Swinney campagns in Western Isles

And what I want to do this morning is share one of the key ideas that's going to be in that election manifesto, and it addresses directly the challenges that people face in our society today. And those acute challenges are felt here in the Western Isles by every household. And that's in relation to the cost of energy and the cost of living. One of the things we in our society, we have a whole range of commitments that are fundamental to our society. We believe in the ability of our public services to deliver a health service that's free at the point of need to anyone that requires that service. It's a fundamental building block of our society. We believe in the provision of pensions to people in their old age to make sure they're supported to live life to the full. We believe in Social Security as a safety net for people that face hardship and difficulty. And of course in Scotland we've extended that with the Scottish Child Payment and the range of benefits that we've put in place. We believe in free education, although the SNP has got a particular extra aspect of our commitment to free education because we believe, unlike all the other parties in free university tuition that we've provided for young people from Scotland going to university in in Scotland. So we believe in those fundamental tenets of what should be the rights and the entitlement of people in society. But I think we've got to update that for the 21st century and we've got to update that through what I'm going to call a social tariff, whereby we commit that for people who are elderly, on low incomes or disabled, that they are freed of the excessive burden of energy costs in our society. This community generates a phenomenal amount of renewable energy and will do even more so in the future. Yet this community is wrestling with some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in our country. It is literally unbearable for people the cost of energy, despite the fact that people are this community is producing vast amounts of renewable energy. So what our manifesto will argue for is the establishment of a social tariff on fuel costs whereby, funded by general taxation and also by an obligation on the energy companies, people who are on low incomes, who are disabled and who are elderly will pay a tariff which is lower than the mainstream tariff for energy. Some campaign groups have suggested that that should be at half the tariff level of mainstream energy costs. I think that's a good starting point. So at the heart of our manifesto will be that commitment that we will argue for the delivery of a social tariff funded by general taxation and by the power companies, which will reduce the costs for those who are vulnerable in our society and give them a material contribution to reducing the cost of living. But we've also got to make sure that addresses all the requirements of people for their connection with society. Today, none of us really can operate without connectivity, access to broadband and access to telecoms, the whole, you know, so many public services are delivered by that mechanism as well. So we're going to propose that the social tariff extends also to broadband and and telecoms costs so that people are liberated of the excessive burden and they're able to access public services and they're able to access wider communication society because they have got a tariff that is appropriate for their meeting, their circumstances.