EXPERTS called on the Scottish government yesterday to use new devolved welfare powers to tackle the shocking number of rural households affected by fuel poverty.

New figures compiled by the Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force found that over half of Scotland’s rural households are living in fuel poverty, rising to 63 per cent in remote areas such as Orkney.

Households are considered to be in fuel poverty if they are spending more than 10 per cent of their income, including benefits, on heating.

However, recent research has shown that more than half of “fuel poor” households would not be classified as “income poor” under this definition.

The task force recommended that a new definition of fuel poverty should be drawn up to ensure help is targeted at those most in need.

They also suggested that rapid action should be taken to deal with Scotland’s poor housing stock.

Scottish Fuel Poverty Strategic Working Group chairman David Sigsworth warned that any new policy “must also go beyond improving energy performance of homes and put equal emphasis on the other three drivers of fuel poverty — income, energy costs and how energy is used in the home.”

He also stressed that revised policies should be “firmly based on the principle of social justice and use new devolved social security powers” in order to tackle the issue.

Scottish government Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said the government is “committed” to tackling fuel poverty and plans to invest half a billion pounds over the next four years to address the problem.