Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 27 January 2016
27 Jan 2016 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Fuel Poverty
I welcome the opportunity to take part in the debate. I agree with some of Jim Hume’s comments, including that Scotland is an energy-rich country and that there is no room for fuel poverty.
Tackling inequality is at the heart of this Scottish Government’s commitment to create a fairer country for all. Nothing is more important to me or this Government than responding to the pressures that individuals and families face across Scotland. There is no complacency about the issue whatsoever.
We know that fuel poverty is an issue for the thousands of households that are struggling to pay fuel bills and to keep their homes warm. We have seen more and more people being pushed into fuel poverty as they have tried to cope with unaffordable and rising fuel prices over the past few years. Powers over the regulation of the energy market remain reserved to the UK Government, but I assure members that the Scottish Government is doing all that we can by taking action on the one contributing factor to fuel poverty that we have control over: energy efficiency.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (John Scott)
Con
The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-15432, in the name of Jim Hume, on fuel poverty. I invite members who wish to speak in the debate to pres...
Jim Hume (South Scotland) (LD)
LD
As we speak, there are approximately 1.8 million people in Scotland—that is 35 per cent of all Scottish households—who are in fuel poverty this winter. Of th...
Mike MacKenzie (Highlands and Islands) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member give way?
Jim Hume
LD
I hope that we will have some cross-party support from the member.
Mike MacKenzie
SNP
I am glad that the member said that to a large extent the matter is beyond the Scottish Government’s control, given that the Government has no control over e...
Jim Hume
LD
I disagree with the member, in that the Scottish Government is proposing a 13 per cent cut in its spending on fuel poverty. I will come on to that in due cou...
The Minister for Housing and Welfare (Margaret Burgess)
SNP
I welcome the opportunity to take part in the debate. I agree with some of Jim Hume’s comments, including that Scotland is an energy-rich country and that th...
Jim Hume
LD
The minister said that this Government is doing everything that it can. The cabinet secretary and another minister stated that £119 million was going into ta...
Margaret Burgess
SNP
I will. As I have explained before, in the current year, we set aside and are spending £119 million on fuel poverty. The £119 million figure included £15 mil...
Gavin Brown (Lothian) (Con)
Con
Since the draft budget was published in December, on how many occasions has the minister formally requested more money for fuel poverty from the Deputy First...
Margaret Burgess
SNP
The overall budget of Scotland has been cut. We got the same allocation this year as we got last year. There are pressures on all the budgets. Interruption. ...
Margaret Burgess
SNP
I will take no more interventions. When I came in here, I heard the Liberals shouting for more money for education. I now hear them shouting for more money ...
Claudia Beamish (South Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Will the minister give way?
Margaret Burgess
SNP
I cannot take an intervention; I am in my last minute. Work is under way to develop SEEP, and we continue to engage with stakeholders including the fuel pov...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Con
Please bring your remarks to a close.
Margaret Burgess
SNP
To conclude, in my remarks I have set out what the Scottish Government has done, is doing and plans to do in the future to tackle fuel poverty. I believe tha...
Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab)
Lab
Last year, the number of excess winter deaths in Scotland was the highest in more than a decade—a staggering 4,060. “Excess winter deaths” is an uncomfortabl...
Nigel Don (Angus North and Mearns) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member take an intervention?
Ken Macintosh
Lab
I will, for Mr Don.
Nigel Don
SNP
I wonder what fraction of those whom Mr Macintosh has just mentioned, when they drew up that target, expected fuel prices to increase quite disproportionatel...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
Either you sign up to the targets and claim credit, as you constantly do, for the work that you are doing, or not at all. I expected better from Mr Don than ...
Mike MacKenzie
SNP
Will the member take an intervention?
Ken Macintosh
Lab
I will in a second. John Swinney’s budget decision not only came out the day after those terrible fuel poverty figures did, it came out a week after the Fir...
Mike MacKenzie
SNP
I am grateful to Mr Macintosh for taking an intervention. The SNP Government has spent over £500 million on fuel poverty measures since 2009. I am very inter...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
I thought that the amendment was feeble, but that intervention was even worse. As part of the Government that, along with the Liberal Democrats, set this tar...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Con
You must draw to a close, please.
Ken Macintosh
Lab
It bears comparison with the SNP’s record. This is not just a social problem or about poverty—it is about the environment, too. I will end on this note. It ...
Gavin Brown (Lothian) (Con)
Con
I congratulate the Liberal Democrats on bringing forward this extremely important debate on a subject that, I think, has become a bit of an Achilles’ heel fo...
Mike MacKenzie
SNP
I have a great deal of respect for Mr Brown’s financial literacy. Can he lay out the Conservative’s plans for eradicating fuel poverty and tell me how much t...
Gavin Brown
Con
Mr MacKenzie’s approach seems to be: if two bad interventions do not make the point, try three. I sat on a cross-party committee with some of Mr MacKenzie’s...