Fuel poverty is not only worse in rural Scotland than in urban Scotland, it also has different characteristics. For example, in urban areas 92% of those classified as income-poor are not classified as fuel-poor while in rural areas only 8% of those classified as income poor are not also fuel poor – fuel poverty plays a much larger role in rural poverty than in urban poverty.

Scotland heats the majority of its homes and buildings in inefficient and deleterious efforts to become a net zero-carbon nation. Much more effective than individual boilers would be a system of District Heating Systems (DHS). These DHS networks could be supplied with a variety of sources such as biomass, solar thermal or industrial waste heat.

A call for the Scottish Government to launch a National Energy Company and a Scottish Energy Development Agency.  These bodies would work together to rapidly and strategically decarbonise Scotland’s energy network whilst also supporting community energy projects and developing the new skills and technologies Scotland – and the world – will need to face the challenges of climate change and fuel poverty.