Scottish Gas has pledged to speed up delivery of central heating systems in remote island communities.

All applicants in the Western Isles, Orkney, and Shetland who had been waiting four months or more as at November 30, 2008 will receive a central heating system by the end of March 2009.

The Scottish Government will also work with Scottish Gas to identify ways to improve the level of service being provided.

Speaking ahead of a meeting with representatives from the Energy Saving Scotland Advice Centre in Stornoway, Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell said: "Scottish Gas has given a commitment to improve the quality of the service being provided to island and other rural communities, and I expect them to deliver.

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"Although there are particular difficulties carrying out the programme in the island and rural areas, I expect the Managing Agent to rise to the challenge and give these areas the attention needed to ensure fair service delivery across the country.

"An additional £10m has been allocated to the Central Heating Programme for this year so more fuel poor house households can be helped. This brings the total for fuel poverty programmes in 2008/09 to £54m."

From April 2009 the Central Heating and Warm Deal Programmes will be replaced with an Energy Assistance Package - a one stop shop providing a holistic approach to tackling fuel poverty through energy efficiency and energy tariff advice, a benefits and tax credit check, and physical measures to improve the energy performance of the home.

(GK/JM)