Zero Emission Taskforce recommendation report: Scottish Government response

Chapter 9 Next steps

This response describes the actions that the Scottish Government has taken, and will take, as a result of the comprehensive recommendations made by ZEST.

We hope that ZEST and the social housing sector in general are encouraged by the actions we have already taken and the commitment to work closely with the sector to deliver, where possible, on the other proposed recommendations and actions.

To facilitate this, we commit to establishing shared governance – between the social housing sector, its representatives, and the Scottish Government – to drive delivery of the ZEST report recommendations.

In the immediate future, we recognise the need to accelerate the review of EESSH2 to ensure alignment with net zero in order to create long-term clarity for the sector.

This will be brought forward to commence this year for completion in 2023. The review of EESSH2 will be taken forward jointly with the sector and will ensure that it supports the gathering pace of decarbonisation, and our guiding principles of a just transition that is fair to everyone and leaves no one behind. The Scottish Government will work with the social housing sector to establish a new EESSH Review Group including a technical steering group to advance the review and support delivery of the ZEST recommendations.

We look forward to collaborating with the sector on this and all commitments in our response.