The Scottish Government has confirmed it will not introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill during the current session of the Scottish Parliament.

Housing Secretary Màiri McAllan attributed the decision to repeated delays in the UK Government's Warm Homes Plan and a critical lack of clarity regarding the future cost of energy bills, particularly electricity.

Ms McAllan that key policy levers related to energy are reserved to Westminster, making it impossible to ask the Scottish Parliament to consider such an important piece of construction and energy legislation without a full understanding of the UK policy context. She stressed that the Scottish Government remains fully committed to its target of decarbonising all buildings in Scotland by 2045, but only in a way that avoids exacerbating fuel poverty.

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To maintain momentum in the building sector, the Housing Secretary announced additional grant support for homeowners, effective from December. This new funding will offer up to £7,500 (or up to £9,000 for households in remote rural and island areas) to incentivise connections to local heat networks. This extension brings the grant support for district heat networks into line with the existing grants available for installing heat pumps, positioning heat networks as a significant investment proposition.

Ms McAllan confirmed: "Decarbonising how we heat our homes and buildings is a vital step in our efforts to tackle climate change. We must take action and in a way that does not worsen fuel poverty."

She added that the clarity from Westminster is "critical in ensuring decarbonising homes does not exacerbate fuel poverty at a time of spiralling energy bills."

Despite the delay, the government has published a draft Buildings (Heating and Energy Performance) and Heat Networks (Scotland) Bill to provide investors and households with clarity on future legislative intentions. The government intends to introduce the formal legislation as early as possible in the next parliamentary session, pending the outcome of the 2026 election and confirmed clarity on the UK Government's position.

Since 2020, the Scottish Government has already allocated £1.67 billion of funding through its Heat in Buildings schemes, which includes over £840m dedicated to clean heat and energy efficiency projects. These initiatives have supported an average of 15,000 households annually to decarbonise.