Question reference: S6W-23255
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 23 November 2023
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Current status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 8 December 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase domestic energy efficiency.
Answer
On 28 November, we launched our consultation on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill alongside the social housing equivalent. This includes proposals to improve the energy efficiency of Scotland’s homes, which will deliver enduring savings on energy bills and helpmeet our climate change targets.
We have a wide range of grant and loan schemes available, and households can contact Home Energy Scotland to access free, bespoke, impartial advice on making their home more energy efficient. Our Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme is open to all domestic owner-occupied households in Scotland and provides grant funding of up to £7,500 for households to install energy efficiency measures. A rural uplift to the energy efficiency grant of up to £1,500 is available as well as up to an additional £7,500 as an interest free loan.
We have also helped over 150,000 households to benefit from warmer homes that are less expensive to heat through our fuel poverty programmes, Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based Schemes. We have recently widened the eligibility criteria to the Warmer Homes Scotland programme, allowing a further 100,000 households to become eligible, and relaunched the programme with a significantly increased maximum contract value of more than £700million over up to seven years.
Furthermore, Registered Social Landlords can apply for grant funding from the Social Housing Net Zero Heat fund for the installation of energy efficiency measures and clean heating that deliver both carbon savings and reduction in fuel bills for their tenants. This includes “Fabric First” enhancements which help make homes easier and cheaper to heat.
Finally, we recently consulted on reforming EPCs to make them a more appropriate source of information about the energy efficiency of a building. This included proposals to introduce a metric based on fabric energy efficiency: Energy Performance Certificate reform consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space . These reforms, if introduced, will help building owners understand the energy efficiency of their property, and the steps they can take to improve it . We plan to respond to the consultation in 2024.