Guest blog: Warm homes for all – rolling out heat networks in a way that tackles fuel poverty

Everyone should have a warm, safe place to call home.  That means a home that is affordable to heat and healthy to live in. Scotland is energy rich, yet we still have around one in three households living in fuel poverty. That is not acceptable. 

The new Energy Minister, Stephen Gethins, is tasked with tackling this – he is expected to publish an updated Fuel Poverty Strategy and Heat in Buildings Strategy later this year. 

These core government documents must set out how Scotland can shift from being dependent on fossil fuels to heat our homes, doing so in a way that tackles poverty, improves health and creates jobs.   

Heat networks will play a major role in Scotland’s heating future. Rather than every home relying on its own boiler, a heat network supplies warmth and hot water to many homes and buildings from a central source, such as a large heat pump or recovered waste heat. Today around 1,080 networks serve roughly 30,000 homes in Scotland – providing around 1.5% of Scotland’s heat.  The aim is that around a fifth of Scotland’s heat could eventually be delivered through heat networks, with a statutory target of 7 terra-watt hours by 2035.

How we get there matters as much as the destination 

Scotland’s Climate Change Plan is clear that heat networks play an important role in our future heating mix, but progress to date in Scotland has been limited.  The pace and scale of delivering new heat networks must increase significantly if we are to meet our climate change targets.  

Ramping up delivery depends on overcoming some significant barriers: limited capacity in local authorities, a lack of proven business models for retrofitting existing buildings, uncertain project viability, weak demand assurance for investors, low public awareness, and the high cost of electricity relative to gas. 

A historic lack of regulation has also left some existing heat network customers facing poor service and volatile, unaffordable prices. Left unaddressed, that risks undermining confidence in the sector just as it needs to grow – and, more importantly, it leaves households trapped with expensive, poorly performing heating. 

The Scottish Government must take early action to address all of these barriers. And critically, it is essential that the transition to clean, warm homes is fair, leaves no one behind and is done with communities rather than to them. 

Steps to a fairer rollout 

In a new policy paper, the Existing Homes Alliance sets out how heat networks can be rolled out at the pace and scale required while actively reducing fuel poverty.  

The Scottish Government must set out how the Just Transition Principles and the aims of the Fuel Poverty Strategy will be met through its heat network plans. 

They must provide policy certainty, along with clear legislation and funding commitments that will unlock private sector investment, and enable new heating infrastructure that truly works for people and communities. 

Heat networks can be a major opportunity to cut fuel poverty, lower bills and create warmer homes. But that will only happen if government places people and communities at the heart of its plans, rather than assuming the benefits will automatically reach them.  

When Parliament returns, the Scottish Government should make clear that the transition to clean heat is about making homes warmer and cheaper to heat. It’s about tackling poverty and improving health.  And it’s about strengthening communities and creating jobs and opportunities across the country.  

In terms of heat networks, the priority now must be to design policy around the lowest-income households from the start. With the right action, heat networks can be part of the solution to fuel poverty. Without it, the people who most need warmer, cheaper to heat homes risk being left behind.