy to be used in the home – so carbon emissions and energy bills are reduced by up to 50%. To kick things off we’re working with affordable housing partner Housing Solutions, to install the technology in six of their properties, to the benefit of 24 homes. It’s an innovative approach to addressing the problems of energy efficiency and fuel poverty, which we hope will provide some exciting results.

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A bit about us We didn’t always work in the energy business; in fact we started out in the lettings sector before we saw the opportunity to provide a better service than the existing energy suppliers. Although we haven’t always got it right, we’re always learning and improving, and we’re still committed to achieving the goals we set out all those years ago – to provide an excellent specialist service to housing providers and a customerfocussed product to tenants. We’re still a relatively new entrant into the energy market, and our affordable housing partnerships give us the opportunity to continue to grow into a large market that we’re a perfect match for. We know we can improve on the service that is currently offered to landlords and at the same time help to make the lives of tenants a little easier. For us, it’s a simple decision.

Energy solutions for affordable housing providers

Although we’re proud to be specialists in the private lettings market, we realise that we’re still new to applying our knowledge to the affordable housing sector. So we’ve enlisted the help of Adecoe – experts in energy and sustainability at all levels of housing – to give us guidance and ensure that we have everything in place to build strong partnerships from the start. Adecoe will apply their extensive experience to develop a personalised offering for each provider, identifying potential stumbling blocks and helping to create a product that delivers a great deal for tenants. Find out how to get in touch on the back page.

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How to get in touch

Contact:

Nicolas Doyle [email protected] Arnout Andrews [email protected]

Ettrick Riverside, Dunsdale Road, Selkirk TD7 5EB 0345 034 7474 www.sparkenergy.co.uk