Context
The MP highlighted the disparity between energy costs for rural residents using locally generated renewable electricity compared to city dwellers using imported high-carbon gas. He cited constituents in Skye who are paying significantly more despite looking at wind turbines.
Question
Will the Minister acknowledge the unfairness that my constituents in Skye, and indeed people all across rural Scotland and rural Great Britain, are paying four times as much to heat their houses using locally generated renewable electricity—often while looking at wind turbines outside their windows—than those in cities who heat their houses using imported high-carbon gas, which is largely due to the fact that the environmental tariffs fall wrongly on the renewables and not on the carbon fuel gas?
Answer from The Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr Douglas Alexander)
Communities can feel tangible benefits, but those community benefits are largely voluntary at the moment. The hon. Gentleman makes an important point; that is why this Government are considering mandating the provision of community benefit funds for low-carbon energy infrastructure across the United Kingdom. We will have more to say in our plans when they are set out later this year.
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