Meeting of the Parliament 23 April 2014
I welcome the opportunity to debate fuel poverty. It is well over a year since we debated the subject in the chamber and I am disappointed that it has taken the Opposition rather than the Government to set time aside.
Our debate comes when fuel bills have been dropping through letterboxes across the country over the past month, and there is nothing like an electricity or gas bill to focus minds, although many people do not have even that choice, as they need to pay up front through prepayment meters. The winter was relatively mild, but people are struggling to pay their fuel bills because of the huge increases in prices. We should make no mistake: such people are not just experiencing fuel poverty; they are plunged into fuel debt—they are facing the worst cost-of-living crisis, the likes of which we have not seen in decades.
I will turn to the scale of the problem. Citizens Advice Scotland has estimated that, between October 2010 and September 2013, price rises from the big six energy firms were eight times higher than the increase in average earnings. CAS also estimated that, by January 2014, the big six suppliers had increased their prices by about 37 per cent, which completely outstripped the 10 per cent inflation rise and the 4 per cent rise in average earnings.
If members need further evidence, research from the Department of Energy and Climate Change indicates that household bills have increased by more than £300 in a mere three years, while small businesses’ energy bills have risen by more than £3,000. There is no doubt that costs are going up at an alarming rate.
We also have the Scottish Government’s most recent estimate that there are 647,000 fuel-poor households in Scotland. However, that figure is not up to date. It takes us only to the mid-point of 2012 and it fails to take into account the inflation-busting increases in energy bills.
Energy Action Scotland has used the Government’s basis of calculation and believes that the figure is nearer 900,000 fuel-poor households. In the recently published “UK Fuel Poverty Monitor 2013-2014”, Energy Action Scotland estimates that the figure could be just over a million, which is staggering. When we consider that there are about 2.4 million households in Scotland, that means that 40 per cent of all households are affected by fuel poverty. That is the highest figure that I have ever known. It is truly a national scandal that so many people are forced to choose between heating and eating.
Scottish Labour believes that a warm, dry home is a basic human right and that fuel poverty has no place in a civilised, first-world country. I am sure that that view is shared across the chamber. That belief motivated us to introduce the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. Our commitment was to end fuel poverty by 2016. That was an ambitious target, but rightly so. Supported by all parties, it provided a sharp focus on what mattered and posed a challenge to all of us to deliver on it. We had faced levels of fuel poverty that meant that some 700,000 households were affected. Through our concerted efforts, that dropped to 200,000 households by the end of 2002. Fuel poverty has since been on the rise—most sharply in 2009—and now, in 2014, it is at the highest level ever, of almost 1 million households.
The problem is acute, yet there is much more that we can and should be doing. I say with the greatest respect to the Minister for Housing and Welfare that the problem demands more than a Government amendment that is breathtakingly complacent and focuses yet again on independence. I suppose that that is no surprise. The Government’s press release blames the Tory United Kingdom Government, which is no surprise either. Where is the ambition in the amendment? Where is the recognition that the Scottish Government has a responsibility to help people now? Where is the action to tackle the plight of people who are crying out for help? It should give us all pause for thought when people return food to food banks because the cost of fuel means that they cannot afford to turn on their cooker.
I would understand the Scottish National Party blaming others if it were straining every sinew to tackle the problem, but that is—frankly—not the case. It is the case that the SNP has underspent its budget, apparently for two years in a row. It is the case that the SNP has delayed in delivering money to local authorities although, thankfully, it has allowed them to carry money forward—otherwise, the underspend would be huge. Meanwhile, installers are going to the wall.