Housing association LiveWest supports customers with their energy bills

An Exeter woman is thrilled to have won a competition designed to help combat rising energy prices.

The largest housing provider in the South West, LiveWest, has given away 50 slow cookers to residents as part of its Slow Cook, Low Waste competition. Customers were asked to share their top tips on reducing food waste for a chance to win a slow cooker.

Katie Wright, 24, from Exeter, was excited to win a slow cooker so she could try and make different meals for her daughter who is nearly two years old. She says it will make a big difference to their lives and a chance to learn tips to reduce food waste and their energy bills.

Katie said: “I entered the competition just as I thought why not, imagine winning a slow cooker, my daughter would love a stew.

“With using this amazing slow cooker that we won, I've noticed that I now use one pound less in electric. I had the slow cooker on for six hours, it cost me roughly 60p for the whole cooking session which is amazing with the cost of living now. It’s also giving me an excuse to get experimenting in the kitchen for my toddler to taste new winter meals which she is loving so far.

“And also, with it being only two of us in the house, we gain an extra one to two meals that I just freeze. We have one for lunch the next day and we will plan to use the other for an evening meal soon.”

A slow cooker heats food over a long time but uses less electricity than an oven. It can use less energy than a lightbulb therefore saving you money on your electricity bills. Reducing food waste by using leftovers or incorporating frozen food into the dish is another step people can take when using a slow cooker to bring their bills down.

Winners were asked to share a top tip to be included in an online recipe booklet, customers shared some useful tips which will save them money, help the environment, and reduce food waste. Since receiving the slow cooker, Heather has joined a slow cooking group on Facebook for ideas and recipes as she doesn’t want to get stuck cooking the same meals.

LiveWest is set to build more than 2,000 affordable homes in Devon over the next five years as part of a £1billion investment in the regional economy.

It has been successful in securing £2m of government funding to improve the energy performance of homes under the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. The Cby28 programme will see LiveWest investing approximately £40m into its existing housing and underlines the commitment of LiveWest to reduce its carbon footprint and improve the energy efficiency of our homes.

Alison Knight, Community Connector for LiveWest, said: "We recognise the difficulties many of our customers are facing at a time of real challenge in paying energy bills. We are working hard to tackle fuel poverty and this competition was launched to help customers with their energy consumption. We’re really pleased to be working with our partners Jewson Partnership Solution which has meant we can make this happen.”

“Our customers are facing challenges and financial difficulty that we will try to support with. We’re allocating £360,000 to a new Tenancy Support Fund (TSF) to support those customers who are struggling to pay their energy costs and rent. We’ve added a further £100,000 to our existing Crisis and Hardship support grant - this grant has been helping to support our customers in recent years, with over 370 grants already provided this financial year.” 

LiveWest worked in partnership with Jewson Partnership Solution who helped fund the competition with a £1,500 grant so that customers could benefit from a new cheap to run appliance going into winter.

Scott Cooper, Business Director for Jewson Partnership Solutions, said: “We have no doubt that many residents will be feeling and hearing about the cost-of-living crisis a lot at the moment, therefore we were delighted to be able to support this campaign and help residents to not only reduce food waste but save money. It’s really great to see that so many of LiveWest’s residents got behind this campaign and were able to share their top tips on reducing food waste.”