Scottish households and businesses are set to benefit from a clearer, more reliable framework for improving energy efficiency in homes, offices and leisure spaces, as work begins on a new national approach designed to identify suitable building upgrades, including a move to low-carbon heating.
The Scottish Government has appointed trusted global infrastructure consultancy AECOM to develop a framework that will provide people with tailored, building-specific advice on what improvements could safely and effectively meet future energy standards. The design of the project is expected to be completed in spring 2026.
The new approach, called the Heat & Energy Efficiency Technical Suitability Assessment (HEETSA), is intended to go well beyond the requirements of traditional Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs). While EPCs are widely used, their standardised recommendations often fail to capture the technical realities of Scotland’s varied building types. HEETSA aims to bridge that gap by offering improvement measures that are more suitable, practical and precisely tailored to each individual property.
AECOM will lead the work until spring 2026, reviewing how retrofit assessments currently function across Scotland for both domestic and communal buildings. The findings will be used to refine HEETSA, identifying what works well, where gaps exist, and what needs improving so that future recommendations are consistent and reliable. This process is expected to help build much-needed consumer confidence in the retrofit market.
The review will also define who can carry out HEETSA assessments, setting out the qualifications, training, experience and standards that assessors must meet to ensure that the advice is trusted. In addition, AECOM will examine how best to present the findings, allowing policymakers to develop HEETSA into a clear national assessment framework that homeowners and building owners can easily use.
This initiative forms a key part of the Scottish Government’s wider Heat in Buildings Programme, which is providing households and commercial property owners with retrofit guidance, funding opportunities and, in time, future regulations. With buildings currently accounting for around one fifth of Scotland’s emissions, clearer advice will help people understand the most appropriate steps to take as the country moves towards its legally binding 2045 net zero target.
David Ross, Regional Director at AECOM, said: “HEETSA has the potential to be a significant step in how Scotland supports people to make their homes and shared spaces more energy efficient. It’s an opportunity to give property owners advice they can genuinely trust, tailored to their building, clear in its recommendations and grounded in the realities of Scotland’s diverse housing stock.
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“Our team is bringing its full range of expertise to help shape a framework that is practical and future-ready. Working closely with the Scottish Government and through sharing our suggestions for the design of the project next year, we’ll create an approach that strengthens confidence in retrofit.”
AECOM already has a strong track record in supporting Scotland’s transition to low-carbon heat. The company previously helped the Scottish Government produce the country’s first national “heat map”, which identified areas of high heat demand and potential for renewable heat development. Initially piloted across three councils before being expanded into a national tool, the map has helped local authorities plan more effectively for cleaner heating.
AECOM now leads a multidisciplinary team of industry specialists at the forefront of building retrofit. This includes architectural and consultancy partners such as Four Walls Consultants, Spruce Retrofit Consulting, Carbon Futures and Energy Conscious Design Architects, alongside academic experts from Glasgow Caledonian and Robert Gordon Universities and Dr Richard Atkins, Chair of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).
