Burgess: 'Westminster has failed fuel poor'

Scottish Government calls on UK to do more to address fuel poverty

Housing Minister Margaret Burgess has demanded Westminster do more to cut fuel bills for vulnerable households as new figures show higher energy prices pushed more people into fuel poverty in 2013.

Mrs Burgess has asked the UK Government to urgently increase the £140 a year Warm Homes Discount that helps low income households.

The Scottish House Condition Survey, published yesterday, shows a seven per cent increase in fuel prices between 2012 and 2013 led to 100,000 more households living in fuel poverty.

Fuel bills have now risen nearly six times faster than household incomes since 2003.

Scottish Government spending on domestic energy efficiency, which is £94 million this year and next, has already made hundreds of thousands of homes warmer and cheaper to heat and, as the report indicates, has helped to mitigate the rise in fuel poverty.

Mrs Burgess said: “Fuel prices rose by an inflation-busting seven per cent in 2013, pushing more people into fuel poverty. The fact that this is happening in an energy-rich country is scandalous.

“We have invested over £300 million since 2009 to make fuel poor homes more energy efficient. This year and next, we are spending £94 million to improve energy efficiency. Around one in three Scottish households, over 700,000, have now benefited from measures like new boilers or insulation.

“These statistics make clear that without action to improve energy efficiency, which is our responsibility, price increases would have put even more households into fuel poverty in 2013.

“So the Scottish Government is doing what it can, but we don’t control prices and don’t have any powers over ECO or the Warm Homes Discount.

“Fuel costs have risen six times faster than incomes since 2003, while the UK Government’s fiscal policies since June 2010 will leave the poorest 20 per cent of households worse off by the equivalent of £441 per year in 2015-16. We will mitigate against this where possible but we know there are further cuts to come.

“That is why we are calling on the UK Government to increase the Warm Homes Discount and fund that increase centrally. That would give immediate relief to the lowest income households and those on benefits and go some way to lifting people out of fuel poverty this winter.”

Patrick Harvie, Scottish Green MSP for Glasgow and a member of Holyrood’s economy and energy committee, called for major investment in energy-efficient housing as statistics confirmed that the Government will fail its target of ending fuel poverty by 2016.

The latest figures show that 36 per cent of housing is in urgent disrepair, with 51 per cent of private housing failing the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. The biggest reason for houses failing is ‘Not Energy Efficient’.

Patrick Harvie MSP said: “Energy efficient homes should be a national infrastructure priority and I will continue to press for this to feature in the forthcoming Scottish budget. It would help create thousands of high quality jobs while also tackling fuel poverty.

“We also need college courses and well-paid modern apprenticeships in energy efficiency. Fuel prices and profiteering by the energy companies must be urgently tackled across the UK, but unless the Scottish Government also steps up investment we’ll miss out on the potential for energy efficiency jobs in Scotland.”