Islay Energy Trust has recruited 5 Home Energy Assessors to help in the delivery of the Scottish Government’s Home Insulation Scheme in the Argyll islands. Between the end of October and late December, the Islay-based team – Alec Chasemore, Meri Ferguson and Rosie MacLellan from Islay, Lindsay Smith from Jura and Joe Teale from Gigha – will visit every home on Islay, Jura and Gigha offering a free Home Energy Check. This will identify individual insulation needs and any offers for which householders may be eligible. The Assessors, who are about to finish a three-week training programme and will be trained to City & Guilds level, will make three attempts at visiting every home. The HEC can also be filled in online or over the phone. When all the survey work is complete, the appointed installer – still to be announced – will be contracted to complete the insulation work within a very strict time frame. If you haven’t yet had loft or cavity wall insulation installed, this will be an opportunity to take advantage of heavily discounted rates, or in many cases free installation. In particular, if you currently have between 60 and 160mm of insulation on your loft, you will be offered a free top-up, irrespective of your circumstances or the size of your loft. This is a new, very valuable benefit which has not previously been offered.
The Islay-based team will be seconded to Changeworks, the managing organisation for the HIS, and will work alongside teams based on Mull and Bute to cover every island in Argyll.
“The Islay Energy Trust (IET) moved quickly to assist Changeworks in the recruitment process. Working with locally based staff offers so many advantages in terms of service delivery that the partnership made good operational sense. Building up further expertise for the benefit of the community also fits well with Changeworks’ strategy of support for island and rural based communities on behalf of its Energy Saving Scotland advice centres”, comments Tom Kenny, Head of Commercial Operations at Changeworks, who has been tasked with co-ordinating assessments to over 90,000 properties across Scotland.
Information from the HEC forms will also be used to build up a clearer picture of housing across the islands, for example identifying the proportion of ‘hard-to-treat’ houses such as those with solid walls or coombed ceilings. It is hoped that feeding this information back to the Scottish Government may help to make a case for subsidised measures to treat these, so your participation is vital. Even if you have completed a HEC form in the past, it’s important that you take a few minutes with one of the Assessors to complete a new one.
This is a great opportunity for the islands, and IET are delighted to have played a part in ensuring that some of the associated employment comes to Islay. We wish all the new recruits the best of luck with their training, and look forward to seeing them in their new HIS uniforms very soon!
Posted by Lindy MacLellan 
