�1m to warm impoverished children

The new ScottishPower fund will help alleviate fuel poverty

Scottish Power has launched a �1m fuel fund aimed at helping the country's impoverished children find warmth.

There are an estimated 28,000 homes with youngsters across Scotland whose householders cannot afford to pay to heat them properly.

Cash from the Scottish Power Energy People Trust will be used to help ease the discomfort, ill-health and debt caused by fuel poverty, the firm said.

The money will help young people and homes with children pay for heating.

Trust officials will invite appropriate organisations to apply for funds to help them provide support when it is most needed.

Day-to-day operations will be overseen by ScottishPower's head of external business and community relations, Ann Loughrey.

We welcome any scheme designed to alleviate the misery that fuel poverty causes and hope it will reach those children and young people in Scotland Eddie Folan Children in Scotland

She said: "Many agencies we talk to believe that support for children and young people is an area outwith the scope of current grant schemes for the fuel poor.

"We see the trust offering direct funds for agencies helping vulnerable and disadvantaged young people, who are leaving care and setting up home for the first time, or women and children requiring emergency housing and short-term help with bills."

A board of independent trustees will run the new body with its money accessed through projects specifically targeted at combating fuel poverty.

Eddie Folan, of Children in Scotland, said: "We welcome any scheme designed to alleviate the misery that fuel poverty causes and hope it will reach those children and young people in Scotland."

The director of Energy Action Scotland, Norman Kerr, added: "We are very pleased to learn of this initiative.

"It is especially important as it supports low income households with children who are at particular risk of fuel poverty."

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