The Retrofit Roundtable, supported by SNIPEF and 12 industry partners, has called on the Scottish Government to implement its recommendations without delay, saying swift action is needed if Scotland is to meet its net-zero and fuel poverty targets1. The call came with the release of the roundtable's report, Meeting Scotland's Retrofit Challenge: Solutions from the Industry, published on 13 May 2024, one year after the group's inaugural session1.
The report sets out a "fabric first" retrofit approach as its central emphasis, and calls for a dedicated ministerial group and a Retrofit Delivery Plan to address what it describes as ongoing energy inefficiency in homes1. The roundtable's own summary of its position is direct:
"has urged the Scottish Government to swiftly implement their suggestions to ensure Scotland meets its net-zero and fuel poverty targets"
The report's framing of the problem is energy inefficiency in Scottish homes, and its proposed machinery is two-fold: a ministerial group to give the work political ownership, and a delivery plan to set out how retrofit is carried out1. The roundtable has published the full document for download alongside its announcement1.
| Element of the report | What it calls for |
|---|---|
| Retrofit method | A "fabric first" approach1 |
| Governance | A dedicated ministerial group1 |
| Delivery | A Retrofit Delivery Plan1 |
The report does not, in the material published with the announcement, set out costings, timescales or the number of homes covered; those have not been reported1.
Why it matters for households
Retrofit is the work that decides how much heat a home loses before any question of how that heat is generated arises. A fabric first approach means insulation, draughtproofing, glazing and airtightness are addressed ahead of, or alongside, changes to heating systems, on the reasoning that a better-performing building needs less energy to keep warm. For a household, that ordering affects both the size of any heating system installed later and the running costs that follow.
The roundtable's focus on a delivery plan and a ministerial group is about the machinery behind the work rather than any single measure. In Scotland, powers over building standards, energy efficiency programmes and fuel poverty are devolved, which shapes what the Scottish Government can legislate for and fund, and what remains reserved to Westminster; the split is set out in our guide to energy and buildings policy in Scotland. Delivery on the ground has largely run through programmes such as those operated by Changeworks, alongside private installers and assessors.
For a household, the practical consequence of a fabric first emphasis is that the sequence of work matters: assessment and coordination come before installation, which is why the roles of retrofit assessors and coordinators sit at the front of any programme. Whether the roundtable's recommendations change anything for individual homes depends on whether the Scottish Government adopts them, and on what funding and regulation follow. None of that has been reported yet.
What happens next
The report has been published and the roundtable has urged the Scottish Government to implement its suggestions swiftly1. No response from the Scottish Government, and no timetable for one, has been reported1.