Boiler scrappage scheme closed
Sandra Osborne has highlighted the irony of Ayr MSP John Scott urging people to apply to the boiler scrappage scheme last week after it was already closed down as fully subscribed. Sandra said
"The irony of this is it highlights the pathetically inadequate boiler scrappage scheme that the SNP came up with. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming into having any scrappage scheme here in Scotland and then failed to put adequate money into it. It is hardly surprising that the vouchers were fully subscribed within 48 hours of the scheme opening.
I have been campaigning for a boiler scrappage scheme since the turn of the year following the decision of the UK Government to implement a scheme for people in England. Under the English scheme, 125,000 households benefited from a £400 discount off the cost of upgrading their old boiler for a new energy efficient one. Compare that to the Scottish scheme which also offered a £400 voucher but will only benefit 5,000 households.
The scheme in England was set up at a cost of £50 million. Of this, £30 million came from existing budgets while £20 million was new money. As a result of the English scheme, Scotland received a £2 million proportionate share of the new money under the Barnett formula. The Scottish Government committed this money to the new scheme but failed to match the level of funding from existing budgets seen in England. As a result the Scottish benefits proportionately less than half the people.
The Scottish Government's scheme was also woefully slow to get going. Given the bitterly cold winter we have just endured this dithering has been particularly disappointing. The scheme did not open to new applications until May 24th, almost four months after it was announced. Compare this to the English scheme which in a similar time period announced and launched its scheme, distributed all of the vouchers available and installed over 35,000 boilers.
With quicker action from the Scottish Government households across Scotland could have had new boilers installed months ago helping to lower people's fuel bills. Earlier action would also have been a boost to the plumbing industry providing much needed work in these tough times.
