Delegation heartened by minister’s response

THE CHAIRMAN of the council’s social services committee said he was hopeful that actions will follow words after a council delegation received a “sympathetic” hearing in Edinburgh.

Councillor Cecil Smith led a five strong delegation lobbying Scottish government cabinet secretary Alex Neil on how cash to combat fuel poverty could better be distributed.

The council would like to see more of the funds available to householders struggling with ever increasing fuel bills coming to Shetland.

The delegation argued that current figures on fuel poverty did not reflect the accurate picture as the impact of wind chill was not incorporated in calculating statistics.

Council officials fear that the actual number of people living in fuel poverty could be much higher than the 35 percent of households currently known to spend more than 10 per cent on keeping reasonably warm.

Mr Smith said the minister with responsibilities for infrastructure and capital investment responded well to presentations made by housing manager Anita Jamieson, environmental health manager Maggie Dunne, and member of the Scottish youth parliament Emily Shaw.

Speaking from Edinburgh, Mr Smith said: “There is nothing extra on the table at this moment, but I am confident due to the fact that we have been down here and have made our case to the minister face to face. That means a lot.

“He certainly got the message and accepted our concerns and our issues. More than that, I think, cannot be expected at this moment.”

The delegation also received some assurances that in future government home insulation schemes would be administered locally rather than nationally after a deluge of complaints against mainland based contractors working on the current scheme.

Mr Smith said that the minister had been acutely aware of the problems and had expressed his own dissatisfaction with the way the contract with Scottish Gas had been handled.

Shetland MSP Tavish Scott, who had arranged the meeting, added: “I thought Mr Neil was receptive to the arguments and was positive in recognising the benefits to government of local administration of these schemes.”

Mr Neil said that the government was fully committed to reduce fuel poverty and was channelling more resources towards various energy efficiency schemes.

He said: “It was a very positive and constructive meeting.  We discussed a range of issues related to fuel poverty, including the particular challenges facing Shetland. 

“I recently announced £12.5 million for the Universal Home Insulation Scheme (of which £200,000 was allocated to Shetland), a further £5 million for the Energy Assistance Package as well as £5 million to extend the scheme to people in receipt of carers allowance and made a further £1.5 million available under the boiler scrappage scheme. 

“All these initiatives are available to eligible households in Shetland to take up through the Home Energy Scotland Hotline (0800 512 012).”

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