Heat in Buildings Bill to be introduced in 2025

Alasdair Allan MSP, acting Minister for Climate Action, announced on 3 April that the Heat in Buildings Bill will be introduced during the current parliamentary session and will hopefully receive Royal Assent by May 2026.

Mr Allan said: “We will introduce a heat in buildings bill that will create a target for decarbonising heating systems by 2045. It will send a strong signal to homeowners, landlords and other building owners about the need to prepare for change”.

The main areas the Bill will look at, include:

• Boosting heat network development, by creating particular requirements for large, non-domestic premises.
• Introducing powers to require public sector buildings to connect to district heating when it is available. (District heating is a system where heat is generated in a central location and delivered to multiple buildings via a network of insulated pipes, providing heating and hot water).
• The Bill will enable and support flexibility. It will be technology neutral, meaning that different properties and people will require different solutions.
• Introducing powers to set minimum energy efficiency standards for owner-occupier and non-domestic properties.
• Devising regulations under existing powers to introduce a minimum energy-efficiency standard in the private rented sector. Those regulations would mean all privately rented properties, as far as possible, reaching the equivalent of EPC rating C.

The Minister stressed that the Bill will not be a prohibition but a target. Instead of placing all the onus on individual action it will emphasise a collective response. He stressed that the clean heating solutions in some remote and rural areas may vary from those in urban areas and assured the chamber that rural areas will be carefully considered when deciding on new clean heating systems to reduce the risk of exacerbating fuel poverty in these areas. We will follow this part of the Bill closely to ensure rural communities are not disadvantaged in any way.

The Scottish government is investing a further £300 million in the heat in buildings programmes this year, including support to more than 20,000 Scottish households to save up to £500 a year on their energy bills.

The original proposed heat in buildings bill was introduced by Scottish Greens MSP Patrick Harvie back in 2024. This proposal sought to introduce heat pumps in all domestic properties and overhaul the current Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) system. The proposed bill was met with strong criticism from across the chamber. Many MSPs pointed out that forcing property owners to install £14,000 heat pumps in all domestic properties by 2045 would be prohibitively expensive and could exacerbate fuel poverty in rural areas.

The SCA have always advocated for fairer energy costs in rural areas, where 65% of properties are not on the gas grid. We also successfully lobbied the government to reverse their decision to “ban” wood burning stoves in new homes from 1 April 2024 under the new build heat standard.

The new proposals announced by the Minister do go some way to accomplish the desired target of decarbonising heating systems by 2045, but we will wait to see what is on the face of the new Heat in Buildings Bill before determining how this will affect our members and, ultimately, Scotland’s rural residents. MSPs are somewhat sceptical about the real costs to householders, and it is certainly not what was first proposed by the Scottish Greens, which could have been devastating, but we welcome the fact that it seeks to put the onus on government targets rather than individual property owners.

Read the official report of the Ministerial Statement HEREabout this blogabout this blog.