In their Blueprint for a post-carbon society (2018) report, OVO Energy and Imperial College London estimated that smart electric heat could generate system savings of £3.9 billion a year.

A 2015 insights report by the Energy Technologies Institute indicates the investment opportunity to retrofit UK homes is estimated at £100 billion.

The Energy Innovation Needs Assessment (2019), commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), estimated that the total Gross Value Added (GVA) potential from innovation in the smart systems, heating & cooling, buildings, road transport, hydrogen & industry will be £11.5 billion per year in 2030, rising to £29.3 billion per year in 2050.

Scottish Government’s Heat in Buildings Strategy (October 2021) estimates that the total capital cost of converting Scotland’s building stock to zero emissions by 2045 is in the region of £33 billion and that an additional 16,400 jobs will be supported across the Scottish economy in 2030 as a result of investment in the deployment of zero emissions heat.

An economic case has been developed for the WESA initiative by management consultants O’Herlihy & Co Ltd, based on a benefits assessment designed to capture the key impacts associated with WESA’s implementation.

The economic analysis focussed on the impacts of five priority Use Cases for WESA and captured the long-term economic impacts of these WESA Use Cases using HM Treasury assessment methodology and assumptions based on an overall (capital and revenue) public sector investment of £29M.

The key findings were as follows:

• Over 9,700 direct, indirect and induced jobs would be created
• An additional net GVA of over £430M would be delivered
• An economic return on investment of 14.9:1 would be achieved over a ten-year period