The Scottish Government recently held a consultation on proposals for a Heat in Building Bill which would introduce new laws around the heating systems that can be used in homes and places of work.

Nesta welcomes the proposals and believes the Heat in Buildings Bill should be brought forward as soon as possible and should be completed by the end of this Scottish Parliament.

We support the introduction of minimum energy standards for the private rented sector and an energy efficiency quality standard for homeowners and believe they should be established as soon as possible.

The heat pump market is developing too slowly in Scotland to achieve our decarbonisation targets. We believe the proposal to require home buyers to fit a heat pump within two years of a home purchase will be an effective regulatory mechanism to speed up heat pump adoption.

The regulations proposed in this consultation will play an important role in rapidly scaling a clean heating industry in Scotland. However, regulations cannot be delivered in isolation and we believe both the Scottish and UK Governments must take further policy action to ensure we reach our climate targets and reduce the emissions produced by home heating.