Question reference: S6W-05848
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 21 January 2022
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that 33% of remote rural households are living in extreme fuel poverty compared with 11% of households in the rest of Scotland, how its Fuel Poverty Strategy will deliver improved fuel poverty outcomes for people in off-gas-grid homes.
Answer
Our Fuel Poverty Strategy recognises the challenges that households in Scotland’s remote rural and island communities face in heating their homes for an affordable price, including the high proportion of properties located off the gas grid. That is why the new fuel poverty definition takes account of the additional costs associated with living in these areas, as well as other unique issues they face like differences in weather and housing stock characteristics.
We are determined to address the higher levels of fuel poverty found in remote rural communities and have already taken action to ensure our energy efficiency schemes spend more per head on installations in such areas, where we know costs are higher.
Through Warmer Homes Scotland we have also made available a number of renewable heat and micro generation measures some of which may be particularly beneficial to rural and remote communities not served by the gas grid. These include: ground source heat pumps, micro-wind and micro-hydro systems.