Thousands of households have been signing up for greener, lower-carbon homes, with the help of the Scottish Government's £15 million Home Insulation Scheme.

In the opening weeks of the scheme, nearly 20,000 households have received personalised energy saving advice and greener home energy reports.

In addition over 5,500 households have been referred for free or discounted cavity wall or loft insulation.

Households in 10 local authorities are being visited by doorstep energy assessors, offering energy saving advice and encouraging residents to sign up for insulation measures.

As part of the Scottish Government's recent budget, next year, funding for the scheme will be increased from £15 million to £25 million, including £10 million for a new universal access scheme offering free insulation measures to around 90,000 homes.

Visiting a street in Edinburgh today where households are benefiting from the scheme, Housing and Communities Minister Alex Neil said: "Scotland is leading the way on reducing our carbon footprint and introducing modern measures for modern times, to help meet our ambitious climate change targets.

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"By offering householders help with making their homes more energy efficient, people are being given the opportunity to do their bit for the environment.

"Importantly this is helping make homes warmer and reduce fuel bills - we've all been reminded how important this is by the freezing conditions this winter."

Mike Thornton, Director, Scotland, for the Energy Saving Trust said: "Assessors are still contacting householders in the 10 areas in Scotland where the scheme is currently operating and I would encourage everyone to take advantage and see how they could benefit."

Between November 2 and January 3, 19,285 energy reports were completed and 5,572 referrals for loft or cavity wall insulation.

The ten areas to benefit in this the 1st year of the scheme are:

* Stirling - the whole city

* Angus - Brechin and Montrose

* Glasgow - King's Park, Croftfoot, Simshill and Cardonald

* Edinburgh - Craigentinny and Duddingston

* Fife - Leven, Kennoway and Largo

* Dundee - Broughty Ferry

* South Lanarkshire - West Rutherglen

* Highland - Thurso and Fort William

* Western Isles - Lewis and Harris

* Orkney - within parts of Kirkwall and Stromness About cavity wall insulation:

* A third of all the heat lost in an uninsulated home is through the walls

Cavity walls are most likely to be prevalent in homes built from 1920 onwards where the external walls are made of two layers with a small gap or 'cavity', at least 50mm wide, between them. Insulating cavity walls is filling this gap

Homes built in the last 10 years are likely to already have cavity wall insulation.

(GK/BMcC)