Who benefits? We ALL do!
Who uses community centres and village halls these days?
No matter how old you are, or whether you are retired, working, studying, volunteering or running a household, whether you are school age, single, married, in a partnership, whether you are parents, grandparents or childfree, whether you own a dog or not, at some point you will use your local community centre or village hall and its facilities.
What is the impact of rising energy costs on public buildings?
It costs money to run these community amenities – and any surplus from hiring out the facilities goes back into keeping the buildings in good repair and paying the running costs.
As you can imagine, a village hall or community centre uses a lot of energy to heat and light it.
And the cost of energy for commercial energy users has just gone up by at least 20% because the VAT on energy is now 20%. Up from just 5%!
Not only that, with the Climate Change Levy and other network costs, as well as rises in the wholesale price of energy, energy bills for these hubs of community life are rising inexorably, and, even worse, unpredictably.
What is the impact of rising energy costs on people?
The impact of this on local communities is that hire fees have to rise to cover costs – and that means that the costs for your community Pre-school, toddler groups, Yoga or Pilates classes, ballet and tap classes, Life Drawing, Bingo and Coffee Mornings, Zumba and aerobics classes, charity events and birthday parties will all rise – putting financial pressure on the charities and businesses that provide them.
Community energy has the solution
A Community Energy Community Benefit Society like Buckinghamshire Community Energy can:
- Put solar panels on the roof of your village hall or community centre.
- Install low carbon heat solutions such as heat pumps.
- Provide electric vehicle chargers for those who can’t install them at home.
- Reduce the cost of energy used by the building from these energy sources.
- Fix the cost of energy supplied to the building so it doesn’t rise unexpectedly.
- Reduce the carbon emissions of the building and its users.
- Improve the Energy Performance Rating, making it compliant with regulations.
- In the long-term, reduce the cost of energy to the building even more.
What are the community benefits?
Savings for public services
The Village Hall or Community Centre Committee
Benefits from lower energy costs and fixed energy costs make it easier to budget, easier to keep hire fees low for hall users.
The Parish Council
Benefits from lower running costs, more surplus for building maintenance or development.
In the long-term, when the capital costs of installing renewable energy have been covered, energy costs drop even further, releasing money to keep the building functioning, or develop the facilities.
Lower costs for families
Mothers and fathers
Benefit from less pressure on fees for the Pre-school, Toddler Group, Bump and Rhyme and all the many activities hosted for babies and children in community centres and village halls.
Children
Benefit from less pressure on fees for ballet and tap classes, birthday parties, martial arts classes, football training, badminton and gymnastics and all the other educational and fun activities that take place in these facilities, keeping them available and affordable for families.
Old and young people
Seniors
Benefit from lower costs of running Bingo events, Coffee Mornings, Book Clubs, Arts and Crafts clubs, Quizzes, U3A meetings, Tea Dances and all the many entertainments that are organised and enjoyed by older people in our communities.
Young people
Benefit from maintaining lower hire fees for parties, charity fundraising events, weddings and exercise or other training classes.
Everyone in a community
Benefits from the long-term sustainable survival of village halls and community centres which are so important to maintain healthier and happier local people through the provision of space for sport, social activities, life events and education.
