The Scottish Government announced £41 million in additional support for people struggling with energy costs in winter 2024/2025, in November 20241. The package included an additional £20 million for the Scottish Welfare Fund and £20 million for Warmer Homes Scotland1.
The announcement came in the same month that the Scottish Government established a social tariff working group, bringing together stakeholders including suppliers and third sector organisations to co-design a deliverable social tariff policy1. The group's final report was shared with the UK Government in March 20251. The Scottish Government has said the report demonstrated cross-sector consensus on targeted support in the form of a discount on energy bills, applied automatically and proportionate to need1.
"In November 2024, the Scottish Government announced £41 million in additional support for people struggling with energy costs in winter 2024/2025"
The £41 million sat alongside wider spending on home energy efficiency. The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme, relaunched in October 2023, was allocated £85 million in financial year 2024/25, described as the scheme's highest budget to date1. The Scottish Government also reported that, as of February 2025, around 46,887 households had received improvements through the Energy Company Obligation, with 2,723 Scottish households having benefited from the Great British Insulation Scheme, 6 per cent of those participating1.
The context for the package is a rising fuel poverty rate. The 2023 Scottish House Condition Survey estimated that 34 per cent of households in Scotland were in fuel poverty, up from 31 per cent in 2022 and 24.6 per cent in 20191. Over the same period the energy efficiency of the housing stock improved, with the percentage of dwellings rated EPC C or higher rising from 45 per cent in 2019 to 56 per cent in 20231. The report states that high fuel prices have been the largest factor influencing fuel poverty rates in recent years1.
The report also notes that in July 2024 the UK Government announced its decision to restrict entitlement to Winter Fuel Payment to those in receipt of Pension Credit and other means-tested benefits from that winter1. Energy markets remain reserved to the UK Government, and the report states that the Scottish Government will continue to work with the UK Government on decisions affecting fuel poor households1.
Why it matters for households
The £41 million is crisis support rather than a change to how homes are heated or powered. The Scottish Welfare Fund element is a cash-based route for households in immediate difficulty, while the Warmer Homes Scotland element funds physical improvements to homes1. For a household, the two routes do different jobs: one addresses a bill that has already arrived, the other addresses the fabric of the property over a longer period.
The wider figures show the limits of that approach. Fuel poverty rose even as the housing stock became more energy efficient, which the report attributes largely to high energy prices1. That points to a distinction households may recognise: a more efficient home still depends on the price of the energy it uses, and prices are set in a market reserved to the UK Government1. The social tariff work is aimed at that second lever, but as of the report it remained a proposal sent to the UK Government rather than a mechanism in force1.
For households in Scotland weighing up what help exists, the routes named in the report are the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme and Warmer Homes Scotland, which operate alongside UK-wide schemes such as the Energy Company Obligation and the Great British Insulation Scheme1. Eligibility for Warmer Homes Scotland and the measures it covers are set out separately from the winter support package1.
What happens next
The social tariff working group's final report and recommendations were sent to the UK Government in March 20251. The Scottish Government has said it remains committed to working with the UK Government, Ofgem, suppliers and consumer organisations to advocate for delivery of the policy across Great Britain1. No date has been reported for a decision on a social tariff. The Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel's upcoming statutory report, covering progress over the past three years, had not been published at the time of the periodic report1.