Almost 1.5 million homes in Scotland are below the recommend energy performance certificate (EPC) standards, reveals a new report from the Existing Homes Alliance.
The housing campaigner, which is supported by groups including WWF Scotland and the Energy Saving Trust, has urged Scottish political parties to “commit to ridding Scotland of the scourge of cold homes by 2025,” claiming in the research that there are tens of thousands of “unhealthily cold” homes in every single parliamentary constituency, with 62% nationwide falling below the suggested standards, set by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
The figures, which also show that the households in the lowest energy efficiency bands are more likely to be living in fuel poverty, estimate that three-quarters of households are “cold” in seven constituencies, while only three constituencies have more than half of their households labelled with an “acceptable” energy efficiency rating of C or above.
Alan Ferguson, Chair of the Existing Homes Alliance, believes the next Scottish Government could end the scourge of cold homes currently affecting thousands of households in every single parliamentary constituency across Scotland by setting an objective to bring all homes in Scotland to at least a ‘C’ energy performance standard by 2025.
“Not only did more than 50 business and civil society organisations welcome the cross-party commitment to making improved energy efficiency for Scotland’s homes a National Infrastructure Priority, but the NICE suggested a ‘C’ standard is the minimum energy efficiency level to reduce the risk of death and ill-health associated with cold homes,” he says.
More than 50 major civil society and business organisations have signed a joint-statement calling for the next Scottish Government to make a commitment that “no one in Scotland is living in a hard-to-heat, draughty home, by 2025,” while the Scottish Government also committed to making the improvement of energy efficiency a ‘National Infrastructure Priority’ in June last year.
Dr Sam Gardner, Head of Policy at WWF Scotland, emphasises how heating Scotland’s buildings accounts for over half of our climate change emissions.
“Ensuring every home reaches a C Energy performance standard by 2025 is the minimum level of ambition required to allow our climate change targets to be met,” he says.
“A political commitment that no-one should live in a hard-to-heat, draughty home would be good for millions of households, and would drastically reduce emissions too.”
Wilson Shaw, Chair of the National Insulation Association (NIA) in Scotland, adds: “A commitment from the next Scottish Government to ensure all homes in Scotland reach a minimum energy efficiency standard could create up to 9,000 jobs a year.
“Today’s figures show that such a commitment would benefit thousands of households across every single Scottish parliamentary constituency. Few other capital investments could make such a difference, and such a commitment would give the energy efficiency industry the confidence to invest for the longer term.”
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