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Chamber and committees

Question reference: S6W-42316

  • Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
  • Date lodged: 4 December 2025
  • Current status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 December 2025

Question

To ask the Scottish Government, based on its most recent fuel poverty modelling and analysis, how many households in each local authority area it estimates will be in (a) fuel poverty and (b) extreme fuel poverty between October and December 2025.


Answer

The Scottish Government has not produced estimates for each local authority area from the fuel poverty scenario modelling analysis for October to December 2025, due to small survey sample size and complexities involved.

In order to produce robust estimates for each local authority area, the scenario modelling would need to combine data from 3 years of the SHCS, which is not available due to suspension of SHCS survey due to Covid-19 in 2020 and a different survey design in 2021. The Scottish Government plans to resume the publication of Local Authority estimates from the SHCS in 2026, combining data from the 2022, 2023 and 2024 surveys.

The most up to date national figures can be found in the annual publication found at Scottish House Condition Survey: 2023 Key Findings - gov.scot (34% fuel poverty in 2023) and the most recent price cap scenario modelling found at: Introduction - Fuel Poverty Scenario Modelling based on Ofgem Energy Price Caps - up to January to March 2026 - gov.scot (33% fuel poverty in January to March 2026).