Council says help is there for fuel poverty

Tackling fuel poverty in Rutherglen and Cambuslang is a top priority, South Lanarkshire Council has said.

The local authority has outlined what it is doing to support locals after figures, released last week, showed one in four families are in fuel poverty. That means they are spending more than 10 per cent of their household income in all fuels.

A spokesman for South Lanarkshire Council, said: “The council recognises tackling fuel poverty as a key priority and a fuel poverty group ensures that we and our community planning partners are working together to make the best use of resources available.

“Although fuel poverty levels in South Lanarkshire are falling, approximately 26 per cent of households are still ‘fuel poor’.

“Our aim through this group is to reduce fuel poverty yet further by increasing access to and uptake of energy advice, including face to face and via help lines, investing in social housing to improve energy efficiency, and looking at innovative ways for reducing fuel costs, such as district heating, renewable energy systems, and collective purchase arrangements.

“A key focus is to ensure frontline staff across all of our services are aware of the issue and the role they can play in helping households, in particular those most vulnerable to fuel poverty, in getting the support available to reduce energy use and costs as well as deal with or avoid fuel debt.

“The group promotes a single point of contact for energy advice - the Home Energy Scotland national helpline (0800 808 2282) - through which callers will be referred to local fuel poverty support as well as national programmes where appropriate.”