Current status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 8 October 2015
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the First Minister's statement at Glenboig Community Centre on 14 September 2015, what the annual cost is of the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme; how it calculated the "over half a billion pounds" that it has allocated since 2009 "to make Scotland's homes more energy efficient"; whether it will provide a breakdown of this figure by programme for each year since 2009; whether it will provide a breakdown by (a) local authority and (b) year of the "700,000 households" whose fuel bills have been reduced as a result, and what the average cash saving has been by household.
HEEPS: Warmer Homes Scotland
Warmer Homes Scotland has a contract value of £16-32 million per year with the Scottish Government committed to making at least £16 million available per year. The contract is for five years with the potential to extend to seven years.
Spend on Fuel Poverty since 2009
The following table sets out Scottish Government domestic fuel poverty budgets since 2009. These figures relate to the Scottish Government’s fuel poverty budget line and cover spend against those lines in the financial year. They may not match spend figures in the Home Energy Scotland Outcomes Reports which tie annual budgets to work done and can give a more accurate picture of the outcomes delivered in a given year, but which may have been supported by funding from different financial years.
Domestic Fuel Poverty Budgets By Programmes (£ million)
|
Year |
09-10 |
10-11 |
11-12 |
12-13 |
13-14 |
14-15 |
15-161 |
Total (£ million) |
|
Social Sector Stage 3 |
5 |
3.7 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Central Heating Programme |
14.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Energy Assistance Package: Stage 42 |
31.1 |
44.4 |
39.3 |
33.1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Universal Home Insulation Scheme |
|
9.8 |
13.3 |
23.2 |
|
|
|
|
|
Home Insulation Scheme |
15 |
9.5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Boiler Scrappage Scheme |
|
1.1 |
5.4 |
9 |
|
|
|
|
|
National Retrofit Programme Pathfinders |
|
|
|
1.9 |
|
|
|
|
|
HEEPS: Area Based Schemes |
|
|
|
|
56.6 |
59.9 |
65 |
|
|
HEEPS: Energy Assistance Scheme |
|
|
|
|
11.83 |
16 |
16 |
|
|
HEEPS: Cashback4 |
|
|
|
|
|
14.9 |
15.1 |
|
|
HEEPS: Loans |
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 |
|
|
Advice and Support5 |
|
|
|
|
3 |
3 |
9 |
|
|
Total |
66.3 |
68.5 |
58 |
67.2 |
71.4 |
93.8 |
119.1 |
544.3 |
Breakdown of households assisted
It is not possible to deliver a breakdown of all households assisted by local authority and year. Many of these households received assistance through energy company obligation schemes such as the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP), which were administered by Ofgem. Figures provided by Ofgem indicate that 545,000 dwellings in Scotland received either loft or cavity wall insulation (or both) through CERT6. Ofgem figures also indicate that 23,388 dwellings in Scotland received measures via CESP7. Energy company activity in Scotland was augmented by Scottish Government programmes, with funding designed to attract as much investment north of the border as possible.
Analysis of Scottish Government programmes since 2009 is available by local authority and year and is published on the Energy Saving Trust’s (EST) website here. These figures demonstrate that over 230,000 households received energy efficiency measures through our schemes since 2009. Cumulatively, therefore, since 2008, when CERT and CESP were introduced, over 700,000 thousand households in Scotland have received assistance to improve the energy efficiency of their home.
It is likewise not possible to determine the average cash saving per household as some were assisted through CERT or CESP. We can estimate however that, as a result of measures installed through Scottish Government programmes since 2009, there has been a net gain in household incomes of almost £1.3 billion over the lifetime of the measures installed. This equates to an average saving of £5,529 per household over the lifetime of the measure.
Notes:
1. Figures for 2015-16 are based on budgets rather than outturn.
2. The Energy Assistance Scheme was replaced by Warmer Homes Scotland on 1 September 2015.
3. The final outturn for this year does not reflect the substantial accrual from the Energy Assistance Package which resulted in a total spend of nearly £30 million.
4. HEEPS Cashback was previously Green Homes Cashback and transferred to the fuel poverty budget from the Heat and Energy Efficiency budget in September 2014.
5. The increase in this budget in 2015/16 reflects the transfer of responsibility between directorates within Scottish Government who had previously jointly funded this.
6. http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06196/SN06196.pdf
7. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/58763/cesp-final-report-2013final-300413-pdf
8. More information on this can be found on the EST website here: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/home-energy-efficiency-programmes