Scottish Labour has launched a Christmas campaign to tackle fuel poverty. Dumbarton’s Labour MSP, Jackie Baillie, has highlighted that one in four homes across Scotland will spend Christmas in fuel poverty, unable to afford to heat their homes.

The most recent Local Authority figures show that around 11,000 households in West Dunbartonshire and 18,000 households in Argyll and Bute lived in fuel poverty between 2014 and 2016.

Scottish Labour has pledged that Labour Government’s in Westminster and Holyrood will ensure everyone has access to a warm, safe and affordable home by building more homes for social rent; regulating the private sector in Scotland; taking energy into public ownership and placing a cap on energy prices to keep bills affordable.

The party also wants tougher targets to be enshrined in the forthcoming Fuel Poverty legislation before the Scottish Parliament, including:

• A commitment to eradicate fuel poverty by 2032
• A definition of fuel poverty that includes an uplift for rural communities
• A minimum standard of energy efficiency in private rented sector housing

Jackie said:

“Every single person in Dumbarton, the Vale of Leven and Helensburgh and Lomond should have access to a warm, safe and affordable home. Scotland is an energy-rich country, yet over a quarter of households are living in fuel poverty.

“In 2002, as the Minister responsible for this policy area in the last Labour-led government, I set a target to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016, but years of inaction from the SNP means that the target was missed.

“In the run up to Christmas, we will be highlighting our plans to ensure that everyone has access to warm and affordable homes.

“The next Labour Governments at Holyrood and Westminster will take action to end the scandal of fuel poverty.”