Aberdeenshire Council slammed for complacency over fuel poverty

Councillor Storr recently asked Aberdeenshire Chair of Housing and Social Work what plans were in place to upgrade council housing to eliminate fuel poverty by super-insulating homes.    The reply only referred to the much lower Scottish Housing Quality Standard. 

Commenting on the reply Cllr Storr said "I gave the Chair of Social Work and Housing an opportunity to raise standards in Aberdeenshire but he was satisfied with the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.  While I acknowledge that the Council does sometimes do better than this very low standard, the standard would only be a Energy rating of E, nowhere near the zero-carbon standards we need to ensure no-one need suffer cold homes and fuel poverty. "

Councillor Storr recently revealed that replacement double glazing in Sheltered Housing complexes just met minimum building regulations with a U-value of 1.8 rather than the higher standards the Council was installing in its other properties.

Cllr Storr continued "The Council is guilty of complacency.  The standards of insulation in lofts, walls and windows is falling behind the standards needed in a world of rising fuel prices and harsher winters.   We need to raise the game beyond a E in energy performance. 

"Unless we start to take insulating homes to the highest possible standards, we will never eliminate fuel poverty - a policy that the Council has signed up to.  We need real investment and serious planning.  If this doesn't happen, people will live in cold houses and the consequences range for higher rates of illness to higher death rates."