The Sustainable Scotland Network

Published September 2023

By 2026, all new homes delivered by Registered Social Landlords and local authorities will be zero direct emissions (Heat in Buildings Strategy). This will involve fitting zero emissions heating systems ahead of the 2024 regulations coming into force.
By December 2032, the social rented housing sector should achieve an EPC rating B in all buildings. (By 2033, all residential buildings should reach the equivalent of an EPC C rating, an increase of around 1.4 million homes.)
No social housing below EPC Band D should be re-let from December 2025, subject to temporary specified exemptions.
By 2035, poor energy efficiency has been removed as a driver of fuel poverty and make homes more affordable to heat. The Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019 requires that by 2040, no more than 5% of households in Scotland are in fuel poverty and no more than 1% of households are in extreme fuel poverty.

Under section 44 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 public bodies must fulfil their duties to ensure the delivery of their functions is undertaken in the best calculated way to contribute towards meeting Scotland’s climate change targets.
Table 1 on page 12 of the Net Zero: Local Authority Powers report summarises the duties (and supporting legislation) of local authorities regarding energy efficiency building standards.

The Energy Efficiency Standards for Social Housing (EESSH) (Mar 2014). More recent interim guidance for social landlords was published in 2022, this will be later superseded by EESSH2 in mid-2023.
Housing to 2040 action plan (Mar 2021) - Scotland’s first long-term housing strategy - details the route map to improve energy efficiency and use decarbonised heating in new and existing homes. This is relevant to Social Housing, especially part 3 of chapter 3 “Affordable warmth and zero emissions home.”
Tackling Fuel poverty in Scotland: A Strategic Approach (Dec 2021) recognises the role energy efficiency and low-carbon heat play in tackling fuel poverty. This strategy sets out policies and proposals for national government, local authorities and third sector partners to help meet the targets set out in the Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019.
The Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (see SSN webpage) will support local authorities and housing associations in targeting the deployment of zero emissions heating (including heat pumps) and energy efficiency measures for social rented properties.

A second Energy Efficiency Standards for Social Housing milestone (EESSH2) was confirmed in June 2019, for social rented houses to meet by December 2032. The government’s EESSH2 Review Group began reviewing these regulations in 2022 to align them with wider net zero requirements with emphasis on a Fabric First Approach, this is expected to be completed mid-2023.
The government is currently consulting on reforming the assessment process and metrics underpinning domestic Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) to improve accuracy and credibility alongside wider consultation on Regulations for Energy Efficiency Standards This is to ensure that standards are effective and meet the demands of both climate change targets and fuel poverty targets and aligns with the conclusions of a review of EPCs for domestic and non-domestic properties (Feb 2019).
A new Housing Standard which will be aligned to standards for energy efficiency and heating is to be consulted on, following this, and subject to the outcome of the election, the Scottish Government will publish a draft the Standard in 2023 and introduce legislation in 2024-25, for phased introduction between 2025 and 2030.
Following recommendations made by the NZET in their 2021 report, the Scottish Government is commissioning research to review key archetypes and solutions within the social housing stock in Scotland.