Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES): phase 1 pilots - technical evaluation

6. Delivery planning

For the pilot LHEES, there was a different approach between the various councils but, in general, the following documentation was produced during the development of the LHEES:

• Baseline data report, including policy review and prioritisation, and associated collated data set
• Options appraisal report and associated evaluation spreadsheet
• Outcomes from socio-economic analysis – only for Glasgow and Highland in pilot but would be recommended as an output for future LHEES
• Zoning report
• Implementation plan

These deliverables were supported by various meetings and discussions, including presentations to stakeholders both internal and external to the responsible councils.

The deliverables roughly correspond to the stages of the LHEES set out in section 1.2 and this staged approach has been helpful in understanding how an LHEES might be put together. However, for future LHEES, we would suggest that the process be slightly modified such that it would consist of the following phases:

• Data gathering and collation phase resulting in a collated data set. Provision of a report and spatial imagery is useful to communicate the information to a wider audience and is likely to be important in the democratic process for approving LHEES in the same way as with Local Development Plans.
• Options appraisal phase. This is likely to be the most labour intensive part of the process and the spreadsheet developed in the pilots should be a useful aid to councils looking to carry out this exercise. It is important to understand that during the options appraisal phase, decisions are not being taken – instead, it should be thought of as developing sufficient information in the right format to enable the right strategy to be determined.
• Zoning and area prioritisation. We would suggest that this is best done prior to any socio-economic impact assessment as the information from the area prioritisation is key input data for any multi component analysis that might be carried out.
• Target setting. This was a challenge for many local authorities. At a higher level is the need to reflect national targets, such as those set out in the Climate Change Plan and Energy Strategy. At a very local level targets could be influenced by what could be delivered in terms of buildings under the council's own control (including public buildings, some business estates and council housing), buildings where partnership approaches were considered (such as with social housing) and those where enabling and support was proposed (such as where areas were identified to target housing improvement programmes). Further discussion about target setting with local authorities would seem to be useful to understand approaches and consider guidance.
• Socio-economic analysis. It is inevitable that there will be multiple potential opportunities and measures but that it will only be possible to implement some of them. We consider that socio-economic analysis provides a useful tool to inform which options are implemented in a robust and auditable manner.
• Consultation (potential). Again it is important to consider useful ways to communicate the information to a wider audience and is likely to be important in the democratic process for approving LHEES in the same way as with Local Development Plans.
• Implementation plan. Going forward, we would anticipate that this will effectively be the official LHEES submission should it become a statutory duty.

We would note that whilst the above process is presented sequentially, in reality there will be iteration required in order to produce the best quality LHEES.