Energy & Water
Energy costs are still high, causing many people stress and unnecessary suffering.
Everyone should be able to be warm, healthy and comfortable in their own homes. With high energy prices, many are having to make impossible decisions, sometimes between heating and eating. We can help.
Our Green Doctor offers support to households – providing energy advice to save money, use energy more efficiently, and stay warm for less. This is free of charge to anyone in the East Midlands.
Through our bespoke Damp & Disrepair service we work closely with local authorities, housing associations and others social housing providers to provide safe, warm, happy and healthy homes.
Green Doctor
We understand the challenges of living in a cost-of-living crisis.
Green Doctors are trained energy-efficiency experts that help East Midlands residents stay warm, healthy, and save money on household bills.
They offer free, impartial advice to help you take control of bills, reduce energy waste in your home, and give you access to other services. This could be anything from emergency fuel and food, to benefits, grant funding, and local support.
The advice we give to you is always bespoke to your situation. It is completely FREE and available to people of any age and background, whether you own your home, rent, or are a council or social housing tenant.
On average, a household can save £325 a year by following the advice given by the Green Doctor!
Free energy assessment
Our team of experts will visit homes to identify areas for improvement. We’ll assess the causes of heat loss, tackle any damp or mould problems, and offer tips and tricks to save energy and water- all while keeping your home safe and comfortable.
All kinds of practical support
We offer a range of free energy and water efficiency measures, such as LED light bulbs and draught excluders. We also help you switch energy providers and access other forms of support – emergency heating, fuel vouchers, government subsidies or grants, and advice on energy or water debt. Some of the reasons people ask us for help are:
- struggling to pay energy bills
- finding it hard to manage fuel debt
- worrying about keeping warm or choosing between eating and heating
- feeling that the home is cold, damp or draughty
- respiratory problems e.g. asthma or a persistent cough
- a permanent health condition or terminal illness
- simply wanting to save money and keep the home warm
A home visit by the Green Doctor, their advice, installation of items and further support is absolutely free of charge as we are fully funded by local and national funders including the Energy Redress Scheme, Cadent, British Gas and others!
Sign up for this service for yourself or behalf of another person by clicking the button below, and we will be in touch to organise a home visit for a day and time that works for you. If you’d prefer to speak with us, email greendoctor@groundworknottingham.org.uk or call 0115 9788212 (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm).
We are also available as speakers for community events and local interest groups, free of charge. If you are interested in finding out more, contact us via the above details.
Accessibility
We want to support you as best as possible and make our service accessible to all. Please make mention when you sign up of any potential accessibility issues and we will do our best to accommodate your needs. Examples could be speaking limited English, being deaf or blind.
Please note we are able to offer British Sign Language (BSL) for home visits in Derby and Nottingham only. We can do deaf community visits elsewhere if a translator is present or if the person has translating software available.
Damp and Disrepair
We believe every home should be a safe and healthy place. Addressing the causes and effects of damp and mould improves quality of life, finances, physical and mental health.
It’s why our team of experts works closely with local authorities and housing providers to identify and tackle the root causes of damp and to get disrepair issues fixed quickly.
The result is improved mental and physical wellbeing, and healthier, more comfortable homes – for the tenant to reside in, and for the landlord as part of their portfolio.
With the Regulator of Social Housing clamping down on wayward landlords, it is more important than ever to look after your housing stock. We can help you improve your Consumer grade by providing a pro-active approach, bridging the gap between you and your tenants.
We offer home visits where we’ll identify specific areas for improvement and provide recommendations for remediation. We often find tenants that landlords struggle to connect with, are very receptive to our third-party support and impartial advice.
By being pro-active, you can prevent claim farmers by showcasing good practice, sympathetic communication and swift repairs.
We follow up with the tenant two months later, to ensure our advice has been put into practice, and check if repairs have started on the reported issues.
We also offer residents’ workshops, designed to build understanding of the importance of proper home maintenance. This is a great way for residents to learn the skills need to make their home safe and warm.
Take a look below at the infographic for the financial year of 2024/25, where we inspected 333 properties for damp, mould and disrepair. We found 1,145 rooms in total with damp, mould, or disrepair problems.
By advising tenants on how to use their energy more efficiently in their homes, we were able to help save an average of £293 per household on energy bills yearly with a staggering total of £97,482.
If our advice is followed, a total reduction of 187,338 kg of CO2 can be achieved – the equivalent of driving 554,802 miles. On top of this, these households can save a total of 6.1 megalitres of water which could fill up a 25 metre pool 9.4 times!
Find out more
Our Damp & Disrepair brochure gives further insight into the issues you may be facing and how you can combat them through our service.
Get information about the Regulator of Social Housing’s inspections and their expectations, Awaab’s law, and much more.
Download the PDF brochure by clicking the button below.
Free Damp & Disrepair trial
We offer free Damp & Disrepair trials so you can test the positive impact of our service on your housing portfolio. This can take the form of a number of home visits to addresses you are worried about or have had problems with before.
By working with a well-established charity, you can open doors, start conversations and resolve tenants’ issues – preventing complaints to the Ombudsman or costly claim farmers, while improving your housing stock.
If you are interested, fill in the below form, or contact us via enquiries@groundworknottingham.org.uk / 0115 9788212
Damp & Disrepair
Register your interest in our Damp & Disrepair service.
Stay Warm, Stay Well
Groundwork has partnered with the Cadent Foundation to support those living in fuel poverty across England. Groundwork Five Counties support people in the East Midlands, including Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.
Stay Warm, Stay Well will provide much needed help for vulnerable households who are struggling with their energy bills, with Groundwork Green Doctors – energy efficiency advisors – visiting homes and offering practical guidance on energy saving, including behaviour change tips, as well as referrals to other local support services, including debt advice and food banks.
Funded by the Cadent Foundation and led in partnership by Groundwork, the programme will invest £6m and support 14,500 households in communities across England.
The programme is a new wave of Groundwork’s partnership with the Cadent Foundation, who have so far invested £3m with over 10,000 Green Doctor consultations carried out between 2020-23 across England.
Green Doctor Academy
In addition to the Green Doctor support, the programme is also funding an initiative to support the creation of the next generation of energy advisors via a 12-month traineeship opportunity through the Green Doctor Academy, to create more accessible pathways into work for young people, in particular those who a disability, are from an ethnic minority background or from a low income household.
How to get support
Find out more how you can refer yourself or someone you know for a Green Doctor visit, including energy saving tips and advice on how to save money and energy.