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Foreword
Successive Scottish Governments have recognised that fuel poverty can no longer be an acceptable part of Scottish life; and the target of eradicating fuel poverty "as far as is reasonably practicable by 2016" is not just a worthy aspiration but a statutory commitment.
Significant steps have been taken towards that target in recent years, and many people have been lifted out of fuel poverty, but recent price rises are pulling too many people back into the daily struggle that fuel poverty represents.
We were challenged to come up with a strategy to make the most effective use of existing resources, and we have tried to do so. The approach must be holistic, looking at all the factors in fuel poverty: energy efficiency and energy use, energy prices and tariffs, and incomes. It must maximise funding from different sources by developing synergies between them. And, given the funding constraints, it must be targeted to make the most impact.
The Energy Assistance Package which we propose includes advice on tariffs to address the energy prices people pay, a benefit and tax credit check to maximise their income, and an energy audit with follow up to provide physical means of reducing their energy use. We believe it will make a real difference to many people who are currently struggling.
But we do not believe that this Package alone will take us to the 2016 target. That requires a step change in investment, as soon as is reasonably practicable. Governments in London and Edinburgh must work together on this with energy companies and others if we are to show that we mean it when we say that fuel poverty is unacceptable.
Rev Graham Blount,
Chair of the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum
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