The hidden value of empowering communities

In a recent article for the Guardian, Economics Editor Heather Stewart responds to a new paper from the thinktank Demos, titled Social Capital 2025: The Hidden Wealth of Nations. 

As Stewart explains, historians have traditionally focussed on the importance of physical and human capital such as infrastructure and workers’ skills, but this new work shows strong evidence that economies with greater trust and social cohesion tend to be more successful 

Andy Haldane, a former Bank of England Chief Economist who co-authored the paper, went so far as to tell the Guardian: “A community that is socially divisive and mistrustful has no hope, whatever you throw at it by way of money, jobs, businesses, infrastructure: basically, you are building them on shifting societal sands.” 

Fortunately, the paper itself finds a solution in “the spaces and places that host community activity, whilst at the same time offering familiarity, a sense of shared identity, and a broader focus for community life.” 

As an energy provider, our primary role is to reliably power homes and businesses, but we’re increasingly finding ways of using our resources and expertise to empower communities as well, because we think that more connected communities, and a more decentralised energy system, can also have a positive impact on the country as a whole.

Building communities through energy 

We’re proud to be investing in communities across the country to help make new energy work. Here are two ways we’re doing that right now: 

A Greener Game 

In November last year we launched a Greener Game in partnership with the FA: this multi-year programme will make significant investments to provide grassroots football clubs with energy audits, club house upgrades, and self-service kits to help them save money and reduce their emissions. The Greener Game programme will invest over £1.5 million annually, with around 100 clubs receiving sustainable energy improvements each year. We believe this support and the savings available to clubs for reinvestment will have wide reaching social and economic benefits.  

In fact, A report from The FA titled The Social, Health and Economic Value of Grassroots Football in England, has found that Grassroots football contributes £11.8 billion a year to the UK economy, creates £3.2 billion in healthcare savings, and adds £935 million in social value. That’s before taking into account the positive effects raised in Social Capital 2025, which explicitly calls out the importance of sports clubs in building community cohesion. 

"Whether the focus is saving money, fighting the climate crisis or creating new jobs and skills, it’s important to look at the small actions that can add up to a big impact,” says Chief Executive of E.ON UK Chris Norbury, “[That’s] why we’re so excited to be working with one of the biggest networks of community organisations anywhere in the world – the FA’s grassroots football network." 

Energy Sharing Communities 

We’re also working to power people’s homes and charge social cohesion through an innovative new energy model called Energy Sharing Communities.  

By installing solar panels on the roofs of public buildings such as schools, hospitals, libraries, and churches, the services our communities rely on can generate their own free electricity and raise additional funds by selling surplus at a good price to local households. 

This has a number of obvious direct social and economic benefits such as bringing down customer bills and raising additional revenue for public services, but we’ve found a surprising additional advantage to helping people share energy locally. In a nationally representative survey of 2,000 people we commissioned from YouGov, a staggering 77% of respondents said that they would feel “more proud of and connected to [their] community knowing that local services like schools, hospitals, churches and libraries were powering local homes through rooftop solar”. Following the findings in Social Capital 2025, this pride and connectedness may well extend to more tangible economic benefits over time as well. 

Innovative thinking to make new energy work 

Greener Game, Energy Sharing Communities, and other projects we’re working on such as putting battery storage in vulnerable customers’ homes at no upfront cost, or making the most of thermal energy in urban spaces through E.ON Ectogrid, are all examples of out-of-the-box thinking leading to innovative new solutions. And Social Capital 2025: The Hidden Wealth of Nations is an example of this thinking as well – asking us to broaden our minds and look for new ways of supporting both people and the economy.  

As the UK and the world work towards an unprecedented energy transition, we need this kind of thinking to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities ahead. That’s why we’ll continue to deliver at-scale energy solutions that can really make a positive difference. Because it’s on us to make new energy work.