At our recent A Perfect Storm: 2026 Update on Fuel Poverty in Rural Scotland launch event in Inverness, we brought together voices from policy, delivery and industry to explore the growing challenge of the deepening inequality in energy affordability across rural and island Scotland.
Rural fuel poverty is not a short-term issue or a series of isolated challenges. It is a structural, system-wide problem affected by both structural drivers and barriers. The most recent evidence demonstrates that rural fuel poverty is getting worse and demands a coordinated response.
The event came off the back of Changeworks recent publication of A Perfect Storm: 2026 Update on Fuel Poverty in Rural Scotland.
Understanding the challenge
29% of households were in fuel poverty in 2024, with 14% in extreme fuel poverty. The current energy crisis and energy market volatility put even more households at risk.
Fewer rural homes use mains gas and a higher proportion use alternative heating fuels (urban vs rural: gas 89% vs 40%, electricity 8% vs 22%, oil 1% vs 28%). Households using electricity for primary heating are disproportionately represented among those in fuel poverty, reflecting higher costs and standing charges.
Households relying on heating oil remain vulnerable to price swings because oil is not covered by the Ofgem price cap.
Rural housing is often older, more exposed and complex to upgrade, and rural geographies increase upgrade costs.
Supply chain limits, skills availability and short-term or disconnected funding cycles limit the reach and efficiency of retrofit and advice programmes. Delays in smart meter rollout in remote areas can restrict access to favourable tariffs.
The event considered the solutions presented in the report, including:
- Address electricity pricing: Progress electricity pricing reform, including decoupling electricity and gas prices, and introducing a social energy tariff to protect vulnerable households.
- Strengthen rural delivery capacity: Expand apprenticeships and sector training and improve access to public procurement for microbusinesses (including group purchasing approaches) to build resilient local supply chains.
- Improve the accessibility of financial support for households: Introduce a rural uplift for flat-rate payments; improve how need is assessed beyond benefit eligibility; and expand devolved scheme eligibility so off-gas households are included by default.
- Commit to sustained retrofit investment: Provide long-term multi-year funding for householder retrofit programmes, supporting fabric-first improvements and appropriate low-carbon heating to achieve lasting bill reductions.
- Align funding cycles for organisations: Align and extend funding cycles for energy advice and retrofit delivery programmes to enable long-term planning and reduce administrative burden for local authorities, housing providers and delivery partners.
- Invest in local energy infrastructure and community benefit: Incentivise investment in rural energy networks with housing providers and local authorities and expand community ownership so rural areas benefit more directly from local renewable generation.
A Perfect Storm: 2026 Update on Fuel Poverty in Rural Scotland
This report provides an update to Changeworks’ 2023 analysis Perfect Storm: Fuel Poverty in Rural Scotland. It draws on:
- The latest Scottish House Condition Survey
- A nationally representative survey commissioned by Changeworks (March 2026)
- A workshop with stakeholders from rural and island areas.
Changeworks’ Affordable Warmth Services team provides assistance and advice to households across Scotland who need support with managing energy costs, with funded projects designed for those living in rural and remote communities. You can refer yourself, or someone you are working with, to the service via our online referral form.
Key messages and takeaways from the event included:
- Scotland will struggle to meet its 2030 and 2040 fuel poverty targets if the current rate of progress continues: Rural and remote communities face a fundamentally difficult energy landscape. Households are often paying more while having fewer options, particularly where electric heating is the only viable choice.
- The fuel poverty challenge does not exist in isolation: Limited infrastructure, higher labour costs and supply chain constraints all contribute to a system that consistently disadvantages rural households.
- Energy affordability is no longer just an energy issue: It cuts across societal challenges affecting health, housing and economic resilience. The effects are becoming more pronounced with impacts across public health inequalities, economic challenges, rural population retention and workforce challenges
- Retrofit and electrification are both key parts of addressing rural fuel poverty: However, the overall investment and running cost of electrification needs to be addressed.
- Funding mechanisms: Mechanisms that are competitive funding based are not effectively supporting a place-based, strategic approach needed to support the challenge at scale across Scotland.
- A full range of technologies also need to be considered: Particularly those that allow communities to take advantage of flexibility in the energy markets around curtailment.
- While the challenges are complex, there are strong examples of what works: Across Scotland, place-based, locally delivered approaches are already making a difference. These include:
- Trusted local organisations offering joined-up support, from energy advice to income maximisation to community engagement
- Regional programmes tailored to local housing and community needs
- Partnership models bringing together local authorities, advice services and community organisations
- Development of a new Fuel Poverty Strategy: The development of a new Fuel Poverty Strategy for the end of 2026 presents an opportunity for key issues such as multi-year funding and rural uplifts, programme delivery timelines and increase the role of local/place-based to be addressed.
- A collective voice to drive proposals is needed: Need to engage with the policy makers to make them understand the reality and scope of the challenge – as well as that there are solutions that can be scaled but require support