Budget - Energy Bills and Hosuing
by Emma Jackson, CAS Head of Social Justice.
This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday on 30 November 2025.
As hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland face this winter desperately worried about how to afford the essentials, we all need, it was imperative that this Budget delivered hope to those experiencing the most harm. A Budget where the Chancellor chose to do the right things.
Scrapping the two-child limit was undeniably the right thing to do. A cruel and pernicious policy that has forced families into poverty, it was long overdue to remove this from our social security system. Scrapping this will be transformational for around 20,000 children in Scotland, helping families to break free from poverty.
Ending this will also enable the Scottish Government to further invest in tackling child poverty. The First Minister has already committed to using the money set aside to mitigate this policy – around £155 million – towards the Scottish Governments primary mission of ending child poverty. Really welcome news.
The Citizens Advice network is a core part of Scotland’s anti-poverty infrastructure. Our network of CABs in over 300 locations deliver advice that changes lives, returning almost £170 million into people's pockets last year alone. Investing in advice is a key part of tackling child poverty.
This Budget gave the Chancellor the opportunity to do the right thing in other areas too. The unique evidence from the Citizens Advice network clearly points to what is causing people the most harm; gaping holes in our social security system and broken energy markets. There was a chance to do the right thing on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and a social tariff for energy.
The failure to act on unfreezing the rate of Local Housing Allowance means that a growing number of people will continue to not afford their rent. LHA is a fixed rate for private tenants to help with rent. This rate has been frozen since 2020, yet over the last 5 years rents have risen significantly, forcing people either into arrears or homelessness. The current average rent arears that people seeking advice from their local CAB on is over £4000. Enabling people to afford to remain in their homes would have been the right thing to do.
So, too would have been delivering a social tariff on energy bills. The energy market is broken, with unaffordable costs keeping people in fuel poverty and entrenching debt, with devastating impacts on people's physical and mental health. People like Callum, a father of two young children and a newborn, unable to afford to top up energy meters and buy baby formula, wracked with anxiety and concern for his family's wellbeing.
A social tariff for people on low incomes and those with unavoidable high energy use (namely disabled people) would address the harmful cycles in which thousands of people are trapped. In a just and compassionate society, surely the right thing to do is making sure we can all heat and light our homes?
Our CABs are bracing themselves for another difficult winter, where demand remains high and the complexity of issues people bring greater than ever. The continuing failure of broken energy and social security systems means people are cold, hungry, isolated and overwhelmed.
It doesn't have to be this way. Governments can choose to do the right thing to ensure that we all have enough to live decent and dignified lives.