Government must show leadership and money for insulation must not be unspent

It is a tragedy that some of the Scottish Government money meant to insulate homes is unspent while people are choosing between heating and eating.

Councils must now receive whatever help is needed to make sure this funding is used to get homes insulated and save lives this winter.

An immediate step would be for the Scottish Government to commit to multi-year funding so councils can develop long-term plans and deliver schemes that will run over several financial years. Councils could then produce more realistic programmes than the current funding allows.

The cost of labour and materials is rising, increasing the amount that homeowners have to contribute, making it unaffordable for some, so the Scottish Government should also increase the cap on support, reducing how much fuel poor households pay towards making their homes warmer and cheaper to heat. Scotland is ahead of the game in many ways when it comes to climate change – our energy efficiency and fuel poverty programmes are the envy of many other countries.

As world leaders meet in Sharm El-Sheikh at the Cop27 climate change summit, the government needs to show leadership at home as well as abroad. Our homes are among the coldest and leakiest in Western Europe and they must take action so money for these projects does not go unspent.