Energy / Depute convener hopes energy industry is well aware of fuel poverty figures
SHETLAND Islands Council depute convener Bryan Peterson says he hopes SSE and energy regulator Ofgem are “listening” when it comes to the levels of fuel poverty in the isles.
He also said he believes people in the community are “struggling to reconcile” fuel poverty figures to the Viking Energy wind farm, which has now formally been launched.
The Shetland South councillor made the comments at Monday’s education and families committee while discussing a child poverty report.
It came prior to an SSE event at the Shetland Museum in Lerwick that evening celebrating the completion of the Viking Energy wind farm.
A petition had been launched prior to the event calling on invited councillors not to attend.
A report to councillors at Monday’s education and families committee on child poverty said: “In 2023, average household energy bills in Shetland were double the UK average meaning that an average annual household energy cost could be £10,300 by April 2023.
“A Shetland household would need to earn over £104,000 not to be in fuel poverty, meaning 96% households were in fuel poverty and 75% in extreme fuel poverty.”
Peterson said he hoped those with influence were “cognitive” of these figures.
Coming at a time when the Viking Energy wind farm has switched on, but its developer has already received more than £2 million in “constraint” payments, the councillor said: “I think that our community are struggling to reconcile these numbers.
“I think we need to offer empathy to them and do everything we can to get these messages into the ears of people that can influence decisions that will go some way to restoring a sense of justice to this situation that I feel quite pained about on a personal level, and for my constituents.”
There have been calls for a number of years, supported by the council, for a ‘Shetland tariff’ – cheaper power bills for residents given the isles’ status as a net exporter of energy.
However chief executive of energy giant SSE Alistair Phillips-Davies suggested at the Viking site last week that the wind farm’s £2.2 million-a-year community benefit fund may be a better way to directly support those in fuel poverty, rather than introducing a Shetland tariff.
In the council chamber on Monday, Peterson – when speaking about the constraint payments given to operators when asked to reduce output to manage network flow – acknowledged there was a “complex” legislative system around energy.
Meanwhile committee chairman Davie Sandison said Peterson “hit the nail on the head” regarding the underlying drivers behind poverty.
“It’s driven by the place we live in and the cost of living in terms of energy and transport, principally energy,” he said.
The annual child poverty update report stated that 12.3 per cent of children in Shetland were living in low income families in 2022/23 – a rise of 0.5 per cent from the previous year.
Child poverty in Shetland has gradually increased since the early 2010s, although levels are consistently lower than Scotland as a whole.
The report stated though that figures do not take into account the higher cost of living in remote and rural Scotland.
“Almost half of people in Shetland live in households with an income less than the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) benchmark,” it added.
“In working households, 42% of people in Shetland lived below the benchmark, compared to 29% across Scotland.
“This may mean that, even in households where adults are working and earning what would be considered a decent wage, financial hardship may be a risk or already being experienced.”
The report also highlights the work ongoing on the matter, including normalising family support and increasing income to families.
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