Support is being expanded to improve the energy efficiency of homes and tackle energy costs.
In response to the cost of living crisis, the SNP Government will boost three energy efficiency and heat programmes from April.
These include:
Expanding the Home Energy Scotland (HES) advice service through a £50 million investment. HES provides free, impartial advice available to all households in Scotland on making homes warmer, greener and easier to heat. Capacity will be increased by 20% to support an extra 12,000 households a year, whilst a service offering bespoke advice to the most vulnerable households will be doubled.
Widening the eligibility criteria of the SNP Government’s flagship Warmer Homes Scotland fuel poverty programme to include more groups within the 60 – 75 years age range.
Increasing the level of funding individual fuel poor households could benefit from through the local authority-led Area Based Schemes.
More than £160 million of funding is being invested this year to help make Scotland’s homes and buildings warmer and more efficient, supporting efforts to tackle fuel poverty whilst helping householders manage their energy bills and reduce carbon emissions.
Kenneth Gibson MSP said:
“With the limited powers it has, the SNP Government is doing all it can to support people through the cost of living crisis while the Tories in Westminster have been too blasé for too long.
“However much support Scotland puts in place; powers relating to energy markets remain reserved and we have repeatedly called for the UK Government to urgently take further, tangible actions to support households.
“This is why the Scottish Budget last month included a package of measures to provide immediate help with rising bills."
Householders can access free and impartial support through Home Energy Scotland to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Home Energy Scotland can be contacted on their freephone number 0808 808 2282 or via the Home Energy Scotland website.
Through SNP Government investment, over 150,000 households now live in homes which are warmer and cheaper to heat, with households saving an estimated £936 million pounds on their fuel bills over the lifetime of these improvements, with a total reduction in carbon emissions of 3.4 million tonnes.
As part of a wider £290 million package of funding announcements made to tackle the cost of living crisis, in 2022/23 the SNP Government will commit a further £10 million to continue the Fuel Insecurity Fund. The fund has helped households at risk of self-disconnection, or self-rationing their energy use, since late 2020.
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