Labour MSP in 'Victorian-era poverty' warning over off-grid costs
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Labour's Rhoda Grant has warned that rural communities in Scotland are facing poverty reminiscent of the Victorian era as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
She claimed that people in rural areas "have been completely forgotten" by the UK government.
Mrs Grant, the Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands, was speaking after the release of the latest consumer prices index statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Labour has identified that in just a year the cost of heating oil has risen by over £500 a 1000 litre – one of the largest price increases in this year’s ONS figures.
While the rest of Scotland is due to receive some additional support for energy bills from the UK government, she said that "off grid" properties have been given little clarification as to whether they will be able to receive the payments.
Around 417,000 (17 per cent) of Scottish homes are off the gas grid and some 217,000 use fuels other than mains gas or electricity to heat their homes.
Twenty-eight per cent of rural households are said to use heating oil as their primary source of heating fuel and homes in "hard-to-reach" parts of Scotland are often off grid, including all properties in Orkney and Shetland.
Mrs Grant said: “People living in rural homes have been completely forgotten by this government. Despite the Tory Chancellor doing his best to copy Labour’s plans to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, they have not included our guarantees for off-grid homes.
“The increase in the cost of heating oil is one of the biggest price rises within the ONS statistics. It directly impacts people living off grid, and yet we have seen no substantial aid package from the SNP or the Tories.
“Even in the Scottish Tory leader’s own constituency [Moray], off-grid homes are facing destitution because of soaring heating oil costs. How can Douglas Ross not have clarified what support is available for his own constituents?
“With reports of people stealing oil and gas canisters out of desperation, and pensioners choosing between putting the heating on or eating dinner, we need urgent government intervention if we are to stop rural Scotland being plunged into Victorian-era style poverty.”
