SMITH TELLS GOVERNMENT, 'SORT OUT CENTRAL HEATING PROGRAMME.'

1.33.00pm GMT Wed 6th Feb 2008

Iain Smith MSP has told the Scottish Government to sort out the unacceptably long delays to the installation of central heating in the homes of elderly people. Writing to the Minister for Communities & Sport, Mr Smith revealed that since May he had received an increasing number of complaints from constituents about long delays in the assessment and installation of their new central heating systems under the government scheme. He said, 'An all-too familiar scenario is when an inspector comes along to look at the existing system, condemns it as unsafe and disconnects it, but there is then a delay of several months before the new system is installed.' He explained that, as many had not been able to arrange adequate alternative heating to tide them over, the result was that several vulnerable pensioners had had to manage with neither heating nor hot water during the coldest time of the year.

Mr Smith continued, 'It is completely unacceptable that elderly people have to sit for months in inadequately heated homes until their new heating can be installed. It is one thing to disconnect a system because it is unsafe and could pose a danger to the occupants but what about the increased risk of hypothermia in the interim? I want to know what measures the Scottish Government proposes to take to rectify this situation so that the time that customers are without a working heating system is minimised.'

ENDS