Fuel poverty in Sutherland highlighted to Energy Minister

David Bell, a Professor of Economics at Stirling University, met Energy and Environment Minister Gillian Martin at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday to discuss fuel poverty. Professor Bell, a Sutherland native, focused on the energy issues in the county. Here he explains why energy costs are higher in Sutherland than elsewhere in the country and what he would like to see happen.

Fuel poverty - where families spend more than 10% of their income on home energy - is a real issue in Sutherland.

Our recent weather may have been beautiful, but having to spend more than a tenth of the family budget to stay warm in winter means cutting back on other things that are important, but perhaps not so immediate.

The Scottish Government estimated that 52% of households in “remote rural” areas were living in fuel poverty in October 2022. The Scottish average was 35%. All of Sutherland is classed as “remote rural”.

Energy costs are higher here because Sutherland is not linked to the gas grid; it has more severe weather; its homes, on average, are older and consequently poorly insulated; and finally, as in the rest of Scotland, Sutherland customers pay higher charges to be connected to the National Grid.

Yet Sutherland, with only 0.02% of the UK’s population is producing 2.6% of the UK’s electricity from onshore wind. And this share is only likely to increase given the pipeline of projects reported weekly in the Northern Times.

So the county is at the forefront of the green energy revolution, yet a large proportion of the people cannot afford to heat their homes properly. It reminds me of the Bedouin in the Saudi Arabian desert: surrounded by oil, but with none of the benefits.

Along with colleagues from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, I discussed these issues with the Energy and Environment Minister, Gillian Martin MSP.

I argued that public acceptance of the move to net zero will not come if communities are not compensated for the loss of amenity caused by the expansion of wind farms and of grid connections including pylons.

This is coming to a limited extent through the Community Benefits schemes. But these need to be made compulsory, increased in size and linked to projects such as affordable homes which will help mitigate the demographic crisis that

Sutherland faces.

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