Urgent fuel poverty action needed to save lives
The call comes as the nation suffers the first blast of a winter that experts at Energy Action Scotland predict will claim at least six lives a day this winter amid a stark warning of a dramatic jump in the numbers of those facing the breadline because of COVID-19 to come.
Frazer Scott, chief executive of EAS, revealed Scotland may suffer a surge of over 100,000 families becoming fuel poor on top of the 613,000already known to be suffering – potentially leaving 30% of the nation out in the cold.
He said: “Income is a huge factor in fuel poverty, and we’re about to see a huge economic shockwave go through our society which will result in many, many more people experiencing fuel poverty for the first time.
“Fuel poverty kills six people every single day in the winter, which paints a bleak picture.
“COVID is bringing into stark reality just how much change we are going to see because of a loss of income and in jobs – that will probably see a 20% increase in the number of households that may be fuel poor, taking us up to nearly 30% of all Scottish households.
“We’ve got a real big job there to make a difference to every home, to every household and every life.”
He added: “We have to organise ourselves in such a way as we’ve perhaps never done before, in perhaps only the way we’ve just done globally to try and solve the global pandemic.
“We need to mobilise the same kind of creativity, thinking and fast movement in order to solve these problems.”
Mr Scott said: “The efficiency of our homes isn’t good enough, the equipment that people have in their home isn’t good enough, it’s not efficient enough, people simply don’t have enough money.”
“We have a real challenge in embracing a generational shift towards much more environmentally friendly, low carbon lifestyles. Our starting point is really quite poor for this.”
Mr Scott said that energy systems across the UK were long due an “upgrade” to support a modern society.
He added: “We are now living in the 21st century yet we still have systems that seem very, very old fashioned out outdated. They need to change. They need to provide more control and choices to consumers.
“They require help and support to do the best thing that they can. The best thing for them, the best thing for their families, and that’s not easy.”
“Visits to GPs for respiratory illnesses increase by almost 20 percent for every single degree that the temperature falls below 5C. Now you might say ‘yeah, that’s when it’s cold’. When it’s cold we see a huge impact on our national health service. That’s money, and the public’s money, that could otherwise be used for other things and better things.”