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Meeting of the Parliament 23 January 2013

23 Jan 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Fuel Poverty

Johnstone, Alex Con North East Scotland Watch on SPTV

No, thank you.

In this Parliament, we regularly address the issue of fuel poverty, which falls within the ambit of the Scottish Government’s responsibilities, yet action is being taken at Westminster level that is extremely helpful. We have already heard the minister address some of those measures.

The green deal and the energy company obligation will be the flagship policies for improving the energy efficiency of the nation’s housing stock. ECO and the green deal that will run alongside it will have the twin objectives of helping to reduce carbon emissions and tackling fuel poverty. ECO requires energy suppliers to help households to access more expensive insulation measures such as solid wall and hard-to-treat cavity wall insulation through the green deal, and to provide measures that will help low-income and vulnerable households to reduce the costs of staying warm and healthy. Through ECO, around £540 million will be spent annually at a UK level, and we need to ensure that Scotland gets its fair share of that spending.

The community energy saving programme is targeted at the lowest 15 per cent of areas by income in Scotland and the lowest 10 per cent in England. The programme, which is designed to deliver comprehensive energy-efficiency retrofits on a street-by-street basis, is expected to deliver permanent fuel bill savings of up to £300 a year per household. By June 2012, 36 such schemes in Glasgow had been submitted to Ofgem for approval; unfortunately, I cannot provide an up-to-date figure. Under the super-priority group of the carbon emissions reduction target, some 600,000 low-income households across the UK will be helped. Again, we must ensure that Scotland benefits appropriately from that programme.

In addition, the Government will continue to provide pensioner households with the regular cold weather payments.

I turn to the position of the Scottish Government and its relationship with Westminster. If we are to achieve our objectives, it is vital that Scotland’s two Governments work together side by side, rather than competing with each other to achieve objectives that do not warm a single house. I am heartened by the fact that, this week, meetings will take place between the minister and representatives of the Westminster Government. I give her my full encouragement to take the opportunity to create some harmony, as well as some warmth for the people in Scotland who need it.

I move amendment S4M-05424.3, to leave out from first “recognises” to end and insert:

“expresses concern at the high levels of fuel poverty in Scotland, which, according to Energy Action Scotland, now affects 900,000 households; calls on the Scottish Government to provide greater clarity on its current budgetary commitment on fuel poverty and energy efficiency measures; commends the UK Government for the action that it is taking to reduce consumer bills though the UK Energy Bill and various energy efficiency measures, such as the Green Deal; urges the Scottish Government to fully detail its proposals for the National Retrofit Programme; condemns what it considers to be a paucity of ambition from the Scottish Government, which has seen it fail to fully engage with the micro-renewables sector; notes that Poland and other countries are now constructing social housing heated entirely by micro-renewables, and calls on the Scottish Government to review its energy policy, which, through its over-reliance on large-scale wind farms, is a major contributory factor in escalating domestic energy costs.”

15:09

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Meeting of the Parliament 23 January 2013

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