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Heating and cooling - Engagement version

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 50

Top­ic: Heat­ing and cool­ing Engage­ment ver­sion Novem­ber 2024

Require­ments addressed in this sec­tion Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended, regard­ing the issue addressed in this section.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 15(5)(b)the prin­cip­al pur­poses for which the land is used,
Sec­tion 15(5)(d)the infra­struc­ture of the dis­trict (includ­ing com­mu­nic­a­tions, trans­port and drain­age sys­tems, sys­tems for the sup­ply of water and energy, and health care and edu­ca­tion facilities),
Sec­tion 15(5)(e)how that infra­struc­ture is used,

Links to evidence

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Sum­mary of evid­ence Policy context

Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 The Nation­al Park has four dis­tinct aims as set out in The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000). Of par­tic­u­lar sig­ni­fic­ance to this paper are the second and forth aims; ​‘to pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area’ and ​‘to pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s com­munit­ies’. The aims are all to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, great­er weight is giv­en to the first aim (as set out in Sec­tion 9(6) of the 2000 Act).

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 19 aims to ​‘to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate devel­op­ment that sup­ports decar­bon­ised solu­tions to heat and cool­ing demand and ensure adapt­a­tion to more extreme temperatures.’.

The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan should take into account the Loc­al Heat and Energy Effi­ciency Strategy (LHEES) pro­duced by all of the five loc­al author­it­ies which over­lap the bound­ary of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (Fig­ure 1). The spa­tial strategy should take into account areas of heat net­work poten­tial and any des­ig­nated Heat Network

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Zones (HNZ) in the Nation­al Park as iden­ti­fied by the loc­al author­it­ies Loc­al Heat and Energy Effi­ciency Strategies.

Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als with­in or adja­cent to a Heat Net­work Zone iden­ti­fied in a Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan will only be sup­por­ted where they are designed and con­struc­ted to con­nect to the exist­ing heat net­work. Exist­ing Heat net­works in the Nation­al Park are iden­ti­fied in this report.

In line with Policy 19, where the Loc­al Heat and Energy Effi­ciency Strategy has iden­ti­fied a poten­tial heat net­work which is not yet in place, devel­op­ment pro­pos­als will only be sup­por­ted where they are designed and con­struc­ted to allow for cost-effect­ive con­nec­tion at a later date.

Loc­al Author­ites cov­er­ing the Nation­al Park

Aber­deen­shire Angus High­land Moray Perth and Kinross

Fig­ure 1 Map show­ing the five Loc­al Author­it­ies which cov­er areas of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Each Loc­al Author­ity has or will be pub­lish­ing their own loc­al heat and energy effi­ciency strategy and plans. Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of His Majesty’s Sta­tion­ery Office. © Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber AC0000821810, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work Policy 18 is closely linked to the deliv­ery of Policy 19 in that Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans sand deliv­ery pro­grammes should:

  • Be informed by evid­ence on infra­struc­ture capa­city, con­di­tion, needs and deliv­er­ab­il­ity with­in the plan area, includ­ing cross bound­ary infrastructure.

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  • Set out the infra­struc­ture require­ments to deliv­er the spa­tial strategy, informed by the evid­ence base, identi­fy­ing the infra­struc­ture pri­or­it­ies, and where, how, when and by whom they will be delivered.
  • Indic­ate the type, level (or meth­od of cal­cu­la­tion) and loc­a­tion of the fin­an­cial or in- kind con­tri­bu­tions, and the types of devel­op­ment from which they will be required.

Plans should align with rel­ev­ant nation­al, region­al, and loc­al infra­struc­ture plans and policies and take account of the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment infra­struc­ture invest­ment hier­archy and sus­tain­able travel and invest­ment hier­arch­ies in devel­op­ing the spa­tial strategy. Con­sist­ent early engage­ment and col­lab­or­a­tion between rel­ev­ant stake­hold­ers will bet­ter inform decisions on land use and investment.

Policy 19 is closely linked to Policy 1, where Nation­al Plan­ning Policy Frame­work 4 places sig­ni­fic­ant weight on address­ing the cli­mate crisis and redu­cing green­house gas emissions.

Policy 19 is also linked to Policy 11, Energy, which states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should seek to real­ise their area’s full poten­tial for heat from renew­able, low car­bon and zero emis­sion sources by identi­fy­ing a range of oppor­tun­it­ies for energy development.

Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adap­tion also has a bear­ing on the plans and strategies out­lined in this sec­tion. Policy 2 has been detailed in a sep­ar­ate top­ic paper.

The North region’s spa­tial pri­or­it­ies, which cov­er the Nation­al Park and are rel­ev­ant to this policy area are:

  • Pro­tect envir­on­ment­al assets and stim­u­late invest­ment in nat­ur­al and engin­eered solu­tions to cli­mate change and nature res­tor­a­tion, whilst decar­bon­ising trans­port and build­ing resi­li­ent connections.
  • Sup­port loc­al eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment by mak­ing sus­tain­able use of the areas’ world­class envir­on­ment­al assets to innov­ate and lead green­er growth.

Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan 2021 – 2022 to 2025 – 2026 Scot­tish Government’s Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan focuses on three core stra­tegic themes for guid­ing invest­ment in decisions in Scot­land, namely:

  • Enabling the trans­ition to net zero emis­sions and envir­on­ment­al sustainability.
  • Driv­ing inclus­ive eco­nom­ic growth.
  • Build­ing resi­li­ent and sus­tain­able places.

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The Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan is closely linked to the devel­op­ment of the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 and the Cli­mate Change Plan which aim to sup­port the deliv­ery of the Plan.

The Cli­mate Change Plan update shows how Scot­land will drive down emis­sions to meet its cli­mate tar­gets up to the year 2032. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment have com­mit­ted to £1.6 bil­lion invest­ment in heat and energy effi­ciency in Scotland’s homes and build­ings. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment are rolling out a Net Zero Car­bon Pub­lic Sec­tor Build­ings Stand­ard, ensur­ing new pub­lic build­ings are net zero ready.

The Plan also aims to sup­port the Energy Effi­cient Scot­land route map which aims to trans­form Scotland’s build­ings to be warm­er, green­er and more effi­cient by 2040.

Secur­ing a green recov­ery on a path to net zero: cli­mate change plan 2018 – 2032 – update The doc­u­ment provides an update to the 2018 Cli­mate Change Plan. Since that Plan Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment have set new ambi­tious tar­gets to end its con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change by 2045. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment have com­mit­ted to reduce emis­sions by 75% by 2030 (com­pared with 1990) and to net zero by 2045. As Scot­land emerged from COV­ID-19 the Gov­ern­ment iden­ti­fied an oppor­tun­ity to rebuild the eco­nomy in a way that deliv­ers a green­er, fairer and more equal soci­ety. This Plan sets out the Gov­ern­ments approach to deliv­er­ing a green recov­ery and sets out a path­way to deliv­er its cli­mate change tar­gets. In line with the 2018 plan, the focus is on the peri­od up to

  1. It sets out a num­ber of out­comes, that are sup­por­ted by policies and pro­pos­als, relat­ing to heat­ing and cool­ing. These are as follows.

The out­comes ​‘the heat sup­ply to our homes and non-domest­ic build­ings is very sub­stan­tially decar­bon­ised, with high pen­et­ra­tion rates of renew­able and zero emis­sions heat­ing’ and ​‘our homes and build­ings are highly energy effi­cient, with all build­ings upgraded where it is appro­pri­ate to do so, and new build­ings achiev­ing ultra- high levels of fab­ric effi­ciency’ are sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing policies:

  • Energy Com­pany Oblig­a­tion (ECO) requires oblig­ated energy sup­ply com­pan­ies to deliv­er energy effi­ciency meas­ures in homes – mainly insu­la­tion-based meas­ures and boil­er replacements.
  • Energy Effi­cient Scot­land Deliv­ery Schemes:
    • Area Based Schemes and Warm­er Homes Scotland.
    • Home Energy Scot­land Advice Ser­vice and Loans.

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  • Home Energy Scot­land cash­back scheme for zero emis­sions heat­ing tech­no­lo­gies and energy effi­ciency meas­ures boosted.
    • SME Advice Ser­vice and Loans.
    • SME cash­back scheme for zero emis­sions heat­ing tech­no­lo­gies and energy effi­ciency meas­ures boosted.
  • We will review exist­ing Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment fund­ing schemes to ensure that they sup­port the deploy­ment of low and zero emis­sions heat. We will expand the pro­vi­sion of loans to the SME sec­tor, and enhance the wider energy effi­ciency and heat advice ser­vice and pro­vi­sion of tailored start-to-end support.
  • Pro­cure a new nation­al deliv­ery scheme, to replace the exist­ing Warm­er Homes Scot­land con­tract, to open in 2022.
  • Energy Effi­ciency Stand­ard for Social Hous­ing: will be met by social land­lords by 2020.
  • 2024 New Build Zero Emis­sions from Heat Stand­ard: requir­ing new build­ings to have zero emis­sions heat­ing systems.
  • Review of energy stand­ards with­in build­ing reg­u­la­tions. The review invest­ig­ates the poten­tial for fur­ther, sig­ni­fic­ant improve­ment on 2015 stand­ards and how build­ing stand­ards can sup­port oth­er car­bon and energy policy out­comes, includ­ing our decar­bon­isa­tion of heat agenda.
  • Heat in Build­ings reg­u­la­tion: Put in place reg­u­la­tion to increase uptake of zero emis­sions heat­ing sys­tems and improve energy effi­ciency stand­ards across all ten­ures, pri­or­it­ising the rais­ing of stand­ards for house­holds liv­ing in fuel poverty.
  • Re-intro­duce revised reg­u­la­tions to the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment requir­ing man­dat­ory min­im­um energy effi­ciency stand­ards for the Private Ren­ted Sec­tor, to come into force from 2022.
  • Low Car­bon Infra­struc­ture Trans­ition Pro­gramme (LCITP) — sup­ports invest­ment in decar­bon­isa­tion of busi­ness and the pub­lic sector.
  • Expan­ded £1.6bn Heat in Build­ings cap­it­al fund­ing over the next par­lia­ment Build­ing on the Low Car­bon Infra­struc­ture Trans­ition Pro­gramme (LCITP) and exist­ing energy effi­ciency and zero emis­sions heat sup­port programmes.
  • Non-Domest­ic Pub­lic Sec­tor Energy Effi­ciency (NDEE) Framework:
    • A four-year frame­work launched in March 2016, designed to sup­port pub­lic and third sec­tor organ­isa­tions to pro­cure Energy Effi­ciency ret­ro­fit work. The Frame­work will con­tin­ue for a fur­ther four years com­men­cing in 2020.
    • NDEE Sup­port Unit accel­er­ates the num­ber of pro­jects and deliv­ery times­cales of pub­lic sec­tor energy effi­ciency pro­jects using the Non-Domest­ic Pub­lic Sec­tor Energy Effi­ciency Frame­work and sup­ports our wider ambi­tions around energy demand reduction.

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  • The Renew­able Heat Incent­ive (RHI) — a GB-wide scheme cre­ated by the UK Gov­ern­ment (with the agree­ment of the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment). UK Gov­ern­ment is extend­ing both the domest­ic and non-domest­ic Renew­able Heat Incent­ive out to 2022.
  • UK Green Gas Sup­port Scheme — a GB-wide Green Gas Scheme is planned to come into force in 2022, stim­u­lat­ing bio­meth­ane injec­tion into the gas grid.
  • UK Clean Heat Grant — a GB-wide Clean Heat Grant is planned to come into force in 2022, sup­port­ing uptake of heat pumps (and lim­ited bio­mass boil­ers) via up-front grants.
  • Sup­port for Heat Net­works: the Dis­trict Heat­ing Loan Fund helps address the fin­an­cial and tech­nic­al bar­ri­ers to dis­trict heat­ing pro­jects by offer­ing low interest loans.
  • Imple­ment the pro­vi­sions of the Heat Net­works (Scot­land) Bill to cre­ate a strong reg­u­lat­ory frame­work to sup­port deliv­ery by 2023.
  • Con­tin­ue to sup­port the Heat Net­work Part­ner­ship — a col­lab­or­a­tion of agen­cies focused on the pro­mo­tion and sup­port of dis­trict heat­ing schemes in Scotland.
  • Net Zero Car­bon Pub­lic Sec­tor Build­ings Stand­ard will be intro­duced in 2021 and pro­gress­ively rolled out across the pub­lic sec­tor, as announced in the Pro­gramme for Gov­ern­ment 2019.
  • Loc­al Heat and Energy Effi­ciency Strategies (LHEES) will be in place by the end of 2023, set­ting out pre­ferred heat solu­tions zones, guid­ing build­ing own­er decision mak­ing about replace­ment heat­ing sys­tems, and form­ing the basis for loc­al deliv­ery plans tar­get­ing heat and energy effi­ciency investment.
  • Assess­ment of Energy Per­form­ance and Emis­sions Reg­u­la­tions (Non-Domest­ic Build­ings) — The Assess­ment of Energy Per­form­ance of Non-domest­ic Build­ings (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2016 require assess­ment of the energy per­form­ance and emis­sions of lar­ger non-domest­ic build­ings (those over 1,000m²). A review pro­grammed for 2021 will invest­ig­ate and con­sult upon amended scope of stand­ards and more chal­len­ging improve­ment tar­gets to cre­ate a viable path­way for all exist­ing non-domest­ic build­ings to deliv­er the level of energy demand and emis­sions reduc­tions needed.
  • Sup­port for com­munity low and zero emis­sions heat pro­jects through the Com­munity and Renew­able Energy Scheme (CARES).
  • Salix fin­an­cing facil­ity to sup­port invest­ment in non-domest­ic build­ings retrofit.
  • Work with social land­lords to bring for­ward the review of the exist­ing Energy Effi­ciency Stand­ard for Social Hous­ing (EESSH2) with a view to strength­en­ing and realign­ing the stand­ard with net-zero requirements.

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  • Work with our part­ners, includ­ing the UK Gov­ern­ment, loc­al author­it­ies and util­ity pro­viders to determ­ine the best approach to heat decar­bon­isa­tion for build­ings cur­rently heated by nat­ur­al gas.
  • Review the sys­tem of build­ing assess­ments and reports on energy per­form­ance and heat to ensure a sys­tem that is fit for pur­pose in meet­ing net zero emis­sions object­ives for heat in buildings.
  • Work with stake­hold­ers to fur­ther under­stand and sup­port the applic­a­tion and use of low and zero emis­sions heat­ing with­in des­ig­nated his­tor­ic envir­on­ment assets and hard to treat buildings.
  • Devel­op and intro­duce future reg­u­la­tion for non-domest­ic build­ings and launch a con­sulta­tion on these proposals.
  • Devel­op and intro­duce future reg­u­la­tion for non-domest­ic build­ings and launch a con­sulta­tion on these proposals.
  • Under­take work to identi­fy the capa­city and out­put of renew­able elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion required in Scot­land to sup­port the pro­jec­ted roll-out of heat pumps.
  • Con­sider wheth­er to extend Per­mit­ted Devel­op­ment Rights for zero-emis­sion heat net­works and micro-renew­able technologies.
  • Under­take work to bet­ter under­stand the impact on elec­tri­city net­works of pro­jec­ted heat pump deployment.
  • Work with the Dis­tri­bu­tion Net­work Oper­at­ors through the Heat Elec­tri­fic­a­tion Part­ner­ship to build an evid­ence base to inform busi­ness planning.
  • Work with industry and net­works to under­stand need for heat pumps sys­tems to be smart enabled, and identi­fy options to integ­rate smart sys­tems into our deliv­ery pro­grammes; and to explore how innov­a­tion can help to improve the con­sumer experience.
  • Sup­port heat net­works through:
    • Intro­du­cing a Non-Domest­ic Rates Relief for renew­able and low car­bon heat net­works until 2023 / 2024.
    • Work­ing to identi­fy how new build­ings in Heat Net­work Zones could be made ready to con­nect to heat networks.
    • Includ­ing dis­trict heat­ing with­in the Per­mit­ted Devel­op­ment Rights review.
    • Through Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, ensur­ing that loc­al devel­op­ment plans take account of where a Heat Net­work Zone has been identified.
  • Explore how loc­al tax powers could be used to incentiv­ise or encour­age the ret­ro­fit of build­ings, and com­mis­sion fur­ther ana­lys­is to identi­fy poten­tial options.
  • Design future deliv­ery pro­grammes to ensure sig­ni­fic­antly accel­er­ated ret­ro­fit of build­ings, with new pro­grammes to be in place from 2025.

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The out­come that ​‘the heat trans­ition is fair, leav­ing no-one behind and stim­u­lates employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies as part of the green recov­ery’, is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing policies:

  • Devel­op a long-term pub­lic engage­ment strategy in 2021 and begin imple­ment­a­tion of early actions.
  • Smart Meter install­a­tion: All homes and busi­nesses will be offered a smart meter by 2020 under a UK Gov­ern­ment ini­ti­at­ive, provid­ing the oppor­tun­ity for a great­er under­stand­ing of final energy consumption.
  • Respond to the recom­mend­a­tions of the Expert Advis­ory Group on a heat pump sec­tor deal for Scot­land, by Quarter 1 2022.
  • Bring for­ward and sup­port demon­strat­or pro­jects, such as: hybrids and high tem­per­at­ure heat pumps; the use of hydro­gen for space and water heat­ing; pro­jects to under­stand the impact of heat trans­ition on exist­ing energy networks.
  • Pub­lish a ​‘Heat Net­work Invest­ment pro­spect­us’ in 2021 / 2022 a first-cut of Heat Net­work Zones across Scot­land, com­bined with inform­a­tion on decar­bon­isa­tion needs of exist­ing networks.
  • Estab­lish a short life work­ing group on fin­ance for the heat transition.
  • Estab­lish prin­ciples to under­pin our com­mit­ment to ​‘no-one being left behind’ in the heat trans­ition, ensur­ing our approach neither increases the fuel poverty rate nor increases the depth of exist­ing fuel poverty. This will include the effect­ive design and tar­get­ing of our fuel poverty and heat in build­ings programmes.
  • Ensure Loc­al Heat and Energy Effi­ciency Strategies are developed through extens­ive engage­ment with loc­al communities.
  • Con­tin­ue deliv­ery of energy effi­ciency invest­ment to sup­port fuel poor house­holds and con­duct fur­ther mod­el­ling and ana­lys­is to bet­ter under­stand the poten­tial impact of the heat trans­ition on fuel poor house­holds and the scale of, and options for, mit­ig­a­tion that may be required.

The out­come that ​‘Scotland’s Indus­tri­al sec­tor will be on a man­aged path­way to decar­bon­isa­tion, whilst remain­ing highly com­pet­it­ive and on a sus­tain­able growth tra­ject­ory’, is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing policies and proposals:

  • Estab­lish and deliv­er a Scot­tish Indus­tri­al Energy Trans­form­a­tion Fund (SIETF) – to sup­port the decar­bon­isa­tion of indus­tri­al man­u­fac­tur­ing through a green eco­nom­ic recovery.
  • Mak­ing Scotland’s Future: multi-faceted pro­gramme will boost man­u­fac­tur­ing pro­ductiv­ity, innov­a­tion, and com­pet­it­ive­ness, sup­port­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing busi­nesses to make the trans­ition to net zero and real­ise the oppor­tun­it­ies of a low car­bon economy.

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  • Low Car­bon Man­u­fac­tur­ing Chal­lenge Fund: to sup­port innov­a­tion in low car­bon tech­no­logy, pro­cesses and infra­struc­ture. Will be based on suc­cess­ful deliv­ery of European Region­al Devel­op­ment Fund (ERDF) fun­ded Advan­cing Man­u­fac­tur­ing Chal­lenge Fund.
  • The Renew­able Heat Incent­ive is a GB-wide scheme cre­ated by the UK Gov­ern­ment (with the agree­ment of the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment). UK Gov­ern­ment is extend­ing both the domest­ic and non-domest­ic Renew­able Heat Incent­ive out to 2022.
  • Scot­tish Indus­tri­al Decar­bon­isa­tion Part­ner­ship (SIDP): Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment — con­vened cross-sec­tor energy-intens­ive-indus­tri­al (Ell) stake­hold­er for­um with rep­res­ent­at­ives from man­u­fac­tur­ing sites. Ini­tial object­ives: bring togeth­er oth­er ini­ti­at­ives; build a shared nar­rat­ive between gov­ern­ment / industry on decar­bon­isa­tion; and dis­sem­in­ate best-practice.
  • Deliv­er a Net Zero Trans­ition Man­agers Pro­gramme to embed Man­agers in organ­isa­tions tasked with identi­fy­ing, quan­ti­fy­ing and recom­mend­ing decar­bon­isa­tion oppor­tun­it­ies for the business.
  • Green Jobs Fund, to help busi­nesses cre­ate new, green jobs, work­ing with enter­prise agen­cies to fund busi­nesses that provide sus­tain­able or low car­bon products and ser­vices to help them devel­op, grow and cre­ate jobs. Fur­ther fund­ing will help to ensure that busi­nesses and sup­ply chains across Scot­land can cap­it­al­ise on our invest­ment in low car­bon infra­struc­ture such as the decar­bon­isa­tion of heat­ing and green transport.

Draft Energy Strategy and Just Trans­ition Plan In 2023 Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment opened the con­sulta­tion for the Energy and Just Trans­ition Plan which will provide a route map of actions Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment will take to deliv­er a flour­ish­ing net zero energy sys­tem that sup­plies afford­able, resi­li­ent and clean energy to Scotland’s work­ers, house­holds, com­munit­ies and businesses.

Ambi­tions are set for increased con­tri­bu­tions from sol­ar, hydro, mar­ine energy and hydro­gen in the energy mix, and for accel­er­at­ing the decar­bon­isa­tion of heat­ing in Scotland.

Energy Effi­cient Scot­land Scot­tish Min­is­ters des­ig­nated energy effi­ciency as a Nation­al Infra­struc­ture Pri­or­ity in 2015, recog­nising the many bene­fits delivered by improv­ing the energy per­form­ance of Scotland’s build­ings. The Energy Effi­cient Scot­land pro­gramme sets out Scot­tish Gov­ern­ments com­mit­ment deliv­er­ing on this priority.

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The pro­gramme aims to set out a route map for improv­ing the energy effi­ciency of Scotland’s build­ings to reduce energy con­sump­tion lead­ing to reduced green­house gas emis­sions. In 2018 the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment pub­lished the Energy Effi­cient Scot­land: route map which sets out the Gov­ern­ments pro­gramme for mak­ing Scotland’s homes, busi­nesses and pub­lic build­ings more energy efficient.

Energy effi­ciency in homes Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment pub­lished a con­sulta­tion on pro­pos­als for a Heat in Build­ings Bill in Novem­ber 2023. This sought views on the intro­duc­tion of a new Heat in Build­ings Stand­ard. This stand­ard will require privately-owned homes across Scot­land to meet a min­im­um stand­ard of energy effi­ciency before the end of 2033, and before the end of 2028 for homes in the private ren­ted sec­tor. It also pro­poses to pro­hib­it the use of pol­lut­ing heat­ing sys­tems after 2045. Under the plans, the new laws pro­posed include:

  • That all homes and busi­nesses will have to move to a clean heat­ing sys­tem by the end of 2045
  • People buy­ing new homes and build­ings before 2045 would be asked to move to a clean heat­ing sys­tem with­in a set peri­od after the sale.
  • Min­im­um energy effi­ciency stand­ards for all homes by the end of 2033, to make them warm­er and less expens­ive to heat — private land­lords would need to do this by the end of 2028.

Heat in Build­ings Strategy: Achiev­ing Net Zero Emis­sions in Scotland’s Build­ings Scot­tish Government’s Heat in Build­ing Strategy, pub­lished in 2021, sets out Scotland’s vis­ion for the future of heat in build­ings. It sets out the actions being taken in the build­ings sec­tor to deliv­er Scotland’s cli­mate change com­mit­ments, max­im­ise eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies, and ensure a just trans­ition, includ­ing help­ing address fuel poverty.

The strategy sets out Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment ambi­tion that by 2033, all homes in Scot­land will be at an energy effi­ciency of at least EPC band C (where feas­ible and cost effect­ive). This will be done sim­ul­tan­eously with rap­idly upscal­ing the deploy­ment of zero emis­sions heat­ing sys­tems, with the aim that by 2030 over one mil­lion homes and the equi­val­ent of 50,000 non-domest­ic build­ings are con­ver­ted to zero emis­sions heat. This will be delivered by part­ner­ship work­ing with loc­al gov­ern­ment through the Loc­al Heat and Energy Effi­ciency Strategies.

The Strategy provides an update to the 2018 Energy Effi­cient Scot­land Route Map and the 2015 Heat Policy State­ment and bring­ing togeth­er Scot­tish Government’s ambitions

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 15 of 50

on energy effi­ciency and heat decar­bon­isa­tion into a single frame­work. It reflects and sup­ports the policies and actions set out by the Cli­mate Change Plan and the Cli­mate Change (Emis­sions Reduc­tion Tar­gets) (Scot­land) Act 2019, deliv­er­ing a path­way to zero emis­sions in build­ings by 2045. Its actions are also reflec­ted in the Hous­ing to 2040 Strategy.

In Scot­land over 450,000 homes do not use gas as their primary heat­ing fuel and of these, just over 260,000 use elec­tric heat­ing, such as stor­age heat­ers, with around 170,000 using high emis­sion fuels includ­ing heat­ing oil, LPG or high car­bon sol­id min­er­al fuels such as coal.

This is the case for the major­ity if the homes in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park in the absence of a gas net­work. Although there is a small pro­por­tion of build­ings in the Nation­al Park that will util­ise renew­able or low emis­sions heat­ing sys­tems, there remains a sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenge in the Nation­al Park to decar­bon­ise the build­ing stock in terms of heat­ing demand.

In order to meet Scotland’s inter­im cli­mate tar­gets and ensure long-term deliv­ery of its net zero object­ives, by 2030 the vast major­ity of the 170,000 off-gas homes that cur­rently use high emis­sions oil, LPG, and sol­id fuels (as well as at least 1 mil­lion homes cur­rently using mains gas) must con­vert to zero emis­sions heat­ing. By 2030, Scot­land will also need to con­vert the equi­val­ent of 50,000 of Scotland’s non-domest­ic prop­er­ties. In energy terms, Scot­land will need to reduce fossil fuel con­sump­tion for heat in build­ings by at least an estim­ated 28 TWh, of which at least 21 TWh will be nat­ur­al gas.

In addi­tion to the exist­ing deploy­ment of grants and sup­port cur­rently being focused on cost-effect­ive energy effi­cient first improve­ments in build­ings (in terms of ret­ro­fit and deploy­ment of heat pumps for off gas grid build­ings) there is a com­mit­ment to sup­port the deliv­ery of low and zero emis­sions heat­ing net­works, where suitable.

Heat net­work reg­u­la­tion The reg­u­la­tion of heat net­works is devolved to the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment. The Heat Net­works (Scot­land) Act 2021 intro­duced powers to reg­u­late the heat net­works mar­ket in Scot­land for the first time. The Act sets tar­gets for the amount of heat

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