Improving home energy efficiency - retrofit assessment review: policy report

Recommendations

Core Functions

HEETSA assessments must ensure that all recommended measures are ‘no regrets’ solutions that result in no detriment to properties, do not result in measures needing to be removed as part of future upgrades, and do not risk negative impacts on thermal comfort and occupant health, or higher energy bills. Rather than assuming a linear retrofit path, the design of HEETSA retrofit journeys should encompass a full range of implementable options through which an optimal critical path can be plotted.

HEETSA needs to become a standardised approach that allows for general, comparative assessments but can also accommodate the complexities of historic and traditional buildings with consideration of location specific environmental differences and climatic predictions.

HEETSA recommendations should be based, at least in part, on the results of on-site inspections by suitably accredited professionals, including invasive inspections where appropriate. In some cases, such as where connection to district or communal heating is being considered, there may be a need for multiple accredited professionals to be involved in the inspection and assessment process.

HEETSA recommendations should also take into account the circumstances and needs of occupants by including interviews with householders as part of designing retrofit projects. We note that many reputable surveyors already do this, so it should become a mandatory element of a HEETSA retrofit journey.

Retrofit Assessors should be independent and regulated to ensure unbiased recommendations tailored to each property’s needs rather than commercial interests, and to safeguard consumers by ensuring assessors are sufficiently skilled to produce high quality retrofit plans.

We recommend that the Scottish Government continues to review and improve the range of retrofit advice services being provided to Scottish property owners to ensure that proposed improvements are clearly appropriate and impactful in the medium and longer term. In particular, such reviews should seek to eliminate any potential bias in HEETSA recommendations due to factors such as the availability (or not) of subsidies, especially where such subsidies are administered through advisory services or installers, or where service providers have financial relationships with installers or manufacturers.

Heat networks (HN), strategic acknowledgment and policy-level integration - HEETSA assessments should note the potential for district and communal renewable heating systems, even if they are not directly within HEETSA’s current scope at individual property level. It may be easier to identify HN potential where properties are part of a community of properties in close proximity. This allows the Scottish Government and stakeholders to use HEETSA data to identify communities with the greatest need and potential benefit for such systems.

Heat Network (HN), operational coordination and avoidance of suboptimal solutions - Those involved in HEETSA retrofit projects should periodically consult with local authorities to stay informed about ongoing or planned communal heating projects and thereby avoid recommending less effective individual heating measures.

Context (optimal environment)

Fundamentally, HEETSA should be based on a maintenance first principle that ensures HEETSA assessments work to bring all Scottish properties up to good standard of condition, in order to remediate problems before they become more serious and costly, and to maximise occupant comfort and the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures.

We also recommend further stakeholder consultation to clarify the role of assessors in the HEETSA model.

The introduction of new regulations needs to be sensitive to both the implications of delivering poor-quality retrofit projects and the current, substantial, skills shortages. In the immediate term, regulation should focus on the critical role of the Retrofit Assessor and consumer protection. However, in the longer term, the Scottish Government should commit to ensuring all elements of the HEETSA process are fully regulated, whether this falls under reserved or devolved powers.

The Consumer Journey

There is an urgent need to address the lack of trust amongst householders when it comes to retrofit projects, which has resulted from, amongst other issues, poor (sometimes detrimental) advice from advisory services, poor and costly installations of measures, and cowboy operators. Coupled with the range of qualifications and accreditations applicable to those involved in retrofit projects, this has also resulted in a lack of respect for and understanding of the benefits of seeking advice from and employing suitably qualified professionals. This, in part, should be addressed through awareness raising and ensuring that training programmes, particularly those teaching more basic knowledge and skills, inculcate (develop discipline through consistent practice) learners with the limits of their knowledge, and when a householder should be referred to a more experienced professional before committing to any works.

Learning & Development

The Scottish Government should thus invest in upskilling programs to ensure assessors are well-qualified, including having sufficient knowledge of evaluating heat and hot water systems, and an understanding of communal / district heating systems. Such programs and offerings should be based on andragogical (the practice of teaching adults) approaches to learning as opposed to pedagogical (the practice of teaching young people and children) approaches, in recognition that adults and professionals require different approaches to learning and have different learning needs and understandings of those needs, compared to younger people. This will be invaluable for closing the skills gap by making retrofit-related professions more attractive and easier to access for those with transferrable knowledge and skills. We recommend that the Scottish Government consults with experts in adult learning specifically on this matter.

As regards younger people, we recommend that the Scottish Government continues to support and expand the number and range of further and higher educational learning offerings accredited by the professional associations ensuring local availability of training and upskilling opportunities across Scotland.

Delivery (implementing advice)

The HEETSA process should recognise four distinct but complementary roles in the design and delivery of retrofit projects: a Retrofit Project Manager; a Retrofit Advocate; a Retrofit Consultant; and a Retrofit Assessor. These require different skillsets but, depending on the capacity and needs of a householder and the needs of a retrofit project (and with the exception of the Assessor), one individual, organisation, or company may be able to fulfil more than one role.

Groups such as Local Climate Action Hubs should be seen as having valuable roles to play in HEETSA retrofit journeys, including sharing local knowledge to help identify householders and properties in need of measures, capitalising on the ability of locally-based organisations to build trust amongst householders, advocating for the needs of local people, and supporting the development and delivery of district and communal heating projects. However, we recommend the adoption of names for these groups which de-emphasise climate change and emphasise the direct benefits to householders and communities – e.g., Community Retrofit Hubs, Renovation Hubs, or Maintenance Hubs.

We also recognise the importance of engaging with reputable locally-based installers, particularly in rural and remote areas. However, these companies are invariably time and resource-poor, and a balance needs to be struck between how involved they should be with decision-making and the difficulties and costs (to them and the public purse) of increasing householder protection through technical and consumer regulations.