Fife Community Heating Project: Fears for future as cost of living crisis takes hold

Graeme Robertson, who runs RGM Heating, set up the community interest company The Community Heating Project earlier this year in a bid to help those Fifers struggling to pay for maintenance on their boiler and heating system.

Any work is carried out by Graeme and his team at no cost to the client with the price of the work covered by funding – currently provided by Cosy Kingdom’s Community Heating Boiler Repair Fund.

However, unless further funding sources can be found Graeme fears there are many people who will be forced to live without heating and hot water as they cannot afford to pay for an engineer to come out for maintenance and repairs.

Graeme explained: “More and more people are really struggling with their heating.

“We have helped people who have been living without heating and hot water as they don’t have the money to repair it.

“One woman we recently fitted a new boiler for had not had heating since 2019 and she’d had no hot water for four years.

“She simply didn’t have the money to pay someone to come out and fix it.

“It’s heart-breaking seeing people living in cold properties like this.

“The funding is meant to be until the end of March, but at the rate we’re going with the number of people needing help it’s going to be before that.

“I’m just frightened about when the money stops and we can’t do any more.

“We do everything at cost rate and make no mark up on materials or anything.”

The Community Heating Project is there to help anyone living in Fife who is in fuel poverty and is having issues with their heating and hot water, who otherwise couldn’t afford to have someone take a look.

Working with charities like Cosy Kingdom and The Cottage Family Centre, people are being referred to the project for support.

Individuals can self-refer through the Cosy Kingdom website for help if they match certain criteria.

The team can help with boiler repairs, replacing condemned boilers or simply ensuring a heating system is running efficiently.

Graeme continued: “If it’s an easy repair we’ll fix it, but a lot of the boilers we see are beyond economic repair and parts are often no longer available.

We’ll put in an efficient combi boiler and it’s not just a working boiler, it means their heating bill will be a lot less too.

“A lot of people think that people on benefits needing help but there’s been a lot of people who are working full time that can’t spare cash to get their boiler looked at.

“It’s terrifying to see how people are having to live.

"As well as the grant from Cosy Kingdom we are funded through donations from businesses and members of the public, but in a cost of living crisis people understandably do not have money to spare.

"We are actively looking to try and find another funding source.

"We want to help to ensure nobody must choose between feeding their families or heating their homes.”

To find out more about the Community Heating Project visit www.cosykingdom.org

To make a donation to The Community Heating Project CIC visit www.gofundme.com/f/the-community-heating-project