Taking action on cost emergency

12 Aug 2022 10:51 AM

Scottish Government Resilience Room convened.

The First Minister has chaired the Scottish Government Resilience Committee (August 11) to discuss urgent steps to mitigate the growing cost emergency which is affecting people and businesses.

Ministers assessed the current situation and likely scenarios in the months ahead and agreed a number of immediate actions. The Scottish Government will:

The Resilience Committee will meet on a weekly basis for the foreseeable future to oversee and direct progress on these immediate actions and keep under ongoing review any further steps that the Scottish Government can take.

In addition to doing everything possible within its powers, the Scottish Government is renewing its call for urgent and substantial action from the UK Government including:

The First Minister yesterday said:

“It is clear that the UK currently faces a rapidly escalating emergency that goes beyond simply the cost of living and is now a more general cost of everything crisis. This emergency may be of a different nature to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is on a similar scale.

“In the absence of substantial and urgent action, this emergency will cause acute deprivation and suffering. It will affect access to practical necessities for millions of people across the UK. Bluntly, it will cost lives.

“To illustrate the severity of the situation, the Scottish Government estimates that, even with current UK Government mitigations, at least 700,000 households in Scotland - 30% of all households - will be living in extreme fuel poverty by October. That number could be even higher, if the Ofgem price cap for October 2022 is above £2,800. 

“It is essential, therefore, that the response from government at every level is commensurate, in scale and speed, to the nature and magnitude of the emergency.

“In developing a response, governments must first and foremost address immediate need. We must all focus on supporting individuals, businesses and jobs by addressing the principal root causes of the problem.

“Scottish Ministers are clear that the powers and resources needed to tackle this emergency on the scale required - access to borrowing, welfare, VAT on fuel, taxation of windfall profits, regulation of the energy market - lie with the UK Government. This is reflected in the actions we have proposed and set out today.

“At the same time, the Scottish Government will continue to do everything within our resources and powers to help those most affected.”