Heat Pump Sector Deal Expert Advisory Group: Scottish Government response

Recommendation 3

The Scottish Government should commit to tracking heat pump targets in its own programmes.

Scottish Government Response

As set out in our Heat in Buildings Strategy, we are committed to developing a monitoring and evaluation framework to monitor our progress against the objectives set out in the Strategy. We aim to create a framework that is robust, independent, thorough and long term and which covers homes, work places, public sector buildings and other non-domestic buildings.

We will also build in evaluation to our delivery programmes, such as Warmer Homes Scotland, Area Based Schemes, the replacement to the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme and CARES.

The Scottish Government provides support for the deployment of heat pumps through a range of programmes, many of which are demand-led. However, it is important to ensure that our programmes deliver the best solution for each building and this may include other forms of zero emissions heating and energy efficiency measures. Additionally, in our Heat in Buildings Strategy we commit to only taking forward actions where they are found to have no detrimental impact on fuel poverty rates.

In order to ensure that we deliver the most appropriate solution for each building and protect those experiencing or at risk of fuel poverty, it would not be appropriate to commit to heat pump deployment targets within our programmes as outlined in the EAG's wider recommendation. However, we continue to support and encourage the deployment of zero emissions heating, including heat pumps, though our programmes.

Area Based Schemes

Area Based Schemes (ABS) follow a `whole house' approach to retrofit that focuses upon fabric first but includes support for zero/low carbon heating and microgeneration where it is both technically feasible and reduces energy bills. We anticipate that ABS funding will continue to support an expansion in the number of heat pumps being installed each year, particularly in off gas areas. However, heat pumps may not always be the best solution for every property.

Warmer Homes Scotland

The Warmer Homes Scotland scheme is voluntary and demand-led. The scheme takes a "zero emissions heating first" approach, which has seen increasing numbers of heat pumps installed, and we continue to encourage this as much as possible. By increasing the per-property funding levels to support these more expensive interventions and removing funding for oil and LPG boilers we have increased the number of heat pumps deployed.

The successor to Warmer Homes Scotland aims to increase the number of heat pumps (and other zero carbon heating) by taking a whole house fabric first approach to reduce heat demand and make the installation of ZEH feasible. To support this, grant levels will increase from the current scheme, so more customers will be able to access fully grant funded major insulation measures e.g. solid wall insulation.

Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH)

The Social Housing Sector will play a key role in the decarbonisation of Scotland's homes and has shown strong leadership on improving fabric energy efficiency, which has supported tenants to reduce their energy bills, and contributed carbon savings. This early leadership puts the sector in a position to champion and rollout zero emission heat measures, such as heat pumps.

Until now, the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) has been in place to remove poor energy efficiency as a driver for fuel poverty and contribute to achieving the Scottish Government's ambitious climate change targets. EESSH could be met through a combination of energy efficiency measures and heating control and system measures, meaning it did not require the installation of zero emission heating systems. To better align Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing 2 with the target for net zero heat in houses from 2040 we have commenced a review of the standard this year for completion in 2023.