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Fear of energy costs left woman with mouldy walls

BBC Middle aged woman wearing a grey polo shirt smiling at the camera. She has dark brown shoulder length hair with a fringe and is wearing black framed glasses.BBC
Beverley Jones says being cold in her home makes her feel like 'not doing anything'

When the energy crisis first hit, Beverley Jones was so worried about how she would pay her bills that she turned her heating off completely and ended up with mouldy walls.

Three years later and Beverley, a former Paralympian who won a bronze medal for discus throwing at the London 2012 games, said she still struggled.

The 50-year-old said heating costs remained a "constant worry" ahead of the energy price cap going up again in January.

Beverley, who has cerebral palsy, is being helped by a new project started by a gas engineer who saw many people in the Deeside area struggling.

It offers free boiler checks and repairs to those in the area who are most in need.

"You don't feel like doing much when it's cold," said Beverley, from Shotton, Flintshire.

"You just try to stay warm with blankets or hoodies.

"You don't feel like going out. You should be able to be relaxed in your own home."

She added that having someone check that her boiler is safe and working efficiently was a "big help" and something she would not otherwise have been able to get done.

James Hunt, with short sandy hair wearing a blue hoody with a gas company logo, leans agains his works van, also with a logo which reads CafGas
James Hunt, who owns community interest company Cafgas, says he wants to make sure those most in need in his community are safe and warm

Help 4 Heating was the idea of James Hunt, from Aston in Deeside, who already runs a community interest gas fitting company which helps fund other projects in the area.

He said it would be able to reach people who, like Beverley, cannot afford repairs and could be losing 40p in every £1 spent because of inefficient heating systems.

In figures from October 2024, the charity National Energy Action estimated there were six million people in fuel poverty in the UK.

James said the elderly and vulnerable were "disproportionately affected".

"It's not just down to being warm in your home, which is obviously a necessity, but it's also things like damp, as in Beverley's case," he said.

"It affects mental health, it affects so many people in different ways. People need warm homes, and hot water at the very least."

James Hunt, in blue hoody with short sandy hair, working on a domestic heating boiler in a bathroom
Some quick maintenance to Beverley's boiler means the system is now working much more efficiently, making her money go further and keeping her safe

James, who also runs the charity Nanny Biscuit, which aims to fight food poverty and loneliness in Deeside, said he hoped Help 4 Heating could make a difference to people's lives.

"There's so much need... we see it in our food pantries and now we see it more and more with people who can't afford to fix their boilers," he said.

He described the boiler scheme as a "community effort", working with a number of partners to reach as many people as possible.

Woman with short dark drown hair and wearing a red hoody and black and red framed glasses smiling, standing in front of a dense bush.
Jo Seymour says Warm Wales is helping to identify those who need Help 4 Heating, as well as looking at their other needs

One of the organisations involved in assessing need is Warm Wales, which offers free advice and support to people facing fuel poverty.

Jo Seymour from the organisation said she had seen a big increase in referrals from working families in the past couple of years, from people who may have been just about managing before an increase in living costs across the board tipped the balance.

"We are seeing people struggling... there are many in debt with their energy accounts," she said.

An elderly woman with white hair, glasses and wearing a blue flowered dress and grey cardigan sits in am armchair looking at a leaflet which is being shown to her by James Hunt, with sandy hair and wearing a blue hoody, who is leaning down next to her.
James also lets people know about other support they might be able to get when he's out checking boilers

James is not the only one taking action after seeing people struggling with heating bills.

Community campaigner Eddie Duggan, from Shotton, is also taking matters into his own hands.

He teamed up with Age Connect Wales and is raising money for a winter assistance fund to help people in fuel poverty across Flintshire and Wrexham.

He said he had been approached by "many worried people" following the cut to the winter fuel allowance.

The fund will supply things such as warm clothing, extra bedding, cost effective heaters, food, and information on local warm hubs.

Eddie said people needed to know someone was looking out for them, adding: "I feel that as a community we should be... doing something in order that the most vulnerable within our community know that they have not been forgotten."

That sense of a community coming together to help itself is at the heart of what James is doing too.

He is about to start a fundraising campaign for Help 4 Heating around the UK and is hoping the scheme can eventually be expanded beyond Flintshire.

"We shouldn't have to do this - but there's a need," he added.

"Britain without social enterprises and charities would be a bit of a mess. We're up for the challenge and want to make it happen."