Energy / New energy efficiency work project put on ice
PLANS to accelerate energy efficiency work in Shetland through the council creating its own team of workers have been put on hold amid budget and recruitment issues.
The aim of the project was for Shetland Islands Council to undertake energy efficiency work in-house in both council buildings and domestic properties.
There would have also been a focus on upskilling workers in energy efficiency certifications, helping to boost the local availability.
But Shetland Islands Council’s environment and estate operations manager Carl Symons said the project needed upfront money – “upfront money that we do not have”.
He said the local authority is also experiencing a significant recruitment problem.
The project was first mooted last year with a budget of more than £400,000.
It would have seen workers recruited from a range of trades including joiners, electricians and plumbers.
Symons explained that the original premise was that they would undertake work that the council currently tenders out.
There was also the hope to upskill workers to enable them to enter the domestic market “to offer people upgrades on their home insulation, renewables, heat pumps, whatever it may be”.
“But all of this plan kind of required upfront money to put in place. And that was the bit that was causing us the problem,” he said.
The council’s budget for 2023/24 was set earlier this month, with all directorates due to carry out reviews into potential savings.
At the moment the SIC is expected to draw more than £4 million unsustainably from its reserves during the upcoming financial year.
With concerns over the bigger picture councillors also imposed a further savings target of one per cent across the SIC in 2023/24.
Symons said the premise of the proposed efficiency works team was that they would “make a difference, and use grant funding to make that difference”.
But just as the council was set to go live with recruiting a team leader for the project, the idea of finding savings – and re-looking at vacancies as part of this – was being introduced.
With a lack of people on the ground a report to councillors earlier this month warned that the vacancies were “unlikely to be filled”.
The hope is, however, that the project will still go ahead in the future, despite being deferred.
“The ambition is still to do it, but we had to balance the books this year,” Symons said.
Meanwhile figures released through a question in the Scottish Parliament show that 851 households in Shetland accessed the Home Energy Scotland advice service in 2021/22.
This was an increase from 696 the year before. In 2018/19 the number was 515, although it was 838 in 2015/16.
The Scottish Government funded Home Energy Scotland provides grants and loans for a range of energy efficiency work in homes such as insulation, heat pumps and solar panels.
For solid wall, underfloor, flat roof or room-in-roof insulation, however, people need to use a Green Deal certified installer, of which only three are listed in Shetland.
Meanwhile the council administers the Scottish Government’s Energy Efficient Scotland: Area Based Scheme (EES: ABS).
This provides grant funding for the installation of energy efficiency measures in private and privately rented households (council tax bands A-D) which are in or at risk of fuel poverty.
However there is often a lengthy waiting list.
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