Annual Report 2023/24 - Monitoring Progress

The Scottish Islands Data Overview (2023) highlights that Scottish island residents are generally more likely to face fuel poverty than the average Scottish resident. The report refers to the Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019, which found that island and rural local authorities generally had the highest proportion of the least energy efficient dwellings; and that almost two-thirds of rural dwellings are not connected to the gas grid and therefore rely on more expensive heating fuel such as electricity and oil. Other specific rural drivers include a cold and wet climate, a lack of affordable housing and limited access to support services (Changeworks 2023). 

Households in Shetland who do not Earn Enough to have an Acceptable Standard of Living is currently not being tracked; it has been decided that, due to the length of time since the source data was gathered, the data may no longer be valid. As reported on the Shetland Partnership website, Hope et al., (2017) found that based on the MIS**, people in Shetland needed an income of 120% of the UK median (after housing costs) to meet minimum income standards. It was estimated that almost half of people (49%) in Shetland lived in households with an income less than the MIS benchmark income, compared to 36% for Scotland as a whole. In working households, 42% of people in Shetland lived in a household with an income below the MIS threshold compared to 29% across Scotland. More recently, the Rural Scotland Data dashboard shows that while rural areas have lower levels of relative poverty overall, low income households living in rural areas face particular challenges. There is widespread evidence that rural areas, and remote and island communities in particular, experience higher costs of living for some goods and services, such as weekly food costs and fuel.

*The National Islands Plan Survey (2020) used The James Hutton Institute geography framework to group a subset of Scotland’s islands into 9 distinct sub regions. ‘Shetland Mainland’ and ‘Shetland Outer Isles’ are the two groups for Shetland.