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Home heating scheme to be widened More families to get free heating
(1 day later)
The scheme to provide pensioners with free central heating systems is to be extended to some families on benefits.The scheme to provide pensioners with free central heating systems is to be extended to some families on benefits.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will make the announcement at the SNP's annual conference in Perth, pledging an extra £10m to fund the project. Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon pledged an extra £10m to fund the project in an announcement at the SNP party conference.
It will help families on income support with children under five, or a disabled child under 16, from next spring.It will help families on income support with children under five, or a disabled child under 16, from next spring.
Meanwhile, First Minister Alex Salmond is to take part in a webchat on the BBC Scotland news website. The Scottish Government will bring forward regulations to cover the extension of the programme from April.
The Scottish Government plans to bring forward regulations to cover the extension of the heating programme from April next year.
'Rising bills''Rising bills'
Conference delegates will be told that more than 14,000 homes had free central heating systems installed in 2007-08, compared with just over 10,000 in the last year of the Labour/Liberal Democrat executive. Ms Sturgeon said: "In the last few months, fuel bills have soared by 40%.
Ms Sturgeon will say: "We live in difficult economic times. People are worried about their jobs, their mortgages and their pensions. They are struggling with rising bills and the soaring cost of living. "There are now more households than ever before living in fuel poverty."
"They see billions of pounds of taxpayers' money being spent to bail out the excesses of Wall Street and the City of London and they ask, rightly, 'What about us? What will be done to help our town, our street, our family?' The answer to that question so far from London Labour is: nothing. Conference delegates were told that more than 14,000 homes had free central heating systems installed last year.
"But as Scotland's Government we are on the side of the hard-working people of Scotland." However, she said, they needed to do even more.
Mr Salmond's webcast will see him answer questions submitted by members of the public. She said: "Pensioners are not the only group in Scotland who are fuel poor.
BBC Scotland's political editor Brian Taylor will quiz the SNP leader during the half-hour broadcast on Saturday morning. "So I can also announce to you today that I will be laying regulations in parliament to extend eligibility for the fuel poverty programme to two new groups.
"From April next year, in addition to pensioner households, families on income support with children under five or with disabled children under 16, will for the first time ever, be eligible for the fuel poverty programme.
"More support to more people and better targeted on those who need it most. That's our commitment to tackling fuel poverty."