Current estimates of Fuel Poverty which are based on Home Analytics data shows a very worrying and unacceptably high percentage of households in Argyll and Bute that have a Likelihood Fuel of Poverty.

With the Scottish average of Likelihood of households in Fuel Poverty being at 27% the numbers for Argyll and Bute sadly dwarf the national average.

Argyll and Bute overall coming in at 43%, Jura is at 46%, Islay is at 54%, Kintyre at 63% and most shockingly of all the Isle of Gigha stands at 79%.

This once again shows the vast rural urban divide in Scotland with the urban belt obsessed Scottish Government being slow and uninterested in the vast challenges facing our rural and island communities.

My ward simply should not have percentages of fuel poverty that are in some areas nearly 3 times the Scottish average. The Kintyre and Islands ward is a huge success story with large scale economic and industrial growth particularly from our distillery industry. This is yet another example of the tax and spend imbalance with hundreds upon hundreds of millions pounds in tax revenue coming from my ward yet so many of my constituents are at risk of fuel poverty.

This rural urban imbalance must end.

Cllr Alastair Redman