Time to fight for lower energy costs

While West Lothian Council’s council house building programme is welome, it is simply not sufficient to meet local needs. There are more than 9000 people needing to be housed and almost all the council’s housing stock is occupied.

That’s 9000 lives in crisis - perhaps trapped in unaffordable private lets without any security, perhaps trapped in a home that isn’t big enough for their family’s needs, perhaps without a home at all, staying with friends or family.

Having a safe, warm, affordable home is vital for physical and mental wellbeing, employment prospects, educational attainment and must be a main priority for any level of government. So while the council is doing comparatively well, there is no cause for complacency.

Scottish Liberal Democrats believe that local councils should take an effective role in tackling poverty, cutting living costs and building opportunity. Meeting the needs for affordable housing is critically important. We support the building of thousands more socially rented houses. We want to expand low cost housing options, particularly for young people.

We think we should use the council’s negotiating and initiating clout to secure cheaper energy prices for local citizens by acting as either purchasers or generators of energy, as part of a programme to tackle the poverty premium that often means that people on the lowest incomes pay more for basic services.