Power play to 'decimate' energy bills
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A MAN with a plan to slash people’s energy bills reckons he can also help regenerate the Highland economy in the process.
David Morrison cut the ribbon on his Energy Saving Store in Dingwall with the help of local MP Ian Blackford, who hailed his “fantastic vision”.
Mr Morrison, an energy efficiency advocate, said: “We are fed up with people not having any spending money. I reckon that is emptying the High Street as well – people don’t have surplus cash. The motto outside is let me MOT your home – you do it for a car, they check the engine, they check the lights, so let us do it for your house, find out what is wrong, find out how to get some money to support you to do it and fix it once and for all.”
By helping people tap available streams of funding, he believes he can also provide a boost for local trades needed to carry out the work.
“I want to bring local employment to the area, employ local people, contractors, roofers, electricians, plumbers them all.
“The biggest selling point is that people don’t know about the thousands available in Scottish Government support. If you let them know about that then and they will say ‘how can I get some of that?’”
He said: “Fix the house, fix the bills, the people are happier, they don’t have to go to hospital because maybe they got ill and maybe the NHS saves some money too.”
The business offers services and products to maximise energy efficiency, including a home MOT to check how money can be saved and then providing the homeowner with not just the products but advice on how to access government funding to meet targets.
He believes the one-stop-shop will prove a winner and already has plans for a second.
Mr Blackford said: “To see the vision come into reality is really quite fantastic. This is very much needed not just in Dingwall but right throughout the Highlands.
“We know that the harsh reality is that for far too many people in the Highlands – we all know it as politicians, as MPs, as councillors – that fuel poverty is a real issue, an absolute scandal, a disgrace.
“It’s not helped by the surcharge on electricity that we all pay in the Highlands and we are all against but the kind of initiative that you have here is a real demonstration of the kind of opportunities that people have to make sure that they can cut their expenditure of energy and have more left in their pocket to spend.”
