LoginAnalysis: Winter is Coming
The Heat in Buildings Strategy aims to reduce carbon emissions from Scotland’s homes. Is Trading Standards ready for the challenge?
Richard Young, Editorial Lead Writer
Posted 13 January 2025 | JoTS Online
Content Tags: Analysis|Energy|Scotland
The Heat in Buildings Strategy (HiBS) is an ambitious initiative by the Scottish Government to improve domestic energy-efficiency and promote the use of low-carbon heating systems. Among its goals are a 68% reduction in carbon emissions from buildings by 2030, with all of Scotland’s homes achieving at least an EPC band C rating by 2033. There is also the intention that at least 1 million homes – around half of the country’s total number – will be completely zero-carbon by 2030, with the entire housing stock reaching that landmark by 2045. To support those targets, the Scottish Government will be pumping money into the domestic energy-efficiency sector, with an expected investment of at least £1.8bn over the next five years according to the University of Strathclyde.
On paper at least, that all sounds promising. After all, the climate emergency affects everyone, and any opportunity to reduce carbon emissions – with the added potential bonus of cutting home energy bills – should be grasped with enthusiasm.
But as the countdown clock ticks closer to those key dates, there exists a yawning gulf in consumer awareness and understanding about energy-efficiency products, a shortage of skilled traders qualified to take on the task, and a prevalence of rogue practices in the sector which are causing real concern for Trading Standards.
This is going to affect every single citizen in Scotland, and I don’t think there has been any understanding of that
To start with, says Diane Bryson, CTSI joint Lead Officer for Energy and Net Zero, the Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) which will provide a crucial measure of HiBS’s success or failure are poorly understood and vulnerable to exploitation. “EPCs can have a real effect on consumers but there hasn’t been enough information about them promoted towards the public,” she says. “A lot of companies will exploit that, saying they can offer their own EPCs, then trying to mis-sell different products so consumers can qualify for them.
“There’s also a risk that consumers could be given fraudulent EPCs. There have been discussions at some of the meetings I’ve been to that when a householder goes to sell their home, they may find that the EPC they thought they had isn’t the correct one, and they have to do a lot more work before it can be sold.”
Fiona Richardson, Chief Officer of Trading Standards Scotland (TSS), shares those concerns. “EPCs are going to be vital in terms of determining where consumers are in their journey to comply with HiBS,” she says. “My concern is that there’s not enough information about that and there are potential weaknesses in the system, and in the balance between incentivisation and penalisation of consumers who do and don’t make changes to their homes.
“All of those things combined just heighten the risk for consumers. There’s a great deal of complexity in the market and a great deal of uncertainty.
“This is going to affect every single citizen in Scotland, and I don’t think there has been any understanding of that. I don’t think the scale and the impact of this piece of legislation has been properly considered,” Richardson adds.
Disease and cure
Just one example of consumer detriment in the sector is the spray foam insulation bait-and-switch; householders across the UK, not just in Scotland, have been targeted in recent years by crooks mis-selling insulation, with promises of lower bills and improved energy efficiency. Many of these installations have, however, proved to be worse than useless, resulting in damp and mould problems, and affecting whether properties can be mortgaged or sold.
Now, some of those same companies which offered spray foam ‘solutions’ are selling bogus remedies, further ripping off consumers by charging to remove the offending installations.
According to Richardson, spray foam scams illustrate the need for more stringent vetting of the domestic energy-efficiency sector, with a need for licensing as well as a greater focus on public education and upskilling of the workforce. “There are a lot of novel products that people don’t understand, and there aren’t enough legitimate businesses in the sector to squeeze out the more problematic ones,” she says.
While certification and vetting initiatives – such as the CTSI-backed Approved Code Scheme – do exist to promote best practice in the sector, there is currently no legal requirement for businesses to be authorised to install energy-efficiency measures, or to have certain qualifications or training.
“They’re putting in these products – solar panels, air source heat pumps etc – but they’re not necessarily doing it properly,” says Richardson. “The consumer doesn’t know whether or not things are fitted properly, but it’s having a big effect on their bills. And that could have an effect on EPC ratings.
“There’s no control over the sector. If [the Scottish Government] is hoping to roll out a lot of things very fast to reach their targets, I think further down the line, there’s going to be a big backlog of problems when things are not functioning properly.”
At present there are several certification schemes with different and sometimes overlapping areas of specialism, a host of acronyms and technical jargon relating to the technologies involved and their supposed benefits, and a complex array of financial incentives available, all with their own byzantine terms and conditions. Even those who specialise in consumer protection can find it bewildering – so what hope is there for consumers themselves?
“I think it would be easier if anybody working in the sector just had to be authorised by a particular body and that was it,” Richardson says. “It’s very confusing for consumers who may not realise that because a certain trader wasn’t authorised, they couldn’t get a certain certificate. And it’s not entirely the trader’s fault because there was no legal requirement for them to be authorised anyway.”
David Mackenzie, Trading Standards Manager at the Highland Council and former Chair of the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), cites the Gas Safe Register as a template which could be adopted in the domestic energy-efficiency sector. “The best-in-class model has to be the Gas Safe Register,” he says. “As far as we know there are not an awful lot of dodgy gas installations that go on because there’s a competence test, and that’s what we need here. It’ll cost a lot of money, and it’s going be really difficult to do. But it’s necessary because this is going to be a disaster without it.”
There’s going to be a big backlog of problems when things are not functioning properly
Making progress
HiBS has been subject to a lengthy consultation period in which views from across the regulation, enforcement and business spectrum were sought – and much of the fine detail of the strategy has yet to be established.
Among those who contributed to the consultation was the statutory body Consumer Scotland, which recommended that “further modelling and analysis of the impact of [HiBS] on consumers should be undertaken before the Scottish Government reaches decisions on key aspects of the Bill in order to avoid any unintended detriment”.
In the most recent update (October 2024) on the progress of HiBS, the Scottish Government’s Acting Minister for Climate Action, Alasdair Allan, wrote: “Our next step will be to set out the long-term direction of travel and provide certainty to both homeowners and the supply chain…. We are completing our consideration of the responses to this consultation, and aim to confirm next steps shortly.”
Bryson, Richardson and Mackenzie are all in agreement that Trading Standards’ expertise needs to inform what those next steps should be, and they and their colleagues have been instrumental in ongoing discussions about how consumers can best be safeguarded. And they have no illusions about the scale of the challenge.
“It’s important to look at the future,” says Mackenzie. “In broad terms, this is the biggest thing since devolution.” The new Scottish Housing Bill includes proposals for rent caps in certain areas which, says Richardson, “is going to put increased pressure on landlords. We have a housing emergency. All of these factors are coming together to create a bit of a perfect storm.”
“The key issue for me is that the market’s not ready for the scale of this,” Mackenzie adds. “It’s fertile ground for scammers and there’s a gap in the market for them to move in and completely defraud people as we’ve seen with spray foam, but on an even bigger scale.
“There will also be people who are well meaning but don’t really know what they’re doing. Some of the issues we’ve seen with heat pumps aren’t necessarily caused by scammers, but by people not knowing the bigger picture, not having the necessary range of skills and knowledge to properly advise people as to what they really need.
“But if someone’s lost £1,000, whether they’ve been scammed or whether some incompetent guy’s just made a complete hash of it, they’re still £1,000 down. These are equally bad situations.”
Funding and incentives
Poor quality installations can have an adverse effect on consumers, but so too can some of the financial mechanisms used to fund energy-efficiency work. To support HiBS, the Scottish Government has committed to establishing a Green Heat Finance Taskforce which will “develop a portfolio of innovative financial solutions for building owners” and “explore and potentially pilot new and value-for-money innovative financing mechanisms for individual and community level investment”.
Getting that ‘innovative financing’ right will be essential if HiBS is to avoid perpetuating existing problems. The ECO4 scheme, for example, is a government-funded program that provides grants to help homeowners and private tenants improve their home’s energy-efficiency. But, says Bryson, “There have been quite a lot of problems with that – sometimes traders have taken the money, maybe done half a job or it hasn’t gone right, leaving the consumer struggling to get them to come back and fix things. Then there are problems with trying to find out who’s liable – if it’s the trader, the energy company, or Ofgem.
“The only positive bit in that is that the consumer isn’t actually parting with any money, but they can be left with damage to their property and their bills can increase if it’s not done properly,” Bryson adds. “The other side of it is the Home Energy Scotland loans and grants, which the consumer has to apply for themselves. We have had problems with companies saying that they could get the grants and loans on behalf of consumers, which they can’t do.
“Then you have general traders that would doorstep or cold-call, saying that they have grants or they’re working with the Government and can act as a credit broker and sign you up to some sort of finance agreement. There are lots of ways that it’s possible to be financially exploited.”
There are lots of ways that it’s possible to be financially exploited
Knowledge is power
Arming consumers with the information they need to make good decisions is perhaps the most effective way the Scottish Government can ensure the success of HiBS. “There’s a need for a massive and sustained public information campaign, which is really difficult to do,” Mackenzie believes. “But they have to have a go at it.”
But what is the most effective way of getting the message out to the right people at the right time? Richardson has a pragmatic and practical suggestion. “In my view, it should actually be part of the whole conveyancing process when you’re buying and selling a house,” she says. “There should be something linked to the sales process, saying these are the things that you should
be considering about this purchase in some way or another.
“If you’re an individual who’s looking at making improvements to your house, then those are the points where that information matters to you. And it should be easy to access across the system. I have long said that there should be one single portal that a consumer who is wishing to make energy-efficiency measures to their home should be able to access, and it should lead them through that process, in a simple way.
“In terms of funding, it is absolutely down to the Scottish Government. It’s their role to make sure that people are aware of their policies and the implications of them. I also think for this to work effectively, there needs to be some enhanced enforcement around it. And that requires extra money for Trading Standards at a local level to be able to provide business advice, as well as to deal with issues when they come up.”
“Clearly there’s going to be increased work for Trading Standards in this, so the funding has to be thought about,” Mackenzie says. “There has to be money for us but it’s not really serious money in the context of this enormous multi-billion pound thing.”
Expressing legitimate practical concerns about the implementation of HiBS – or any other initiative to protect the environment – should not be mistaken for naysaying or a rejection of the reality of man-made climate change. But Trading Standards, along with other regulators and enforcers, has a responsibility to ensure that efforts to address climate change don’t end up doing more harm than good.
“We are daily faced with the evidence of climate change and we have a responsibility to take action to ensure the security of the citizens of this country,” Richardson says. “We are going to face more extreme weather incidents on a more frequent basis, and transport and home heating emissions are among the biggest causes of carbon emissions.
“Efforts to tackle climate change have to happen across the world, but we in this country have benefited from the things that have driven climate change to a vast extent. There is a responsibility on us to take steps which are relatively simple. These are not enormous changes to people’s lifestyle. They are about making changes to how you heat your home and how you travel around the country, and they can have a huge effect.”
“We’re not saying this cannot be done,” Mackenzie concludes. “What we’re saying is this cannot be done on the cheap.”
PLEASE NOTE: This content originally appeared on our standalone Journal of Trading Standards website (www.journaloftradingstandards.co.uk), which we are gradually migrating over to the Journal's new home on the CTSI website. Please bear with us while we complete this process. This will not affect the production of our Print Edition.
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Content Tags: Analysis|Energy|Scotland
