Energy and Buildings Policy in Scotland: Devolved Powers Explained

Scotland runs its own energy policy for homes, but only over part of the picture. The Scottish Government controls building standards, planning, fuel poverty policy, housing quality and the design of its own grant and loan schemes, and it states it is "committed to using our existing devolved powers around consumer advocacy, heat policy and the design of energy efficiency schemes"¹. The electricity and gas markets themselves, including suppliers, networks and the price cap, stay reserved to Westminster and are regulated by Ofgem across Great Britain².

The centre of Scottish home energy policy is the Heat in Buildings Strategy, backed by a stated commitment of £1.8 billion to 2026³. Its headline targets are for over 1 million homes and the equivalent of 50,000 non-domestic buildings to convert to zero emissions heating by 2030, with emissions from heat in buildings falling by 68% compared with 2020⁴. For households, the practical face of all this is Home Energy Scotland: free advice on 0808 808 2282⁵, plus grants and interest free loans for clean heating and insulation, administered by the Energy Saving Trust on the Scottish Government's behalf⁶.

Where devolution draws the line on home energy

The split between what Edinburgh and London control shapes everything a Scottish household encounters. On the devolved side sit the levers that touch the fabric of homes: building standards and the warrant system, planning and permitted development, fuel poverty law and the programmes that fund insulation and clean heating. The Scottish Government's own account of its energy consumer action plan frames its role as using "existing devolved powers around consumer advocacy, heat policy and the design of energy efficiency schemes"¹. Its Heat in Buildings programme sits squarely on the devolved side, covering how homes are heated and insulated³.

On the reserved side sit the markets. Who supplies your gas and electricity, what tariff you pay, how networks are charged and how the price cap is set are all UK-wide matters handled by Ofgem and the UK Government departments behind home energy policy². A Scottish household's bill is governed from Westminster; the loft insulation and heat pump that reduce that bill are governed from Holyrood.

Two features of the devolved side are worth noting. First, much of the delivery is done through schemes rather than statute: the Scottish Government has confirmed that the requirements of the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme "are not set out in legislation or regulations", with terms and conditions set by ministers¹⁰. Second, some devolved tools interact with reserved ones. Energy performance certificates, for instance, were brought into force in Scotland through the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2008, implementing a framework that originates at UK and EU level¹¹. The result is a policy landscape where a Scottish home is regulated by both governments at once, and knowing which is responsible for what determines where a household turns for help, redress or money.

The figures: how Scotland's homes use energy

Energy use in homes accounts for around a quarter of Scotland's total energy consumption, which is why buildings feature so prominently in Scottish climate policy¹². The Scottish House Condition Survey local authority tables give a picture of the stock's performance: on average across 2022 to 2024, 3% of dwellings had an F or G energy rating, the two worst bands⁹. Newer homes perform far better under the standards modelled in the UK cost-optimal work, which estimated flats built to Scotland's 2015 standards at 71 kWh/m2/yr of primary energy and semi-detached houses at 74 kWh/m2/yr¹³.

Delivery figures show the scale of what has actually been installed. The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme, launched in December 2022, supported the installation of 2,000 energy efficiency measures¹⁴ and 5,400 renewable or clean heat measures in 2024-25⁷. In the previous financial year, 2023-24, 8,989 other renewables and clean heat measures were installed under the scheme, alongside 3,607 energy efficiency measures under Warmer Homes Scotland¹⁵. The Scottish Government reported in November 2025 that its heat in buildings programmes were supporting over 20,000 households to save up to £500 on their energy bills⁸. Since 2013, the wider Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland have delivered measures to over 100,000 households¹⁶.

Funding commitments sit behind these numbers. The Heat in Buildings Strategy consultation of February 2021 stated: "Over the next five years, this will mean directly investing £465 million in domestic energy efficiency."¹⁷ The current stated commitment is £1.8 billion to 2026³. Beyond homes, a Scottish Central Government energy efficiency grant scheme supported over 300 energy efficiency measures² and nearly 170 renewables or clean heat measures¹⁴ in public sector buildings between 2021 and 2024¹⁸.

One caution on the scheme statistics: the Scottish Government notes that published figures "do not include applications which have received advanced drawdown or been part paid", so the totals understate work already approved but not yet fully claimed¹⁹.

Heat in Buildings Strategy: the targets behind everything else

The Heat in Buildings Strategy, published in 2021, is the document that sets the direction for every scheme, standard and regulation that follows. Its vision is for over 1 million homes in Scotland to convert to zero emissions heating by 2030, and for the equivalent of 50,000 non-domestic buildings to do the same²⁰. The scale of change implied is large: emissions from heat in buildings will have to fall by 68% by 2030 as compared to 2020⁴.

Alongside the heating target sits an energy efficiency goal. A large majority of buildings should achieve a good level of energy efficiency by 2030, which for homes is at least equivalent to an EPC Band C, with all homes meeting at least this standard by 2033⁴. The consultation on the proposed Heat in Buildings Bill, published in November 2023, tested how realistic that is: it found that when installing the measures suggested in the proposed list, "a clear majority (around 66%) of Scottish homes could achieve this good level of energy efficiency"²². The same consultation documents also refer to all homes meeting the standard by 2028, so the two dates differ between papers and neither has been settled in legislation²².

The strategy is not only about carbon. Its business and regulatory impact assessment estimated that the additional jobs supported in 2030 will exceed those displaced by an estimated 16,400 as a result of investment in zero emissions heat²¹. And the fuel poverty connection is explicit: Warmer Homes Scotland and the Area Based Schemes are tied to targets of energy efficiency equivalent to EPC C by 2030 and EPC B by 2040 for households in fuel poverty²³.

Progress is tracked publicly. The Heat in Buildings progress reports of 2024 and 2025 record installations, funding and scheme performance year by year, and are the place to check whether the 2030 trajectory is being met¹⁵.

Who delivers the schemes, and what they offer

Scottish home energy policy reaches households through a small number of named bodies and programmes, with Home Energy Scotland as the front door.

• Home Energy Scotland. Funded by the Scottish Government, it provides free and impartial advice on energy efficiency and energy saving measures to all households in Scotland, and acts as the referral route into the other schemes²⁴. It is a free independent advice and referral scheme¹⁸.
• Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme. Launched in December 2022, it helps eligible homeowners pay for energy efficiency improvements and clean heat, offering grants and loans to all domestic owner-occupiers in Scotland¹⁴. An optional interest free loan is available for both clean heating and energy efficiency¹⁸. The scheme is administered by the Energy Saving Trust on behalf of the Scottish Government⁶.
• Warmer Homes Scotland. Funded by the Scottish Government, it offers funding and support to eligible households struggling to stay warm and keep on top of energy bills, focusing on households living in, or at risk of living in, fuel poverty⁵. It funds installation of a range of heating measures, including renewable and micro-renewable heating, and insulation²⁵.
• Area Based Schemes. Delivered through local authorities, these target fuel-poor areas to provide energy efficiency measures to a large number of Scottish homes¹⁶.

The loan side of the offer has a longer history: green home loans have funded energy efficiency measures such as external or internal wall insulation, double glazing, boilers, warm air units and other renewable technology that can be used in the home²⁸. Households can also use the Home Energy Scotland Funding Finder to search for funding and support on improving a home's energy efficiency, reducing energy bills and making the home warmer²⁹. Advice is free to call on 0808 808 2282, with lines open Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays⁵.

How regulations cover EPCs, rentals and newly built homes

Three sets of rules give Scottish buildings policy its legal teeth. The first concerns energy performance certificates. The requirement was brought into force in Scotland via the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2008¹¹. The Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2025 now take the framework further: they will adopt the UK Government's new Home Energy Model as the calculation methodology for producing domestic EPCs in Scotland, and will also ensure new ratings for non-domestic buildings¹¹.

The second concerns new homes. The Scottish Government committed to introduce new energy standards for new homes in 2021 and 2024, taking into account responses to its consultation²⁵. Those standards sit within the Scottish building standards system, and the cost-optimal modelling behind them is what produced the 71 and 74 kWh/m2/yr figures for flats and semi-detached houses noted above¹³.

The third concerns rented property. The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 and the Energy Efficiency (Domestic Private Rented Property) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 share a single aim: "to improve the energy efficiency of the worst performing private rented sector housing, to help reduce energy consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases"³⁰. The domestic regulations formed part of the Energy Efficient Scotland Route Map launched in May 2018¹².

Planning rules also shape what households can install. Scottish permitted development rights for energy equipment have been reviewed through consultation, including a 2015 paper covering non-domestic solar panels and domestic air source heat pumps, and a 2019 programme for extending permitted development rights across Scotland³¹. These sit alongside the devolved building warrant system rather than the English and Welsh building regulations regime.

How Scotland's approach differs from the rest of the UK

The most basic difference is consumption. Scottish Government consultation papers state that "the rate of energy consumption is still higher than elsewhere in the UK", a function of climate and housing stock that raises the stakes of buildings policy north of the border³². With homes accounting for around a quarter of Scotland's total energy consumption, the devolved levers cover a larger share of the problem than they might elsewhere¹².

The second difference is institutional. Scotland has its own fuel poverty statute, the Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019, which even defines the heating regimes used to measure the problem in the Scottish House Condition Survey³³. Its programmes are tailored to that definition: Warmer Homes Scotland is explicitly for households in or at risk of fuel poverty, with targets of EPC C by 2030 and EPC B by 2040 for those households²³. England, Wales and Northern Ireland each take their own approach, covered in our pages on building regulations in England, energy policy in Wales and energy regulation in Northern Ireland.

The third difference is ambition on heat. The Heat in Buildings Strategy's target of over 1 million homes converting to zero emissions heating by 2030 is a Scottish commitment with no direct equivalent stated for the other nations²⁰. The Scottish Government also frames its consumer action plan as a framework to place consumer considerations at the heart of Scotland's energy policy and "to influence change across Great Britain", an explicit attempt to project devolved policy into reserved territory¹.

Devolution and the constraints on speaking up for consumers

Because the energy market is reserved, Scottish consumer policy in energy works around the edges of a system it does not run. The Energy Consumer Action Plan of 2019 established a framework to place consumer considerations at the heart of Scotland's energy policy, from local energy to energy efficiency and electric vehicles, and to influence change across Great Britain¹. Scotland's Energy Strategy puts at its heart a commitment to "promote consumer engagement and protect consumers from excessive or avoidable costs, prevent new forms of social exclusion and promote the benefits of smarter domestic energy applications and systems"¹.

Scotland has also experimented with supply-side models of its own. Our Power was an energy supply company established by housing associations and local authorities in Scotland with the aim of reducing heat and fuel costs to the tenants in their communities³⁴. It illustrates both the ambition and the constraint: a devolved initiative entering a reserved market, where the rules of supply, licensing and supplier failure are set elsewhere.

For a household with a complaint about a supplier, the devolved advice service points back into the reserved system: Home Energy Scotland directs consumers to the relevant contacts, including Ofgem's guidance on who to contact for the Renewable Heat Incentive³⁵. The practical division of labour is that Scottish bodies advise, refer and fund, while redress and complaint routes run through the GB-wide ombudsman and regulator structure.

Scottish policy and its gaps on energy self sufficiency

The devolved toolkit is genuinely useful to a household wanting to cut its dependence on imported energy. Grants and interest free loans for clean heating and insulation reduce the upfront cost of the measures that shrink a home's demand for gas and grid electricity¹⁸. Free, impartial advice from Home Energy Scotland, available to every household in Scotland, helps identify which measures fit which home and which schemes it qualifies for²⁴. Warmer Homes Scotland and the Area Based Schemes direct public money at the households and neighbourhoods where fuel poverty makes energy dependence most acute⁵.

The strategy's targets point the same way. A million homes on zero emissions heating by 2030, and all homes at EPC C or better by 2033, would mean a housing stock far less exposed to fossil fuel prices set outside Scotland⁴. The 16,400 net additional jobs estimated for 2030 are a measure of how much of that transition is intended to be built domestically²¹.

The limits are equally real. Scottish policy can change how well insulated a home is and how it is heated; it cannot change what a unit of gas or electricity costs, who supplies it, or what happens when a supplier fails. The price cap, network charges, supplier licensing and the smart meter system are all reserved². A Scottish household that insulates its loft with a devolved grant still buys its energy in a reserved market, and a home heated by a heat pump still depends on the electricity network, whose regulation and charges are set at GB level. Devolution gives Scotland the fabric of the housing stock; the energy that flows through it remains largely a Westminster matter.