City Energy eliminates fuel poverty and promotes renewables with free services, effective marketing and education
Throughout its 14 years of trading, City Energy has been on a mission to eradicate fuel poverty, reduce carbon emissions and deliver warmer, energy-efficient homes across the UK. Based in Cardiff, Wales, the full-service retrofit specialist works directly for utilities to help residents nationwide, and has more recently been focused on renewable technology, such as air source heat pumps, solar panels and wall insulation.
The company incorporates three main brands – City Energy Network, Heatforce and Laver Group. Collaborating with multiple housing associations on service and repair, City Energy looks after 30,000 social landlord properties and employs around 230 people. Following the launch of its free compliance assessment service, CASE, we sit down with Gareth Rivers and Michael Minahan, Operations Director and Head of Sales & Marketing at City Energy, who reveal more about new developments within the business.
“CASE provides a free service for domestic and commercial landlords to evaluate their current property or portfolio and discover their Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating,” opens Michael. “Under the new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES), the requirement is B or C rating by 2030, and CASE provides a solution for achieving that EPC requirement through one of our delivery teams, either through Heat Force or partners.” CASE launched on the 11th of March and has been prevalent on social media, alongside creating a podcast which focuses on the significant EPC challenges faced by sports organisations in the first instalment.
City Energy’s marketing strategies are integral to the roll-out and progression of its products and services – notably, its ‘Able-to-Pay’ division of Heatforce, where the company is actively marketing renewable products including solar panels, air source heat pumps and gas boilers. However, it takes a different approach with CASE, as Michael explains: “CASE is delivered as a free service to landlords, so we use a different marketing campaign to the one for Heatforce ‘Able-to-Pay.’ Selling renewable products is more of a direct-to-consumer sale, whereas CASE is an advice service offering a pathway to what the client requires. For instance, if they need solar panels, Heatforce can deliver that. It’s partnership-led, but it’s also a turnkey solution for the landlords.” Although different strategies are applied to different initiatives, City Energy has one marketing umbrella with the tagline ‘Join the Revolution.’ “All our direct-to-consumer campaigns come under that umbrella,” Michael continues. “Everything else leads off that.”
Marketing is pivotal to growth, and City Energy is moving into three new sectors: new homes, defence and decarbonisation for public services. “We’re under new ownership of Oaktree Capital Management and we’re consequently expanding our market sector,” elaborates Michael. “New homes built from September 2026 must have a full renewable solution, and defence housing currently has 48,000 assets that need to be brought up to standard by 2030. That’s a significant programme. Public service buildings must also adhere to new decarbonisation rules, whether they’re new or refurbished, which again is solar panels, batteries, air source heat pumps and EV chargers.”
Further schemes on the agenda for City Energy include the Optimised Retrofit Programme (ORP), a Welsh Government initiative helping social landlords reduce the carbon footprint of housing, and NEST – another government scheme run in partnership with British Gas. “As part of that, we provide technical surveys for fuel poverty or poor EPC-rated properties,” adds Gareth. “We then complete a full retrofit of the property. We install air source heat pumps, provide solar and battery, loft insulation and, most importantly of all, ventilation to the property. This brings the resident out of fuel poverty, increases the EPC of the property and results in overall carbon savings. We’re helping 150 residents per month across Wales – people are in crisis and we need to support them.”
Investment in training and further education is a key part of the company’s operations. City Training Group (CTG) offers courses for the trades in Wales, committed to advancing the gas, electrical, renewable energy, heating and retrofit sectors. “We’re offering evening classes from May, which is a big investment for us and change in our CTG education strategy,” Michael says. “In addition, we work with schools and colleges, encouraging students to explore careers outside of academia. When they visit our custom-built site in Cardiff, we focus on the practical side.” City Energy is also in discussions with prison rehabilitation services and the armed forces regarding training and career opportunities.
Michael highlights NEST and CASE as key areas of focus for 2026: “NEST is critical to the service it’s providing, as is ORP for all social houses and local authorities, which we will be wholeheartedly supporting. Our ‘Able-to-Pay’ offering is very strong, particularly with the volatility of energy prices and the understanding that the cap is going to raise to between £350 and £400 in July, which will have a significant impact on people. In addition, CASE is a new business, and we want to build credibility.”
In three to five years, City Energy is aiming towards revenue diversification. “We want to be fully diversified as far as our revenue streams are concerned,” concludes Michael. “We’re striving for success in the new sectors we’re entering and would like to further establish ourselves as a key supplier in Wales – we want to be the chosen supplier for ‘Able-to-Pay’ renewable projects within Wales and the Welsh borders.”