Ministers accept need for Isles to get fair share of home insulation support (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale Liberal Democrats)

Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

Ministers accept need for Isles to get fair share of home insulation support

June 10, 2009 4:39 PM
Originally published by Scottish Liberal Democrats

Orkney MSP, Liam McArthur, has welcomed confirmation that Scottish Ministers recognise that action needs to be taken to make sure that householders in island areas, such as Orkney, get equal access to schemes offered by power companies to provide free home insulation for those struggling to heat their homes.

Under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) scheme, energy suppliers are required to help to improve energy efficiency of homes and so cut carbon emissions. The companies are required to focus much of their activity on a 'Priority Group' of vulnerable and low-income households, including those in receipt of certain income/disability benefits and pensioners over 70. The energy companies are set targets but these have the effect of encouraging many of them to offer free insualtion schemes only in easily accessible locations, so most companies exclude Orkney and the other islands from their offers. In addition, where companies do include Orkney, such as Scottish & Southern Energy, the cash limit on their offer, while high enough to offer free insulation across most of the UK, is not enough to deal with the higher installation costs on Orkney.Liam McArthur MSP: Orkney

This is an issue which Liam McArthur, along with others in Orkney and in the other island groups, has raised with Scottish Ministers, seeking their help in getting a fairer deal for the islands from this UK scheme.

In a letter to all Isles constituency MSPs, the Housing Minister, Alex Neil, has confirmed that he is concerned that the current CERT framework "allows the energy companies to meet their obligations in whatever is the most cost effective manner for them. This means that most companies do not offer insulation measures throughout the whole of Scotland as it is more costly for them to serve households in the islands." He stated that the Scottish Government's response to a recent UK Government consultation on extensions to CERT had highlighted this problem and had called for "a guarantee that new energy investment includes Scotland's rural and island communities."

Commenting, Liam McArthur said;

"This is a clear step in the right direction. The Scottish Government's acknowledgement that there is a problem is welcome. This means that, while they rightly fight for Scotland as a whole to get a better share of the CERT spending, they are also supporting those of us who want to get a fair share for the islands. This has still to be delivered, but there is now some cause for optimism that we will achieve this. The lobbying work by islands interests has therefore been worthwhile as it has helped to persuade the Scottish Government to back our case

"I hope to take this further this summer if the Housing Minister accepts my invitation to come to Orkney to meet housing stakeholders. We will not just want to raise with him the need to tackle the shortage of affordable housing. We will also want to highlight the need to make sure that our existing housing stock is made as energy efficient as possible, in order to cope with the islands' challenging winter climate."