Greener homes plan to meet climate targets 'to cost £10.7bn'

It will cost a staggering £10.7bn to transform homes across the Glasgow City Region into energy efficient properties, according to estimates.

Glasgow City Council and other local authorities want homeowners to carry out work on their properties to boost insulation and reduce energy use.

A total of 428,000 properties are currently below the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C in the area, with A being the best and G the worst.

Seventy-one percent of those homes are privately owned while 12% are rented by landlords.

Glasgow’s iconic tenement blocks in particular are understood to be lacking in energy efficiency.

A council report said “working with owner occupiers” is one of the most significant risks to making sure homes become greener.

It said: “Overcoming the range of barriers to up-scaling retrofit with owner occupiers will require a comprehensive framework of incentives and/or regulation being in place.

“The Scottish Government has stated that it is looking at regulation for owner occupiers but this is unlikely to be in place until after 2025.”

Consultants have been hired to carry out a feasibility study to consider how a large-scale retrofit could be rolled out in the region.

A report is being presented to the Glasgow City Region cabinet next week, setting out early steps to make the mass retrofit of thousands of homes a reality.

Consultants found there is a risk of lack of suppliers to perform the work on homes.

They recommend local authorities should approach the Scottish Government about getting long-term funding for housing association and council homes to undergo a retrofit.

The report said: “This would allow Glasgow City Region to start to progress work with the local supply chain to improve capacity and invest more in training new employees and re-skilling existing workers to deliver retrofit.”

The councils are looking at “further steps to achieve low or net-zero carbon solutions for all 886,156 domestic properties in the City Region,” according to the report.

Staff are to carry out tasks in different workstreams to figure out how the mass retrofits can be delivered. The workstreams will look at engaging with residents, financing retrofits, growing local supply chains, training the workforce as well as other issues.

There are currently only short-term funding streams available to councils for retrofit.

The Glasgow City Region covers the following local authority areas: Glasgow City Council, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde.

By local democracy reporter Sarah Hilley