Meeting of the Parliament 18 November 2025
I begin by emphasising that the Scottish Government is committed to decarbonising heat in buildings by 2045. That commitment was restated fulsomely in “Scotland’s Draft Climate Change Plan 2026-2040”, which was published by my colleague Gillian Martin on 6 November.
The Scottish Government has shown clear leadership in the heat in buildings sector, demonstrated not least by our grant and loan schemes, the legislative requirement for new homes to install clean heat and our continued drive to promote investment and growth in heat networks. Faced with a concerning rise in anti-climate rhetoric, the draft climate change plan maintains that leadership. It confirms our target to decarbonise the heat in Scotland’s buildings by 2045 in a manner that is consistent with our commitment to reduce fuel poverty, and to do so by maintaining our vital support for those who need it most.
It was my intention to build on that work by introducing a heat in buildings bill in this parliamentary session. The Scottish Government has worked at pace to produce a bill ready for introduction. However, it has become clear that proceeding now would not allow the Scottish Parliament to consider the bill in the context of emerging United Kingdom-wide developments. That is particularly the case in respect of the forthcoming UK warm homes plan and on-going work on energy market reform.
I expect the warm homes plan to set out crucial detail on how and to what extent the UK Government plans to rebalance energy prices, particularly the price of electricity relative to gas, in a way that will make clean heating systems more affordable to run. That is a critical part of ensuring that our work to decarbonise homes does not exacerbate fuel poverty—something that I am particularly committed to at a time when more and more people are struggling with spiralling energy costs and resultant debt, and when around 34 per cent of households are living in fuel poverty, which is largely driven by a rise in energy prices.
I am disappointed that the UK’s warm homes plan has been delayed so considerably. As well as continuing to develop the policy content of the bill and consider its associated costs, I have been pressing successive UK ministers in recent months to publish the warm homes plan or, at least, to share with us its content vis-à-vis electricity prices. Regrettably, that has not materialised.
There is no longer time in this parliamentary session to give full consideration to a bill, nor can I ask the Scottish Parliament to consider such an important and complicated bill without a full understanding of the policy context across the UK, which we understand is likely to emerge before the end of the year. Doing so would not be fair to consumers and would risk misalignment and confusion for businesses.
As such, I confirm that the Scottish Government will not introduce a heat in buildings bill during this parliamentary session. Instead, I have today published our draft bill, with a statement of intent to introduce a bill as early as we can in the next parliamentary session, subject to the outcome of the 2026 election. I strongly call on UK ministers to ensure that they bring forward provisions to rebalance the cost of electricity relative to gas, allowing us to pursue vital decarbonisation in a way that we can be sure protects households from fuel poverty.
On the content of the draft bill, members will see that it sets a technology-neutral heat decarbonisation target to replace direct-emission heating systems in all Scottish buildings as far as reasonably practicable by 2045. If ultimately passed, that would put into legislation the target that the Scottish Government is already committed to in policy as part of the climate change plan. The bill will require the Scottish Government to publish a heat decarbonisation strategy every five years and to report regularly on progress, ensuring transparency and accountability and enabling us to update our approach as new technologies develop.
The draft bill includes a regulation-making power to introduce minimum energy performance requirements for buildings that use direct-emission heating systems. The intention is to use that power for the owner-occupied and non-domestic sectors.
The draft bill includes provisions regarding heat networks, including a regulation-making power that may be used to require qualifying buildings in a heat network zone to connect to the heat network or to decarbonise their heating system; a regulation-making power to provide for heat network installation and maintenance licences; and changes to the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021 to streamline its regulatory regime.
The draft bill provisions represent an ambitious, pragmatic and, crucially, flexible advancement in the sector, building on what is already in the climate change plan.
Today’s publication of the draft bill offers an opportunity for us to continue undertaking engagement over the remainder of the parliamentary session. That will include launching a targeted consultation in the new year on detailed proposals for heat network installation and maintenance licences to support the implementation of the draft heat network provisions. That will enable the next Scottish Government to move quickly to introduce secondary legislation following the passage of the bill.
The draft bill builds on the huge success that we have made in the heat in buildings sector over the course of this parliamentary session. We have allocated £1.67 billion of funding through our heat in buildings schemes, including a committed spend of more than £840 million for energy efficiency and clean heat projects. Since the start of this parliamentary session, heat in buildings programmes have supported an average of 15,000 households annually, including those in, or at risk of, fuel poverty and, since the launch of the first warmer homes Scotland scheme in 2015, we have invested around £399 million and helped more than 47,000 households across Scotland to live in warmer homes that are more affordable to heat. So far in 2025-26, the average fuel bill saving across all completed applications is approximately £350 per year.
We intend to build on that. I can announce today that we are introducing grant support for home owners to enable connections to heat networks through our long-running home energy Scotland grant and loan scheme, reinforcing our commitment to meeting targets for heat network deployment. That will see grants of up to £9,000, together with loans, to enable households in island and remote areas to connect to local district heat networks and follows engagement by the First Minister during a recent visit to Shetland, demonstrating the responsiveness of our approach and our determination to back investment in heat networks, which we can pursue now and do not need to wait for legislation. Indeed, the Scottish Government has awarded more than £62 million to enable the development of heat network projects in Scotland through our heat network fund and the low-carbon infrastructure transition programme.
We also recently laid new energy performance certificate regulations, which, if approved, will bring an improved EPC rating system into force in autumn 2026, and we have recently completed our consultation on minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector, helping us to develop regulations that are fair, affordable and achievable.
Further legislation will form a key part of our approach. The issue of heat in buildings affects everyone of us in Scotland and we need to approach the sector in a way that harnesses the opportunities without exacerbating the risks, including the risk of fuel poverty. I believe that the bill that we have drafted finds that balance through a commitment to collective action, taking individuals, communities and businesses with us on a transformative journey, but we need clarity about UK Government action on energy costs.
Today, my officials and I are writing to stakeholders to begin the next phase of partnership work on the policy direction of the bill. Taken together with our draft climate change plan, which sets out our clear commitment to decarbonisation, that marks a real commitment to drive progress on clean heat in an ambitious, yet pragmatic and flexible, manner that can adapt to the technological advances that will undoubtedly emerge in the period to 2045 as well as reflecting Scotland’s diverse building stock, with its urban and rural requirements and differing abilities to adapt to change.
Crucially, as I have set out in my reasons today, we will always balance our actions to decarbonise with the imperative of relieving fuel poverty and I again call on UK ministers to take the action necessary so that we can progress.
We will engage widely with the sector and with members from across Parliament, particularly as the UK-wide position becomes clearer. I trust that Parliament will agree with me on the importance of making informed law, from the clearest and most up-to-date position. It is ever thus but is particularly important when the law that we propose to make goes right to the heart of the most important asset that most people will ever have—namely, their home. I trust that Parliament will agree that, for want of just a few months, however frustrating that is, essential clarity on something as fundamental as electricity prices is worth having and that we should consider our position in light of that as we legislate.