This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Central heating funds announced
24/02/2003
More than 3,000 homes are set to benefit from new central heating systems and improved insulation thanks to a £7.5 million funding package from the Executive for another 12 local authorities in 2003-04.
Des McNulty, Deputy Minister for Social Justice, said:
"Thanks to our free central heating programme, thousands of Scots have benefited from warmer homes, lower fuel bills, fewer damp houses and a reduced threat to health from exposure to cold and damp.
"Already 20 of Scotland's local authorities have completed their programmes to provide central heating to their housing stock without any form of central heating.
"This funding for 2003-04 will enable the remaining 12 local authorities to complete their programmes by March 2004.
"This will mean that 12,000 local authority homes will have received central heating by next year. We are determined to tackle cold and damp houses, cold-related illness and excess winter deaths.
"I am confident that in a few years time the lives of Scotland's most vulnerable households will have been transformed."
The Minister also announced a consultation on the possible widening of the central heating programme to include the upgrading of partial central heating systems in local authority stock.
The aims of the central heating programme are to tackle fuel poverty, improve comfort, reduce CO2 emissions, protect health, protect the condition of the housing stock and provide employment opportunities for those taking part in the New Deal who will help install the insulation measures.
The 12 local authorities receiving the funding for 2003/04 are West Dunbartonshire, South Lanarkshire, Dundee, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, East Ayrshire, Fife, Argyll and Bute, Midlothian, Orkney, Falkirk and Shetland.