SNP give cold comfort to Highlands and islands pensioners this winter.

Government challenged on delivery of central heating target

The SNP Government has presided over a doubling in waiting times for pensioners to get central heating systems over the last nine months across Scotland.

The Highlands and Islands is worst affected with an average of 66% of pensioners waiting for more than three months to get their free central heating installed.

However, in some areas this is worse – with 75% of people in the North and Orkney being left waiting.

When Labour left government the average waiting time was 114 days.

This has now more than doubled to 229 days under First Minister Alex Salmond’s leadership.

Also, the number of pensioners waiting for more than three months that was just over 1000 under Labour has now grown to over 6500 under the SNP.

Rhoda Grant, Highlands and Islands Labour MSP, said: "The SNP is letting down pensioners in the Highlands and Islands with their woeful handling of the free central heating scheme.

"The waiting time for heating installations has doubled and thousands of Scottish pensioners will spend February freezing because of Alex Salmond's failure. This is totally unacceptable.

"The SNP told pensioners in Scotland that the scheme would improve. The reality is that things are becoming worse.

"The First Minster offers cold comfort to Scottish pensioners and the fact that the number of senior citizens waiting more than three months has gone up is shameful.

"Back in November, the SNP said that they would ensure that 15,000 new heating systems were in place by the end of March.

"At the end of December just over 8000 had been completed.

"Highlands and Islands pensioners expect action on this issue.

"Too many of them this winter have been let down by the SNP’s failure to do what they said they would."

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