npower achieve a coveted Big Tick Award from Business in the
Community (BitC) in the Marketplace Impact category, for its ’Spreading
Warmth’ programme, which is helping to alleviate fuel poverty across
the UK.

npower, has helped more than 150,000 customers benefit
through the programme; providing financial support, including npower’s
social tariff and help with outstanding energy debts, as well as energy
saving advice over the phone and in the home which has helped change
consumer behaviour to use energy more efficiently.

npower has
trained its staff to identify and assist its vulnerable customers,
promote assistance available through a range of marketing campaigns and
through engagement with external stakeholders developed a targeted
programme which provides meaningful help to its customers most in need.

The initiative received the P&G Responsible Marketing and
Innovation award for the second year running, and involves training
employees to recognise those most at risk, including identifying
customers who pay more than 10% of their income on energy bills.

In
addition to the Big Tick award, npower has achieved Platinum status in
the BitC’s Corporate Responsibility Index, the UK’s leading voluntary
benchmark of corporate responsibility.

Paul Dear, programme
manager at npower, said: \"Being acknowledged in both BitC’s Big Tick
awards and Corporate Responsibility Index is a huge achievement.

\"In
total, we have received three Big Tick Awards throughout the company,
and protecting vulnerable and fuel poor customers’ is at the heart of
our business ethos. The Spreading Warmth programme demonstrates how, as
one of the UK’s largest utility companies, we operate responsibly and
seek to develop personal relationships with customers.

\"Our
advisors are trained to offer sensitive advice to customers, with a
specific focus on recommending the correct tariff and suitable
repayment methods\"

The Big Tick is awarded to businesses which
are able to demonstrate significant impact and high quality management
of their responsible business practices, as Stephen Howard, chief
executive at Business in the Community, confirmed: \"The Big Tick is now
recognised as both a valuable and difficult award to achieve.

\"Those
who achieve the Big Tick are leading companies, ones that run their
businesses aware that they depend above all on the talent, innovation
and loyalty of their people. They know that they cannot build a
successful sustainable business without constantly showing their
commitment to being a better business\" he added.

Ends

Editors Notes:

About npower:
RWE
npower has been awarded the prestigious Community Mark from Business in
the Community (BitC). npower is the only utility business, amongst 21
other companies in the UK, to receive this accolade. The Community Mark
is a new BitC standard, created to recognise companies that are good
investors in local communities and who have brought about real and
positive changes

- npower received three awards in the 2009 Big Tick Awards for its impact in the workplace, community and marketplace.
-
BitC’s Corporate Responsibility Index is the UK’s leading voluntary
benchmark of corporate responsibility. This year, 141 businesses
participated, with seven companies achieving the new Platinum Plus level

Issued by Freshwater UK on behalf of npower

For further information:
Vicci Mace
Freshwater UK
The Waters Edge
Birmingham
West Midlands
B1 2HL
0121 633 7775
www.npower.com