There are several changes afoot in UK and Scottish Government policy relating to fuel poverty and energy efficiency which could have significant impact for rural housing associations and co-operatives.

The Scottish Government is conducting a review of its Fuel Poverty Strategy and the Fuel Poverty Forum is to play a key role as an independent, critical advisor. The strategy is set to look at both the definition of fuel poverty in Scotland (currently a household that spends more than 10% of its income on fuel) and at funding, in particular area-based retrofit schemes.

Meanwhile, the UK Government has been making deep cuts to the funding available for Feed In Tariffs, posing a real risk to development of this technology by social landlords.

Following the controversial decision to cut the Feed in Tariff for photo-voltaic (pv) panels by more than half, the UK Government published two further consultations on the long term future of Feed in Tariffs (FiTs) to encourage the generation of renewable electricity.

The first, 2a, deals with future Feed in Tariff payments for pv. Disappointingly, the core proposals from the previous review on FiTs for solar PV remain in place:

• FiTs for solar pv to be a maximum of 21p per kw/h - less than half the previous payment.
• Multiple installations to have their FiTs further reduced by 20% to take account of the benefits of economies of scale.

The SFHA and a number of associations had argued that housing associations and co-operatives should be paid a higher community tariff as the association investing does not benefit from reduced bills and since any surplus would be reinvested in improving energy efficiency, building new homes and reducing fuel poverty. Sadly the only minor concession is that social housing installations of 25 units or less will not be subject to the further 20% reduction. The consultation closed on April 3rd.

To view the SFHA's response click HERE.

Consultation 2b looks at the other technologies eligible for FiTs - wind, hydro, anaerobic digestion and micro CHP.

The consultation also looks at potential community tariffs for renewable schemes developed by community groups and (potentially) housing associations and co-operatives, and at rates for multiple installations of pv panels.

The consultation closed on the 26th of April - to view the SFHA's response click HERE

There is a new briefing note available on the SFHA website, Funding Sources to Facilitate Energy Efficiency Measures in Social Housing in Scotland.

RIHAF has taken the decision to commission the first phase of a major piece of research on a Minimum Income Standard for Rural and Remote Scotland, with funds close to be secured for a second phase which would complete the research.

Following the published report on a Minimum Income Standard (MIS) for rural areas in England from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) in November 2010, RIHAF has been working with the JRF and other partners to conduct a similar research project for Scotland.

The research team from Loughborough University, led by Donald Hirsch, visited Scotland last month to meet with interested parties, in Edinburgh and Inverness.

Organisations including Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the SFHA, the CIH and RIHAF itself have committed funds to the project, ensuring the Highlands and Islands phase can go ahead, with funds close to be secured to complete the project for Scotland as a whole.

RIHAF members will be asked to make individual contributions towards this major piece of work, which aims to provide solid evidence of what is already known anecdotally - living in a rural community is more costly than in an urban community.

The published research was carried out by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University and produced successful results. The Minimum Income Standard project is an ongoing programme of research in the UK. The report concluded that the cost of living in rural areas in England was 20% higher than urban areas. RIHAF is keen to see was a similar report undertaken in Scotland.

RIHAF Chair Di Alexander commented:

"RIHAF believes that policy discussions and decisions in Scotland would benefit from the very high quality of the totally independent research evidence which the MIS programme is able to offer. The proposed research has the potential to reshape our understanding of rural and island areas and improve the ways we choose to invest public and private money in them."

Loughborough University submitted its proposal for similar Scottish research to RIHAF at the end of 2011.

East Lothian HA's Chief Executive Martin Pollhammer stated:

"It needs to be a robust academic piece of work, looking at issues across Scotland, and it needs to be updatable. This research has the potential to reshape the way we think about our rural and island areas, and the way we invest in them."

It is intended that the report would be published in 2013.

A downloadable version of the research project is available from the MIS website HERE

The next meeting of RIHAF will take place on 25th June at 11am, at Albyn Housing Society, 68 Maclennan Crescent, Inverness IV3 8DN.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) has indicated a member of staff would be willing to come to the June meeting to give a short presentation on the new complaints procedure and the timescale for implementation.