Home Energy Scotland grant and loan scheme: EIR release

Information requested

1. The number of Home Energy Scotland grant applications the financial years 2021-22; 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 (to date)?

2. The number of successful Home Energy Scotland grant applications the financial years 2021-22; 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 (to date)?

3. The number of Home Energy Scotland loan applications the financial years 2021-22; 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 (to date)?

4. The number of successful Home Energy Scotland loan applications the financial years 2021-22; 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 (to date)?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Response to your request:
Please find below the information you have requested up to the most recently reported quarter year.

Due to the years of data requested, the information provided covers both the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme, which launched in November 2022, and its predecessor, the HES Loan and Cashback Scheme.

Applications to the HES Grant and Loan scheme are either for a grant only, loan only, or combination of both depending on the measures and funding amounts applied for. The table below sets out application numbers in these categories. Grant-only funding has only been available since the launch of the HES Grant and Loan scheme in November 2022. Under the previous HES Loan and Cashback scheme, grant funding was only available alongside a loan.

Applications received are allocated to a financial year based on the date received, and successful applications are allocated to a financial year based on the date the application was successful. Therefore the number of successful applications within a financial year should not be viewed as a proportion of applications received in that year.

Total number of applications(1) as at 30 September 2023

	Applications 2020/21	Applications 2021/22	Applications 2022/23
Loan Only	1072	3411	1059
Grant Only	1	714	1191
Combined Grant/Loan	2826	3435	1590
Total	3899	7560	3840

(1) Includes all withdrawn/rejected applications

Total number of successful applications as at 30 September 2023

	2020/21	Applications 2021/22	Applications 2022/23
Loan Only	725	2429	1405
Grant Only	0	281	993
Combined Grant/Loan	2261	2904	1435
Total	2986	5614	3833

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.