Challenge Poverty Week: Helping Families Cook

 As we remain at home with the nights drawing in and no end to COVID-19 and it’s harsh restrictions in sight, I’m doubly grateful to be working from a home that’s warm & dry. I’m not stressed about the washing machine, the tumble dryer and all the other essential household goods and whether we can turn them on when we need them.

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Call for Mercy as Energy Companies Allowed to Pursue Lockdown Debts

Energy Action Scotland has today called on First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon to intervene as energy companies are permitted to pursue unpaid energy bills.

With 25% of households in Scotland living in fuel poverty and 30% of the newly unemployed destined to join them, academics and organisations including AGE Scotland, the Poverty Alliance, the Child Poverty, Action Group, Health & Social Care Alliance, Children in Scotland, Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance and Carers Scotland have joined the call to protect struggling households in Scotland from sheriff officers in the continuing uncertainty following COVID-19 lockdown.

Read the Full News Release here

New Chief Executive for Energy Action Scotland

Frazer Scott has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Energy Action Scotland.

Announcing the appointment Stewart Wilson, Convener of Energy Action Scotland, said:

“I am delighted that Frazer will be leading Energy Action Scotland at this critical moment in tackling fuel poverty.

Read the full news release here

Letter: Electric Vehicle Charge is Tax On the Fuel Poor

Norman Kerr OBE, Director of Energy Action Scotland has today called on all political parties to reduce the burden of fuel poverty in Scotland by adding the levy on consumer bills for investment to general taxation.

He asks that the infrastructure required to support a move to electric vehicles not be added to the bills of the people least likely to drive or own one, people who are making daily choices between heating and eating.

Read the full News Release here

Energy Efficiency, Fuel Poverty and Sustaining Tenancies in the Private Rented Sector

As the number of new home-owners declines resulting in increasing numbers of people living in rented accommodation, EAS will be hosting a breakthrough conference in Glasgow which will focus on the future regulation of energy efficiency in private rented sector (PRS) homes across Scotland.

The event is for PRS landlords, whether they are owners of one or of multiple properties, to introduce and facilitate their engagement with national and local services delivering energy efficiency measures that will both improve the EPC rating and provide warm, dry homes for many tenants in the sector. The event will also support wider awareness of those services providing advice and education, raising awareness of wise energy use in the home which is key to achieving good energy habits and tackling a key contributor to fuel poverty, which causes misery and ill health for a quarter of households in Scotland.

Read the Full News Release here

Challenge Poverty Week blog by EAS Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Kate Cunningham

In recent years we have seen a refocusing of policy away from health as the descriptor for our desired state of being to wellness and wellbeing as a wider encompassing of all that is important and indeed possible for us as human beings in Scotland. 

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New report warns failing fuel poverty strategies will leave flagship net zero commitment dead in the water

A new report recently released [Tuesday 17^th September] claims thousands of people across the UK will die this coming winter as national strategies to keep people warm are failing them. The new report also highlights that floundering progress to improve domestic energy efficiency will leave the UK Government’s flagship net zero commitment dead in the water.

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