A million-pound fund to help Aberdeen residents hardest hit by fuel poverty won’t pay out before the autumn, despite pleas to hand the money out “as soon as possible”.
During a heated meeting, calls were issued to deploy the cash urgently as foodbank use multiplies amid the crippling cost of living crisis.
But the SNP/Lib Dem administration instead voted to reconsider the matter next month, when the wider problem will be debated.
Calling for immediate progress, Labour said rising prices posed a “significant and immediate challenge” to thousands in the city.
The SNP argued that waiting until October would mean families have access to the money when “bigger bills” are anticipated.
Labour ‘very much disappointed’ in delay
Following the vote, Labour’s Ross Grant tweeted he was “very much disappointed”.
The Tillydrone, Seaton and Old Aberdeen councillor added: “We can and should be acting now.”
The money was first put aside in March when his party and the Conservatives were in charge.
Very much disappointed that @AberdeenLabour amendment to press ahead with our £1million fuel poverty fund, set up by the previous labour led @AberdeenCC, as urgently as possible was rejected by the ruling SNP/Lib Dem administration.
— Ross Grant (@RossGrant12) July 13, 2022
At Wednesday’s meeting, SNP Councillor Christian Allard outlined the need to hold off.
He said: “I would agree with Councillor Grant that it is immediate – it is so, so important that we do something because October is coming and it is coming fast.
“We are getting ready for October when the biggest bill is going to come.”
The energy price cap is projected to rise by 46% rise in the autumn, with council officers fearing a major increase in fuel poverty.
George Street and Harbour councillor Michael Hutchison said he could see the dire consequences of the crisis playing out in his ward.
The SNP member told the chamber: “It’s 19C in the city today, we’ve had 17 hours of daylight today, and there are people in the city wondering how they are going to pay their electricity and gas bills.
“When I was at Froghall Community Centre last week, I saw that what had been just a few short months ago a community fridge has now expanded to a local foodbank.
“It’s taking up the main lobby of that building. It’s increased dramatically because the demand for that foodbank has increased dramatically.”
The foodbank told us they are normally visited by around 25 families a day, but 34 filed through their doors on the day of the council vote.
UK fuel poverty fund in Aberdeen and north ruled out by Sunak
And additional assistance is unlikely to come from Westminster.
Last month, then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak ruled out any localised help from the UK Government for people in the north and north-east, who pay far above average for their fuel bills.
Mr Sunak, who is running to become the next prime minister, told the P&J that “most people” had acknowledged the help already on offer was a “generous and significant sum, commensurate with the challenge faced”.
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