Question reference: S6W-10123
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 2 August 2022
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Current status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 25 August 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it chose 2024 as the proposed date from which the use of direct emissions heating systems, such as those run on fossil fuel, in new build properties will be banned, whether it has carried out research on any potential impact of such a date on builders who have pre-ordered such fossil-fuel heating, and, if so, what it anticipates that impact will be.
Answer
The Scottish Government is introducing the New Build Heat Standard from 2024 in direct response to the recommendation of the Committee on Climate Change on how to meet the net zero legal obligations legislated for by the Scottish Parliament.
Within the 2019 UK housing: Fit for the future? publication, the Committee on Climate Change recommended that “from 2025 at the latest, no new homes should be connected to the gas grid. They should instead be heated through low carbon sources”. A copy of this report can be found here: UK housing: Fit for the future? - Climate Change Committee (theccc.org.uk)
In a subsequent letter to the UK Government , the CCC recommended that: “The full definition of the Future Homes Standard should be set now and legislated ahead of 2024 to give market certainty. Waiting until 2024 to legislate is likely to drive up compliance costs in the long run, given the history of the cancelled Zero Carbon Homes policy which left many investments stranded and weakened industry confidence. We also urge you to consider bringing forward the 2025 introduction date - we note that Scotland are due to introduce equivalent standards a year earlier.”
We initially announced our intention to regulate new build heating systems in September 2019, five years in advance of the regulations coming into force, and we are actively working with the construction sector to inform the development of these new regulations – including through establishment of an external working group, membership of which includes trade bodies representing Scottish and UK house builders.
That five year prior notification has given the construction sector significant time in which to plan for these new regulations coming into force. It is longer than the three year duration of a building warrant - meaning that no builder could have pre-ordered fossil fuel heating for an active or planned building warrant without being aware of the proposed prohibition on fossil fuel heating systems in new buildings applying from 2024.