Fuel Poverty in Scotland’s Island Communities: Recommendations for the Revised Fuel Poverty Strategy

This report provides recommendations for the Scottish Government on fuel poverty in Scotland's Island Communities.

Island Fuel Poverty Recommendations.pdf

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Covering Letter from Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel Chair

17th August 2026

To: Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Energy

Cc: First Minister, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Rural Affairs, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing


Dear Minister

Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel’s recommendations to mitigate fuel poverty in island communities.

I hope that you are settling in well into your Ministerial portfolio and as a member of the Scottish Parliament. I and the rest of the Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel are very much looking forward to working with you to reduce and ultimately eradicate fuel poverty in Scotland.

The Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel may well be new to you. We are an independent statutory advisory body and our role is to provide independent advice to Scottish Ministers on fuel poverty matters and scrutinise Scottish Ministers’ progress towards delivering Scotland’s 2040 fuel poverty targets and tackling the drivers of fuel poverty. I look forward to our introductory meeting at the end of September and to talking with you about the advice which we have given to Scottish Ministers, and the work we’re currently doing.

As Ministers prepare to revise the Fuel Poverty Strategy at the end of the year, we have been reflecting further on how we can support the Strategy revision, following the approach to revising the Strategy which we set out in our response to the Scottish Government’s Tackling Fuel Poverty in Scotland: periodic report 2021-2024.

I know that you visited the Shetland Islands at the end of last month and met Panel Member Bryan Leask, Chief Executive of Hjaltland Housing Association, who told you about the work which we have been doing on fuel poverty in island communities and who was able to speak directly to the impacts of living in the most fuel poor communities in Scotland. We are now sharing the findings from this work and giving our recommendations to you on mitigating fuel poverty in Scotland’s island communities.

These cover:

  • Improved energy efficiency and crisis funding to reflect the higher costs of island delivery and the island fuel poverty driver of climatic wind driven rain and seasonal impacts.
  • Multi-year and core funding for local advice organisations to improve their resilience, directed through local authorities who understand the support needs of their communities.
  • Enhance local authorities’ delivery role through comprehensive resourcing of their local heat and energy efficiency strategy delivery plans.
  • Work to ensure that UK energy policy works for Scotland’s island communities, including investigating the pace, location, and connectivity of Smart meters following the switch off of the RadioTeleswitch service to ensure no consumer detriment. And also, advocating for island communities to be prioritised for innovation funding to enable alternative approaches to addressing fuel poverty.
  • Work with the UK Government to find new ways for island communities to benefit beyond the current framework to reduce energy costs and fuel poverty. Recognise island energy challenges in policy and through a robust approach to Island Impact Assessments and take the opportunity of the dynamic energy environment to facilitate community wealth creation.

You will see, from our recommendations, that we recognise the work which both Scottish and UK Governments have and are doing in island communities but that the scale of fuel poverty and the barriers these communities face mean that more is needed and at a faster pace.

Kind Regards,

Matthew Cole (Chair)

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