BIG NEWS - Scottish Government launches consultation on our proposals for a Home Energy Efficiency Technical Assessment

After six months of hard work the cat is now finally out of the bag.

Since November of last year I've been leading a team working for the Scottish Government on proposals for a Home Energy Efficiency Technical Assessment (HEETSA). Assuming we can get it through Holyrood, HEETSA won't replace EPCs, but it'll be a big step towards making sure people get the best possible advice and support for retrofitting their properties. 

The Policy Report is now up at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/review-retrofit-assessment-scotland-improving-home-energy-efficiency-policy-report/pages/1/

And the consultation, which closes on August 29th, is up at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/heat-energy-efficiency-technical-suitability-assessment-heetsa-scoping-consultation/

The Technical Report will be hosted by GCU shortly.

So far, it's been covered in The Herald, The Inverness Courier (at: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/national/consultation-opens-on-new-scheme-to-boost-energy-efficiency-in-homes-134558/ ) and will be the subject of Common Weal's next column in The National.

There's a very long list of thank you's for all this, starting with my brilliant team - Magdalena Blazusiak, Natasha Houchin, Ron Mould, Richard Atkins, Ran Boydell, Bill Sheldrick, Jonathan Scott, and Mark Phillipson - along with Scott Restrick, Jo McLelland, Aythan Lewes, and Abi Truebig (spot the EPRi and EPRi-adjacent names).

However, now the hard work really begins. Our timeline for passing the legislation takes us well into the new Holyrood administration, and the next step is to encourage as many of you as possible to respond to the consultation.

With the Scottish Government now having another go at getting mandatory energy efficiency improvements through under the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards for the Private Rented Sector (PRS MEES), HEETSA is now more important than ever.

To put it very bluntly, MEES and any other attempts at bringing in mandatory improvements will fail without HEETSA and proper reforms to EPCs, and our pledge to help Scottish householders to take the government to court still stands. We will only rescind that pledge if HEETSA is implemented and EPCs are reformed to a good enough standard (which HEETSA makes easier).

We are making progress, but there's still a long road ahead.