Energy Systems Catapult welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on changes to Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs). Designed and used appropriately, EPCs should play a vital role in decarbonising Scotland’s housing stock and we are pleased to see the Scottish Government recognise this potential and the need for improvements to the current system.

The Catapult’s response was prepared by Fay Holland, Senior Energy Policy Advisor and was submitted on Monday 16 October 2023.

Key points:

• The Catapult agrees that the current EPC system needs reform in order to drive the changes needed in the buildings sector to reach Net Zero.
• We suggest an alternative set of outcome-focused primary metrics: Energy Efficiency, Climate Impact, and Energy Cost. We consider that this would better support householders’ decision-making and enable policy makers to target their interventions.
• We have concerns about the Heating System Type metric dampening innovation in the development of low carbon heating technology as it would not distinguish between the most and least efficient models within a ‘type’.
• We support the proposals to move towards a digital and accessible EPC register. In the long-term, we would like to see this include a ‘live’ EPC, updated whenever changes are made to the fabric or heating system. We therefore encourage the Scottish Government to further explore the development of Green Building Passports.