The creation of the Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force was the result of an action point arising from the Scottish Housing Event held on 18th November 2014.

One of the action points in the Joint Delivery Plan for Housing in Scotland was for the Scottish Government to set up a specific Task Force with a remit to develop a specific set of actions relevant to rural/remote and off-gas grid properties. 

These actions would feed into the further development of fuel poverty policy and also inform new energy efficiency programmes which would make use of devolved powers resulting from the Scotland Bill.

The committee is chaired by Di Alexander with representation from NHS Western Isles and Tighean Innse Gall. The Task Force is a one year short life working group and works in the spirit of co-production to agree on the issues facing the fuel poor in rural areas and develop a set of SMART actions. The recommendations will be launched in September 2016.