Reality check for Scottish Government's housing policies is a welcome sign

There are growing signs that the Scottish Government has started to listen and react to the concerns the housing sector has about recently proposed legislation. First there was the welcome announcement by Housing Minister Paul McLennan that rent caps in the private rented sector (PRS) would be suspended until at least 2027.

Then last week the acting net-zero secretary, Gillian Martin, told MSPs that the draft Heat in Buildings Bill would no longer be put forward in its current form because she said the legislation would “make people poorer”.

The bill proposed replacing gas-powered boilers with heat pumps and alternative forms of heating and demanding all new properties be fitted with new systems whilst also retrofitting existing homes with the target of cutting emissions by 75 per cent by 2030.

But as Ms Martin explained: “I’m going to introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill when I can be satisfied that those interventions within it will decrease fuel poverty at the same time as decarbonising houses.”

Few would argue with the principle of cutting emissions, but this bill was ill-conceived both in its aims and timescale, guaranteeing the Scottish Government would fail to meet its own targets. There was no plan in place to expand training to increase the number of installers, there was limited financial support for homeowners to fund these changes, combined with an impossible timescale plucked out of the air, and little understanding that most of the proposed heating alternatives were actually unsuitable for a substantial part of the Scottish housing stock.

With 40 per cent of Scottish housing comprising tenements suggesting that heat pumps were a universal solution was flawed thinking to say the least. Most people with an understanding of the Scottish housing market understood, and warned, that this legislation was unworkable, and unsuitable to serve the needs of Scottish homeowners, renters, landlords, and investors.

All it has done is further delay investment in the housing sector, produce uncertainty among homebuyers and investors, and delay further any possibility of reducing emissions even by 2045.

What is required is a coherent, negotiated, workable, and consulted upon piece of legislation that puts in place a deliverable policy over a reasonable timeframe with appropriate support for all involved.

But credit is due that the Scottish Government has, at last, started to realistically reassess policies that were developed principally from an ideological standpoint. There is no place for this if the key issues facing the Scottish housing market are to be addressed.

Only by consulting and working with the housing sector can any sensible and serious legislation be developed. While Ms Martin did not say this bill has been abandoned the tone of her speech certainly indicated that it would not be making an appearance in its current form any time soon.

While a cynic might say that this has everything to do with next year’s elections and little to do with suddenly wanting to produce policy which might actually work it is still welcome that this and the end of rent caps have been announced.

The Scotland Housing Bill remains but, given these last two policy turnarounds, it will be interesting to see whether that bill continues. The suspicion must be that it too is being seriously examined and rethought and will not survive as in its current form.