Existing Homes Alliance Scotland gives cautious welcome to infrastructure investment

Existing Homes Alliance Scotland gives cautious welcome to infrastructure investment

An overall increase in infrastructure investment set out in the Scottish Government’s draft Infrastructure Investment Plan has been welcomed by the Existing Homes Alliance.

The five-year plan outlined a £24 billion commitment to decarbonise business, industry and buildings, the provision of new health facilities and schools and support for manufacturing innovation.

However, the organisation said it remains unclear how much of this will go towards making homes warm and affordable to heat.

Lori McElroy, chair of the Existing Homes Alliance, said: “Investing in energy efficiency now is essential if we are to make fuel poverty a thing of the past. Increasing unemployment and more people working from home could push an extra 136,000 households into fuel poverty, so we need to invest now.”

So far, an increase of £55 million has been promised for energy efficiency programmes over five years which the Existing Homes Alliance believes falls significantly short of what is needed.

Lori McElroy added: “We believe we need an increase of at least £80m per year for domestic energy and fuel poverty programmes if we are serious about ending fuel poverty. Investing in energy efficiency is critical to delivering a fairer Scotland and must be at the heart of our green recovery.

“Not only does it help us meet our emissions targets, but it supports the creation of a wellbeing economy by building local supply chains and creating skilled, green jobs.

“We look forward to additional announcements later in the year with the publication of the Energy Efficient Scotland Route Map and hope that this will signal the significant scaling up that is required over the next decade.”

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