Since 2023, the UPP Foundation has supported the development of student-led university energy advice centres, first at London South Bank University (LSBU) and then at Kingston University, Reading University and Wrexham University.
As part of our blog series, Ben Lishman of LSBU reflects on the ways in which the initial model has grown and extended its reach, responding to a variety of needs.
Last month the House of Commons released a research briefing on “Gas and electricity prices during the ‘energy crisis’ and beyond.” The report notes that the average annual household bill for gas and electricity is now £1,641, down from a peak of £2,380 in the winter of 2022-23. It was in that winter that London South Bank University launched the LSBU Energy Advice Centre, because we believed that our students could help people to save money and keep their homes safe, dry and comfortable. We created a drop-in service, where people who were worried about costs could come to ask questions, and have them answered by our students.
While we continue to run that drop-in service today, we’ve found that the Energy Advice Centre is a multi-purpose tool – one which can be applied to a wide range of situations and problems. As soon as we’d established an identity, people started coming to us to ask could you help with this event we’re organising? and could we link your students into a new programme we’re developing? If we hadn’t created the EAC, we’d never have found all the opportunities that exist. And because the service is designed and led by creative, enthusiastic students who want to use the skills from their degree courses in meaningful ways, we can say yes to each of these opportunities as they arise.
Southwark Green Homes Service
In that winter of 2022-23, Southwark Council was also working to expand their portfolio of support for energy bills. They contacted us to ask if we’d be willing to develop the service together, so that they could advertise what we’re doing. Most of the advice we give now comes from Southwark residents who contact us online. We’ve also worked in partnership to offer drop-in sessions in local libraries and leisure centres. The advice we give covers behavioural changes and low-cost measures that can make a difference, as well as guidance around home improvements like solar panels and heat pumps. You can see examples of the advice we give in the toolkit we produced with UPP.
Partnerships with industry
We’ve found that there are many SMEs and businesses who can see potential in working with our students. One example is our work with Thermafy, a Scottish SME. Since 2024, we’ve been able to use their software to offer thermal radiator surveys, since a poorly-operating heating system is often a simple fix which can save on energy bills. We’ve also welcomed their staff to LSBU to give training to our students. We benefit because we learn from experts in the industry, and our partners benefit because they get to work with talented and enthusiastic students.
Scaling up to work with Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations
Last year, a local residents’ association for a group of flats in South London contacted us, to ask if we could help them reduce energy use across the estate. This has turned into a way to scale up some of what we’re doing, and to look at how we can help eighty households at a time, rather than one. For example, when we visited with a thermal camera, we realised that all the flats on the estate were showing high heat loss on the same window just above the front doors. We’re working with the residents’ association now to design a way to fix this for everyone who lives there. Working with the residents has also allowed our students to hear from our service users in a more conversational way, which lets us tailor our messaging, and lets our students use more than just their technical skills.
Students supporting students
There are around three million students in higher education in the UK. Since we started working with Reading, Kingston and Wrexham universities, to set up new Energy Advice Centres, we’ve realised the huge potential for groups like ours to help students all across the country, many of whom will get their first energy bills while they’re studying, as Mia Haroon from Reading University explained in her blog post earlier this year. At LSBU we’re also working across our group, with colleges and academies, to find ways to bring simple and practical advice to students of all ages. If we can make things easy for people when they’re right at the start of their journeys, we’ll give them skills that help them for the rest of their lives.
These are just some of the examples of new opportunities that have presented themselves to us since we first opened. When we go and talk to people about the work we’re doing, we find they often want to be just slightly more confident that they’re doing the right things. Everyone’s a little bit frightened of their boiler, we sometimes say.
If you’d like to ask us something, then we’d love to help. Please get in touch!
