Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 20 April 2022
I want to make some progress.
More than 450,000 low-income households are protected from council tax bills through our council tax reduction scheme, with almost 400,000 households paying no council tax at all. We have also increased the water charges reduction scheme discount to 35 per cent, making the average water bill for 2022-23 less than the average charge in England and Wales.
Our recent cost of living package means that 1.85 million of Scotland’s households will receive extra help, via their local authority, by the end of April. In addition, we have committed a further £10 million for our fuel insecurity fund for 2022-23, to help households that are at risk of self-disconnection because of their energy use.
I want to talk very briefly about rail fares. For the past 10 years, we have taken action to keep rail fares down, and ScotRail fares are still, on average, 20 per cent cheaper than those across the rest of the UK. To encourage passengers back to Scotland’s railway, ScotRail will launch a 50 per cent reduction in off-peak tickets for travel between stations across Scotland in May. That is hot off the presses and I hope that members across the chamber will welcome the announcement.