The Scottish Government is pledging to make up to £728 million available in the next seven years to help Scots tackle fuel poverty by installing greener heating systems.

Zero carbon buildings minister Patrick Harvie said the Government is "ramping up" support to householders by making the money available through the Warmer Homes Scotland programme.

The scheme, which was set up in 2015, has already helped more than 35,000 older or lower income households to make their homes warmer and more affordable to heat.

Mr Harvie said the Government is now looking to "offer more support per household, allowing us to deliver whole-house retrofit and install more measures in individual properties".

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He added there will be a "focus on climate-friendly heating where this is financially and technically possible".

His comments come after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak watered down the UK Government's plans to phase out gas boilers by 2035, creating an exemption for about a fifth of households to potentially never make the change to alternatives such as heat pumps.

Mr Harvie said the Scottish Government is "ramping up our support and making a long-term investment in helping those in fuel poverty through the energy transition".

He added: "This is an important element of our overall package of support, sitting alongside our grants and loans for heating and energy efficiency, which remain the most generous in the UK.

"We will continue to do all we can within the scope of our powers and budget to tackle poverty and support those in greatest need.

"We are committed to a heat transition that takes people with us and that shows clearly why a rapid shift away from fossil fuels is necessary."

Moving away from equipment such as gas boilers could "liberate people from the insecurity of fossil fuel prices", Mr Harvie said, providing Scots with "warm and healthy homes while tackling fuel poverty and climate breakdown".

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Criticising the Tories at Westminster, he added: "Only 10 days ago the UK Government signalled a significant retreat from steps they could have taken to support changes in home heating and tackle the climate crisis.

"In stark contrast, we are committed to introducing legislation in this parliamentary term and to supporting people through this transition."

Data shows that only 6.4% of homes in Scotland had renewable heating systems fitted - mostly heat pumps - by 2020 against the Scottish Government target of 11%.

Earlier this month the Prime Minister announced that Government-funded grants to replace domestic oil or gas boilers with low carbon technologies such as heat pumps or a biomass boiler will increase from £5000 to £7,500.

However, the PM said households with oil-fired heating systems will be able to buy new boilers until 2035, instead of the original planned cut-off of 2026.

He also confirmed an exemption which means that some households and types of property which would find it particularly difficult to make the switch away from boilers are exempt, stating that heat pumps - which cost around £10,000 up-front - "just won’t make sense with the technology and what we know today”.

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It came as the ban on buying new petrol and diesel cars was also pushed back by five years to 2035, and ongoing question marks over the development of the HS2 rail network designed to increase capacity on north-south routes.

Speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Mr Sunak defended the policies saying the UK has "already decarbonised faster than any other major G7 economy", cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 48.7% between 1990 and 2000.