Local heat and energy efficiency strategies and delivery plans: guidance

Foreword

Scotland has ambitious plans to transform its buildings. The Scottish Government's Heat in Buildings Strategy makes clear the need to ensure that, by 2045, our homes and buildings no longer contribute to climate change, while also tackling fuel poverty. This means that our schools, hospitals, libraries, homes and businesses will need to improve their energy efficiency and install zero emissions heating. This will be immensely challenging, requiring action from all of us, right across society and the economy.

Delivering this transformation will require concerted effort across national and local government, as well as the wider public and private sectors. Locally-led planning will be key to ensuring that the decarbonisation of heat in buildings is delivered in a way that is relevant to local contexts and tailored to the specific needs of communities. It will also need a strategic approach to allow delivery on a large scale.

Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies will be the principal mechanism for this locally-led heat planning. They will support local planning, coordination and delivery of the heat transition across communities in Scotland.

The development of Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) has required close cooperation between the Scottish Government and local authorities. We would like to express our gratitude to all those who took part in the pilot programme, which involved all 32 Scottish local authorities and was an exemplar of partnership working between national and local government.

Local Government has an absolutely critical role to play in the transformation of Scotland's building stock to deliver net zero. This Guidance, developed in response to the LHEES Order, is the culmination of the pilot programme and its outputs. It will ensure consistent, comprehensive coverage of Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies across Scotland, and enable local planning, coordination and delivery of the decarbonisation of Scotland's homes and buildings.

We would like to thank local authorities for their work so far and still to come as they develop their LHEES, and which will help achieve our ambition to decarbonise Scotland's buildings.

Councillor Gail Macgregor

COSLA Spokesperson for Environment and Economy

Patrick Harvie MSP

Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights