A Just Transition for single parents

The Climate Change and a Just Transition report represents the culmination of consultations conducted by OPFS with single parents accessing local services in Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Falkirk, Dundee, and Edinburgh.

The research sheds light on various pressing issues identified by single parents, in particular concerning the affordability, accessibility, and reliability of public transport, as well as the challenges surrounding awareness and affordability of home energy efficiency measures for low-income families.

The findings will inform and shape the co-design of the Scottish Government plans to achieve a ‘Just Transition’ to net zero, with the aim of ensuring that measures to move to a more sustainable economy are fair and equitable to everyone and built around the needs of single parent families, specifically focusing on the transport sector, as well as the built environment.

The report makes the following recommendations:

Transport:

• Extend free bus travel to everyone receiving Universal Credit and other low-income benefits to remove barriers to work, education and childcare.
• Simplify the process for applying for free bus passes for children easier so that low-income families.
• Make the infrastructure (timetables, regularity and routing) of public transport responsive to families’ needs.
• Improve the accessibility of buses and trains for people getting on and off with wheelchairs, prams, and small children.
• Provide single parent awareness training to public transport staff.
• In the longer term, introduce re-regulation – controlling routes and fares, and fund councils to establish municipal bus services which re-invest profits back into the service and reduce fares.
• Increase investment and awareness raising around affordable ways to access cycling.
• More cycling lanes, spaces on buses and trains for bikes and racks in outdoor spaces for securely storing bikes.
• Offer greater financial support for low-income single parents to trade-in high emission cars.

Housing:

• Prioritise households experiencing fuel poverty in initiatives to improve energy efficiency and in available support such as grants.
• Ensure that low-income single parent families can access support to make these changes at no added cost and support is practical and educational as well as financial.
• Strengthen laws to ensure there is a right to a safe, warm, and affordable home.
• Ensure everyone has access to information on their housing rights and how to get advice.
• Implement plans for 20-minute neighbourhoods, which are likely to be of particular benefit to low-income single parents, who are less likely to have access to a car.

OPFS Chief Executive, Satwat Rehman, said:

“Single parent families are more likely to be living in poverty than couple families. In the long term, they stand to benefit significantly from a transition to Net Zero, given that initiatives to increase use of public transport and energy efficiency can reduce living costs.

“However, many single parents, whether living in social housing or private rented accommodation, face huge barriers to improving their housing conditions and reducing energy usage. Most of the single parents that took part in the research expressed a willingness to contribute to climate action, recognising that making improvements to their home to make it energy efficient is the ideal for the environment and for their families’ health. However, many are living in social housing where it is the responsibility of landlords to improve the quality and energy efficiency of homes.

“When it comes to transport, while most parents agree on the benefits of local access and reliance on public transport, to ensure we make a fair and equitable transition for everyone, we urgently need a transport strategy that addresses poverty, inequality, and environmental sustainability.

“It’s absolutely vital that these changes are implemented in a way that acknowledges and actively addresses the inequalities experienced by single parents and involves them in the delivery of solutions. Failure to do so risks leaving single parent families behind and left worse off than before.”

A single mum and private tenant from Dundee whose landlord has refused to replace the radiators said:

“I have rubbish heating. The storage heating doesn’t heat so we just get extra blankets. I have a thing that you plug in but it’s not safe for my kids. They don’t have the insulation on any of our windows or anything either. So we’ve had people out and they’ve took it further, and if the landlord doesn’t fix it they’re gonna get done or whatever it is that happens. Because that house was not made to use, basically.”

For parents who are mostly using public transport, a key issue was the lack of reliability, especially of buses, which parents said means missing appointments, for example Job Centre Plus mandatory meetings with advisors, creating a barrier to getting into work or accessing a college course.

One single parent to three children said:
“I’m looking for a job just now and I need it to be in the school hours so when I’m looking at a job I’m looking at ‘can I get there and get back in time? Is it gonna be easy for me to get there?’ If I can’t get there on time….I’m not applying for that job, because I can’t do it.”

Single parents who do drive said they would find it very hard to switch to using public transport because they have multiple young children and the process of getting them to school and nursery and wherever they need to be by bus would be too difficult. “I think they’re pushing for the electric cars but that makes is far more expensive than a petrol car so who can afford them? The people that can afford the electric cars are the ones that can afford to run any type of car basically. They’re not making it possible for lower income single parents to afford those type of cars.”