Nearly 40% of Glasgow's homes fall below Scottish Government's energy efficiency standards

A total of 125,000 homes in Glasgow fall below energy efficiency standards recommended by the government.

Those 38% of homes in the city are classed as having energy performance certificate bands between D and G, which “don’t meet current government efficiency standards” according to the city council.

Meanwhile, 271,000 properties in the city, which are heated by gas need to switch to a “clean heating system by 2045 at the latest,” to reach Glasgow’s 2030 net zero target.

That figure is equivalent to 85% of all the city’s 330,000 homes.

The statistics were revealed in a report about plans to retrofit Glasgow’s buildings to make them more environmentally friendly, warmer and decrease energy costs.

One major aim was to roll out a major project to boost energy efficiency in pre-1919 tenements but it has been found that “large-scale retrofit” is not feasible due to huge costs and having to move people out.

A council report presented to this week’s net zero and climate progress monitoring city policy committee said there is a plan to create guidance on costs and greener heat sources for homeowners to help them make decisions on retrofitting.

A new housing retrofit council team has been carrying out research and other efforts since it was established in 2023.

Meanwhile, efforts are continuing to install external wall insulation in thousands of homes in the city as part of the Scottish Government-funded Heat and Energy Efficient Scotland: Area Based Schemes. The scheme is rolled out in areas of multiple deprivation and is open to homeowners and private landlord-owned properties. A total of 6,000 privately owned homes have benefited since 2014.

The meeting heard the housing crisis added to difficulties in moving people out of homes to allow retrofitting to take place.

Councillor Chris Cunningham, SNP, said the current housing crisis means there are even more reasons to escalate efforts to make properties more energy efficient.

Speaking at Tuesday’s committee meeting councillor Cunningham, said: “Don’t look at the housing emergency as a reason not to do something – look at it as a reason to start doing something.”

A council official said she didn’t “disagree” but stressed the scale of the challenge in terms of net zero ambitions.

She said statutory requirements on owners and grant funding discussions should be raised with the government.