New Build Heat Standard 2024: business and regulatory impact assessment

3. Consultation

3.1 Within Government

20. An internal Scottish Government working group was established and held its first meeting on 23 July 2020. This predominantly involved colleagues from across the Scottish Government's Directorate for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), as well as those responsible for housing and building standards located in the Directorate for Local Government and Housing (DLGH).

21. As we have continued to develop these regulations, members of this internal working group have met with the Heat in Buildings Regulations Unit in DECC on an ad hoc basis to ensure alignment with other policies across government.

22. When necessary, colleagues from other directorates impacted by the proposed changes in this new Standard have been co-opted (as required). Input has also been sought from analysts located in the Chief Economist Directorate.

23. Internal Scottish Government teams have provided input into both public consultations, participated in larger and individual meetings both internally and externally, and have also liaised closely with the regulation development team as potential impacts of the NBHS proposals on other areas within the Scottish Government were scrutinised. This has helped to identify areas of key delivery risks, as well as in ensuring consistency between proposals to regulate new versus existing buildings throughout Scotland.

24. Furthermore, a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) screening was carried out in Spring 2022. This process, involving consultation with NatureScot, Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), and Historic Environment Scotland (HES), concluded that a full SEA was not required. The Scottish Government has continued to engage with HES around the treatment of conversions to historic and traditional buildings within the regulations.

3.2 Public Consultation

25. An initial public scoping consultation to seek stakeholder views on a number of key issues was launched in December 2020 and ran for 12 weeks. 92 responses were received, of which 83 were from businesses and the public sector – with the remaining nine from individuals. An independent analysis of the consultation responses received, undertaken by Why Research, was published October 2021.^[35]

26. Following the initial scoping consultation, a full public consultation on the NBHS was opened 28 July 2022 and closed 20 October 2022.^[36] Independent analysis of the results was commissioned to be undertaken by The Lines Between (TLB), the results from which have been published alongside this BRIA.^[37]

27. During both consultations, a series of public, themed webinars / workshops were held. As part of the scoping consultation workshops, an 'industry' themed workshop was held, where views on the proposals from the building industry and other appropriate businesses across Scotland were sought. The relevant questions identified as part of the Competition Assessment requirements of this BRIA (Section 9) were incorporated into the questions that the attendees were asked. A brief overview of the feedback received is noted in Section 9.

28. In addition to the above public consultations, an external working group was established in May 2020 to provide advice and expertise on the development of the NBHS. This group – independently co-chaired by Professor Lynne Sullivan OBE (Architect, LSA Studio and Chair of the Good Homes Alliance) – met remotely on two occasions in 2020. Scottish Government officials continued to maintain contact with the working group throughout 2021 to keep members informed of progress, and the group met again in May and December 2022. Membership of the external working group is detailed in Table 1.

29. Alongside the above external working group, a non-domestic subgroup was established in the summer of 2020 to explore how the NBHS could apply to, and consequently impact, new non-domestic buildings. This external subgroup met in August 2020, March 2022, and January 2023. Its members are also detailed below in Table 1.

30. Representatives from local authorities were also approached to participate in the main working group.

3.3 Business

31. As part of the Scottish Firms Impact Test (SFIT), a total of 12 businesses spanning multiple sectors which the policy could affect were consulted on a one-to-one manner. The results of the SFIT are discussed later in Section 8.

32. Of the 12 businesses consulted, two could be classed as micro Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs), seven could be classed as regular SMEs, one a large developer, and two international enterprises.

33. While all of these businesses operated throughout Scotland, they were predominantly based across the following areas:

• Aberdeenshire
• Ayrshire
• Edinburgh
• Falkirk
• Glasgow
• Highlands
• Lanarkshire
• Renfrewshire

34. The sectors in which these businesses operated spanned residential and commercial developments, home construction, architectural consulting, energy, heating consulting, and Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) manufacturing.