Shetland Islands Council leader Gary Robinson has backed calls for energy giant SSE to explain why consumers in the highlands and islands pay a higher tariff for electricity than consumers in the rest of the country.
The issue has been raised by a group in the Western Isles calling for action on fuel poverty.
It is seeking Scottish Government support for its campaign to get SSE to remove a “completely unacceptable” 2p per unit surcharge applied to customers in the region.
The group has written to SSE for an explanation, and created an online petition to have the charge removed with immediate effect. Representatives of the Western Isles’ local authority are due to meet the company this week.
Mr Robinson said yesterday: “I’m appalled that SSE should believe it was acceptable to charge its customers in the highlands and islands 2p per unit more for their electricity.
“Fuel poverty is one of the most serious issues affecting people living in the region, and this flies in the face of any notion of a universal service or parity. SSE must act to redress this unfair situation as soon as possible.”
Earlier this year a report suggested that more than 40% of islanders, and two thirds of the elderly, are living in fuel poverty – defined as spending 10% or more of the household budget on energy costs.
An SSE spokesman said the charges “are set by the distribution network operators and all suppliers factor these into their energy tariffs”.
He said the tariff did not single out the highlands and islands because customers in areas including Dundee, Perth, Inverness, North Wales and Merseyside paid the same rate.
“SSE favours replacing this regional variation with one national charge across Great Britain and has raised this with the competition and markets authority as one way to simplify customers’ bills,” the spokesman added.