Politicians can rid Scotland of cold homes by 2025 if they commit to tackling the country's cold homes crisis

Political parties should commit to ridding Scotland of the scourge of cold homes by 2025, said campaigners today.

The call by the Existing Homes Alliance, whose members include WWF Scotland, Changeworks, and the National Insulation Association, follows the publication of newly compiled data revealing there are up to 1.5million cold homes in the country – with tens of thousands in every parliamentary constituency.

An estimated 1,482,000 households in Scotland currently live in a home that is deemed unhealthily cold, as it is rated below a C Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) standard. This is 62% of households in Scotland.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended that, as a minimum, properties should be raised to an EPC band C and ideally to a band B to help reduce the risk of death and ill health associated with living in a cold home.

No-one should live in a hard-to-heat, draughty home - Dr Sam Gardner

Alan Ferguson, chair of the Existing Homes Alliance, said that if the next Scottish Government set an objective to bring all homes in Scotland to at least a C energy performance standard by 2025, they could end the scourge of cold homes.

“Not only did more than 50 business and civil society organisations welcome the cross-party commitment to making improved energy efficiency for Scotland’s homes a National Infrastructure Priority, but the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence suggested a C standard is the minimum energy efficiency level to avoid the risk of death and ill-health associated with cold homes,” he said.

Dr Sam Gardner, head of policy at WWF Scotland said heating Scotland’s buildings accounts for over half of climate change emissions and ensuring every home reaches a C energy performance standard by 2025 is the minimum level of ambition required.

He added: “A political commitment that no-one should live in a hard-to-heat, draughty home would be good for millions of households, and would drastically reduce emissions too.”

And Wilson Shaw, chair of the National Insulation Association (NIA) in Scotland said such a commitment would give the energy efficiency industry the confidence to invest for the longer term.