This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Central heating funds announced
24/02/2003
More than 3,000 homes are set to benefit from new
central heating systems and improved insulation thanks to a
£7.5 million funding package from the Executive for another
12 local authorities in 2003-04.
Des McNulty, Deputy Minister for Social Justice,
said:
"Thanks to our free central heating programme, thousands
of Scots have benefited from warmer homes, lower fuel
bills, fewer damp houses and a reduced threat to health
from exposure to cold and damp.
"Already 20 of Scotland's local authorities have
completed their programmes to provide central heating to
their housing stock without any form of central
heating.
"This funding for 2003-04 will enable the remaining 12
local authorities to complete their programmes by March
2004.
"This will mean that 12,000 local authority homes will
have received central heating by next year. We are
determined to tackle cold and damp houses, cold-related
illness and excess winter deaths.
"I am confident that in a few years time the lives of
Scotland's most vulnerable households will have been
transformed."
The Minister also announced a consultation on the
possible widening of the central heating programme to
include the upgrading of partial central heating systems in
local authority stock.
The aims of the central heating programme are to tackle
fuel poverty, improve comfort, reduce CO2 emissions,
protect health, protect the condition of the housing stock
and provide employment opportunities for those taking part
in the New Deal who will help install the insulation
measures.
The 12 local authorities receiving the funding for
2003/04 are West Dunbartonshire, South Lanarkshire, Dundee,
East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, East Ayrshire, Fife,
Argyll and Bute, Midlothian, Orkney, Falkirk and
Shetland.