Meeting of the Parliament 11 March 2025
I am afraid that, once again, Mr Kerr is demonstrating that he is not at all interested in the people of Scotland who are suffering from the cost of living crisis. He is not apologetic for the austerity that was delivered by successive UK Governments, including that of his party, but which is now being turbocharged by Labour. He is not apologetic for the rising energy costs, and nor is he thinking that anything should be done about that, whereas the Scottish Government certainly is.
It is very disappointing that we are seeing further increases in energy costs. That is not what the electorate were expecting when they voted Labour, and it is certainly not what the electorate were promised. We know that more than 53 per cent of fuel-poor households in Scotland are in extreme fuel poverty, which means that they spend more than 20 per cent of their household income on energy. That is wholly unacceptable in the age of renewables and when Scotland is an energy-rich nation. However, responsibility for the fundamental shift and the action that is required lies with the UK Government.
Despite the policies that we are implementing, which I have underlined today, much needs to be done in the UK Parliament. We need urgent market reform and community benefit, and we have to recognise and act on the direct link between some of our most vulnerable constituents experiencing high energy costs and facing deeper poverty. Exacerbating existing inequalities by stripping away the support that was there is pushing more and more people into poverty and making that poverty deeper. The Scottish Government is determined to deliver, and is delivering, as much support as we can for people in Scotland with regard to their energy bills. However, there is a limit to how much we can continue to mitigate the effects of the UK Government’s policies—