Scottish government proposes Passivhaus standard for all new-build housing

The Scottish government proposed in May 2022 that all new-build housing in Scotland should meet the Passivhaus standard, or a national equivalent, through the Proposed Domestic Building Environmental Standards Bill¹. The proposal was a Member's Bill from Alex Rowley, Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour, intended to introduce new minimum environmental design standards for all new-build housing in order to improve energy efficiency and thermal performance². The Bill's foreword states: "We cannot just rely on decarbonising the grid to meet our commitments. We must significantly improve the energy performance of our buildings."¹

The Passivhaus Trust reports that the Scottish Government announced plans in January 2023 to introduce new minimum environmental design standards for all newbuild housing to meet a "Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard"³. A Scottish Passivhaus Equivalent Working Group consensus report was published in November 2024, setting out the position agreed after the Stage 1 consultation, and an interim progress report published in December 2025 outlined the areas to be covered in a Stage 2 consultation, which has since launched with a deadline of 16 October 2026³. A consultation on the proposed standard launched on 31 July 2024⁴.

Passivhaus is a standard developed in Germany in the 1990s, now applied worldwide including in the UK through BRE¹. A Passivhaus building is designed to retain heat from the sun and its occupants, so it requires very little additional heating or cooling⁵. The Passivhaus Trust's 2018 research outlined typical Passivhaus uplift costs of between 4 and 8 per cent³. The Trust also cites a 2023 BRE report estimating that poor housing costs the NHS £540m a year in England, and a 2018 Scottish Government report stating that in 2014 fuel poverty was estimated to cost the NHS up to £80m per annum in Scotland³.

The Energy Saving Trust, responding to the consultation, said strong fabric-first standards "lock in" energy saving and make dwellings much cheaper to heat because less heat is needed². It added that the fabric of a property, unlike its heating system, is very unlikely to be revisited over a property's lifetime, making construction a one-off opportunity to get it right².

Why it matters for households

New-build homes in Scotland already cannot have oil or gas boilers as of April 2024, and must instead have a low-carbon heating system such as a heat pump⁵. A fabric standard set at or near Passivhaus would go further, fixing the insulation, airtightness and ventilation of a home at the point of construction rather than leaving them to be improved later. Because the fabric is rarely revisited over a property's lifetime, the standard set at build determines how much heat a home loses, and therefore how much energy it needs to buy, for decades². For a household, that bears directly on exposure to future heating costs and on how much of a home's comfort depends on the grid and on fuel prices. The Scottish Government aims to reach net zero by 2045, ahead of the rest of the UK in 2050⁴, and 89 per cent of homes in Scotland currently use a polluting heating system while 55 per cent do not meet what is considered a good level of energy efficiency⁴. The proposed standard applies to new-build housing only; there is currently no legal requirement for existing homes to be retrofitted or for low-carbon heating to be installed in them⁵.

What happens next

The Stage 2 consultation on the proposed Passivhaus equivalent policy has launched, with a deadline of 16 October 2026³. The Passivhaus Trust says it is preparing a detailed response and will run webinars to help members and supporters complete consultation responses³. The Scottish Government has also proposed a Heat in Buildings Bill to require homeowners in Scotland to meet a minimum energy efficiency standard by 2033⁵.

Sources5 cited

1. Scotland aims for Passivhaus homes standards, les.mitsubishielectric.co.uk
2. Domestic Building Environmental Standards Bill - Energy Saving Trust, energysavingtrust.org.uk
3. Scottish Equivalent to Passivhaus, passivhaustrust.org.uk
4. A specifier's guide to building standards in Scotland, sunamp.com
5. Housing and net zero - House of Commons Library, commonslibrary.parliament.uk