Green Heat Finance Task Force Report pt 1						

					

											
28 November 2023

									

			

					

	




    



    
        


            

                


                    

                        
The independent Green Heat Finance Taskforce, has published part one of its report. It identifies a suite of options which will allow individual property owners to access finance to cover the upfront costs for replacing polluting heating with clean heat solutions in the manner best suited to their own individual circumstances.


The Green Heat Finance Taskforce was established in response to a commitment in the Strategy, with the Taskforce asked to explore and report on the opportunity to secure private finance, including identifying potential products and the commerical drivers and barriers affecting the flow of finance into the retrofit of energy efficiency and ZDEH measures.


The report makes 9 recommendations for action by the Scottish Government aimed at expanding the availability and raising awareness of finance options for home and business property owners.


1. Scottish Government, from early 2024, should work with the Green Finance Institute, Scottish Financial Enterprise and others to expand current market engagement with brokers, finance providers, distributors and quantity surveyors to generate greater public awareness of financing products like green mortgages and encourage their expansion;


2. Scottish Government should begin work, from early 2024, in partnership with the Equity Release Council, to develop an information framework and guidance for Green Retrofit Equity Release products;


3. Scottish Government should research co-investment vehicles – blended finance with public and private input – with the support of the Scottish National Investment Bank, Scottish Financial Enterprise and Scottish Futures Trust, to identify by the end of 2024 where and how to test the approach in Scotland;


4. Scottish Government should collaborate with the Green Finance Institute to research the potential for Property Linked Financing in Scotland, with a view to establishing a scalable demonstrator by May 2025;


5. Scottish Government should review and publish, by the end of 2024, the potential of incentivising domestic property owners to increase levels of retrofit works through fiscal and taxation policy;


6. Scottish Government should review and publish, by the end of 2024, analysis of how non-domestic rates reliefs can better support and encourage investment in energy efficiency and ZDEH;


7. Scottish Government should seek to mitigate the split incentive issue by researching and piloting, by early 2025, the potential for green rental agreements, to encourage retrofitting in rented properties;


8. Scottish Government should immediately engage the UK Government and regulators to drive action on ZDEH and energy efficiency deployment, and support coordination of activities between parties; and


9. Scottish Government should, by mid-2024, map current heat in building data gaps and establish a framework to promote open data sharing to address these.


The full report can be read here.