MORE than one-quarter of Scottish homes were living in fuel poverty last year, official statistics show.

Energy costs took up more than 10% of household income in around 647,000 homes (27.1% of all households), according to the latest Scottish House Condition Survey.

The figure has improved since October 2011, when around 721,000 homes were fuel poor.

The number of houses in extreme fuel poverty -where energy bills were more than a fifth of family income - was around 170,000. The proportion has dropped only slightly since 2011, down from 8% to 7.1%.