Agenda item

Consider report by Director Infrastructure and Environment. (Copy attached.)

         There had been circulated copies of a report by the Director Infrastructure and Environment which provided an update on the consultative draft Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) and an overview of the consultation process.  The Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (Scotland) Order 2022 placed a duty on Local Authorities to prepare, publish and update a Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES).  The LHEES would be the core strategy and delivery programme for reducing energy demand and decarbonising heat supply.  The proposed consultative draft LHEES had been prepared in accordance with Scottish Government Guidance which set out the drivers, scope and requirements of the strategy.  The Chief Planning and Housing Officer, Mr Ian Aikman, presented a summary of the key points of the report and highlighted that deliverability formed one of the key themes of the LHEES, which was expected to be regularly updated and amended as changes took place over time.   The Principal Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy Officer, Mr Neil Robertson, provided a summary of the timeline for the LHEES, explaining that it had became a statutory duty for all Local Authorities in May 2022.  The Council was required to publish its strategy and delivery plans.  Both of those plans had to be renewed on a five-year cycle.  Members welcomed the report but stressed that officers needed to work with urgency to ensure that the action which needed to be taken was progressed, particularly relating to those properties which were poorly insulated. In response to a question regarding a lack of Council involvement in tackling local labour issues, Mr Aikman outlined that a variety of initiatives involved in the LHEES which required work with third party organisations and groups and undertook to work to address the feedback received into the revised document.   It was highlighted that a change to planning laws to provide authorities with the power to insist that new developments must include the most energy efficient systems would have a positive impact.  In response to a question regarding whether work was ongoing with partners to try and promote the take-up of offers such as interest free loans to undertake home improvements related to energy efficiency, Mr Robertson explained that events were becoming more prevalent, and that work was required to ensure that homeowners were sufficiently informed of what was available and appropriate to their homes’.   

         DECISION

         AGREED to:-

         (a)     note the draft Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy;

         (b)    note that the final Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy would be presented to Council before the end of the financial year; and

         (c)     approve the plans for formal consultation.