Hello,

Welcome to our new look newsletter. For those of you that aren't so familiar with South East London Community Energy (SELCE) we are a community based energy co-operative, proudly incubated by GCDA, that takes action on tackling fuel poverty & climate change based in the Greenwich and Lewisham areas. We have been quiet on the newsletter front recently but we haven't rested on our laurels. In short:

• We are a winner of DECC's Community Energy Saving Competition this month for our pop-up energy cafe in Lewisham and Greenwich. We have delivered 3 weeks of independant,energy advice in 3 local venues supporting people to save money and energy.  If you haven't seen us yet come down tomorrow 9am-12pm. See below for details of how to receive your £5 cafe voucher (no min spend) & free money saving LED lightbulb worth £7! We couldn't have done this without the amazing support of The Forum At Greenwich, Woolwich Common Community Centre and The Green Man Community Hub and the support of Royal Greenwich and Lewisham Councils and of course the people who have sat down and talked with us! A huge heart-felt thanks from SELCE.

• We have won an award for Business and Innovation from Royal Borough of Greenwich.

• We were successful in our application to the Urban Community Energy Fund so this will help us take our clean and green electricity generation project forward.

• We have been very busy delivering our Big Energy Saving Network sessions updating local people, and frontline workers what can be done to make warmth more affordable and have successfully completed this project delivering sessions to over 300 people.

• We have been working hard with our partner sites to get ready to launch our share offer where people can provide investment to install solar panels and receive a 4% (tbc) return and the possibility of tax breaks as well. Our next newsletter will provide more information on this.

If you have any questions or want to get involved then please just get in contact via our spruced up website, phone or social media. If you are on Twitter or Facebook do say hello.

Many thanks,

The team at SELCE.

The mayor dropped in to SELCE’s café at The Forum At Greenwich community centre last week (Wed, 25th March) to see how the co-operative is helping to local people save money and energy. In the past month, the not-for-profit group has given advice and support to more than 150 people & households at its advice sessions in Greenwich and Lewisham.

According to government figures, there are around 8,000 fuel-poor households in Greenwich and a similar number in Lewisham. This represents more than 8% of households in each borough. However, levels of fuel poverty vary widely from ward to ward. In New Cross 15% of households are fuel poor while in Plumstead the figure rises to 19%. Fuel poverty is associated with far-reaching consequences such as premature deaths, increased hospital admissions, asthma and lower educational achievement in children. 

Following the mayor’s consultation, SELCE director, Alex Hartley, presented him with a ‘cozy quid’; the co-operative’s emblem for its work in helping local people to save money and make their homes warmer. She said ". We hope to find a more permanent home for the energy cafe so that we can support more people to reduce their fuel bills and make their homes more energy efficient ." The 12-strong group, which formed a year ago, recently received a civic award from the mayor for its innovative work. SELCE will be running a monthly energy café at Woolwich Common Community Centre from April. (TBC).

The mayor also praised the group’s community fundraising campaign to install solar panels on the roofs of Glyndon Community Centre, Mulgrave and Charlton Park primary schools in Greenwich and Ashmead and Horniman primary schools in Lewisham. 'I am delighted to see the SELCE team doing such a great job in addressing fuel poverty & climate change,’ the mayor said, adding: ‘I would also like to wish them the best of luck in their Solar Panels scheme and appeal to everyone in SE London to give them their support.'