Heat in buildings monitoring and evaluation Framework

4. Activities (policy and delivery)

The Scottish Government is engaged in a broad range of policy and delivery activities, in key areas that will collectively support the heat transition in line with our outcomes and emissions reduction targets. We most recently provided an update on progress in these areas in our annual Heat in Buildings Strategy progress report^[21].

4.1 Activities: delivery schemes

We already offer a broad range of delivery and advice services to support households and businesses across Scotland to improve the energy efficiency of their properties and move to clean heating systems. These schemes feed directly into the progress of all three outcomes of this Framework, albeit we recognise that these are not the only drivers of homes and businesses installing clean heating systems and energy efficiency measures. As well as driving more installations of energy efficiency measures and clean heat, and helping to stimulate market demand, many of our schemes act as a gateway to households in fuel poverty receiving longer-term, sustainable support. We are therefore committed to continuing to deliver these schemes using our devolved powers to help address the relevant drivers of fuel poverty. We summarise these schemes in Annex B.

4.1.1 Type: funding schemes – energy efficiency, clean heat and microgeneration:

Proposed indicator: number of improvement measures^[22] supported across all delivery schemes by sector during the last year:

• domestic –social rented sector
• domestic – owner-occupier
• domestic – private rented sector
• non-domestic – small medium sized business (SME)
• non-domestic – public sector

Data source: Scottish Government delivery scheme data

Unit: number of measures

Description:

• We will report on the measures installed under our schemes, including specifically the number of insulation/other energy efficiency measures and clean heating system installations for the previous financial year across all our delivery schemes.
• We will report both on the number of households supported and the number and type of measures installed.
• We will split out our reporting by the different tenures, in line with the structure of our schemes: domestic (social rented sector, owner-occupied, private rented sector) and non-domestic (SME and public sector).
• As described above, while reporting on the number of energy efficiency measures and clean heating systems installed through delivery schemes gives some indication of progress against our outcomes, we recognise that it is not the only driver behind people and businesses making changes to their buildings. We also recognise that this indicator does not measure the capacity of heat pumps, and therefore the amount of gas replaced across the building stock, or the direct impact of installing measures on the number of homes/properties to achieving a suitable energy efficiency rating. However, we will continue to explore ways to better measure and reflect progress against our strategy's outcomes.

4.1.2 Type: heat network support

Proposed indicator: new pre-capital support projects in previous year

Data source: data collected directly by Scottish Government and delivery partners

Unit: number of projects

Proposed indicator: new capital support projects in previous year

Data source: data collected directly by Scottish Government and delivery partners

Unit: number of projects

Description:

• Given the longer lead-in times and investment required to develop heat networks, providing support to early-stage projects is critical to the rollout of heat networks across Scotland.
• We will track the number of new capital and pre-capital support projects each year to indicate the number of projects receiving advice, guidance and funding in the pre-capital stage of heat network development from the Scottish Government.

4.1.3 Type: Scottish Government investment

Proposed indicator: Scottish Government funding for the previous year (actual spend) on all schemes that support installation of energy efficiency measures and clean heating systems across domestic and non-domestic properties and the development of heat networks. This will be broken down by scheme and identify both capital and revenue funding.

Data source: Scottish Government delivery schemes

Unit: £

Description:

• As agreed in the Bute House Agreement^[23], we have committed to invest £1.8 billion over the course of this parliamentary session towards heat and energy efficiency measures:
  • at least £465 million to support those least able to pay, delivered through our Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based schemes,
  • £300 million for Scotland's Heat Network Fund,
  • £200 million Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund, investing in a sector already leading the way in the heat transition,
  • £200 million Scottish Green Public Sector Estate Scheme, supporting leadership for energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation right across the public sector.
• We will report annually on spend across our delivery schemes and how this breaks down per sector.

4.1.4 Type: advice services

Proposed indicator: number of unique households supported by Home Energy Scotland (HES) advice service

Data source: Scottish Government advice service

Unit: number of unique households

Proposed indicators: number of SMEs supported by Business Energy Scotland (BES) advice service and number of energy assessment reports completed by BES

Data source: Scottish Government advice service

Unit: number of SMEs/number of energy assessment reports

Proposed indicator: advice and referral services investment

Data source: Scottish Government advice service

Unit: £

Description:

• The Scottish Government provides a range of different types of advisory support via Energy Saving Trust who administer and deliver the Home Energy Scotland (HES) and Business Energy Scotland (BES) advice services on our behalf.
• We will track the annual number of unique households supported by HES, the number of SMEs supported by BES, as well as the number of energy assessment reports conducted by BES for SMEs in Scotland.
• Within the services there are a number of specialist advice offerings available. In the future, we may seek to provide further detail on the split between different types of advice offered.

4.2 Activities: other policy and delivery work

Using our devolved powers, we are also working on developing a range of policy and regulation to help unlock progress in Scotland's heat transition. This policy and regulatory approach reflects some of the main barriers to the heat transition identified during the analysis of the responses^[24] to our consultation on the Heat in Buildings Strategy. The latest overview of developments in these areas is summarised in our annual Heat in Buildings Strategy progress report ^[25],, and includes:

• Introducing a regulatory framework to scale up the deployment of clean heating systems and energy efficiency measures:
  • Regulating for clean heat and energy efficiency improvements in existing buildings
  • Reviewing our social housing standards to align with our net zero targets
  • Reforming EPCs to support the transition to net zero
• Working with UK Government and local government
  • Engaging closely with local authorities on their LHEES
  • Working with the UK Government on key heat in buildings policies
• Providing support for skills and the supply chain to enable the growth needed in the green heat sector to meet our climate targets
• Developing our approach to increasing public awareness and engagement with the heat transition
• Exploring solutions to deliver the significant increase in private finance needed for the heat transition, alongside the Scottish Government's delivery and advice schemes
• Developing a regulatory regime for heat networks to meet the statutory requirements of the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021.

Proposed indicator: qualitative update on developments over the last year

Data source: Scottish Government officials

Unit: N/A

Description:

• We plan to provide a qualitative update on progress against these key policy and regulatory areas of the Heat in Buildings Strategy. We intend to do this in a similar way to our reporting in the annual Heat in Buildings Strategy progress report.

Conclusion

Future improvements

We would welcome views from stakeholders on the Framework and how we can improve it, including where we might access further sources of data. We will also explore options for publishing the data on a web-based interface. Please provide feedback to heatinbuildings@gov.scot.

Data gaps and updates to indicators

We intend for this Framework to evolve as we make progress against our Heat in Buildings Strategy. As such, we will review the indicators we use, and adapt them as needed. We will also ensure that gaps in data are kept under review. We will fill these gaps where we can with new sources of data (when available), or with suitable proxies. If existing data sources are superseded by more suitable alternatives, we will consider how to use these.