Why Scottish homeowners could be fined £15,000 if they don't fit an expensive heat pump

That is the daily reality of a housing emergency created by 18 years of nationalist government. Yet instead of fixing the fundamentals, the SNP – whether governing alone or with the extremist Greens – have neglected them.

Worse still, they are adding to the burden on homeowners with their relentless obsession with net-zero targets – most of which they fail to meet anyway. For the SNP, ideology comes first, and to hell with the financial consequences for ordinary Scots.

The latest example is the nationalists’ Buildings and Heat Networks Bill. Although the Scottish Government has recently put the bill on the back burner, it has not been scrapped and is expected to return in the next parliamentary session.

While it does not explicitly mandate heat pumps, the reality is many homes will have no option but to install one – at enormous cost – in order to comply with the onerous energy standards it imposes. If they don’t, they could find themselves hit with a fine of up to £15,000.

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Minimum energy efficiency standards

If you’re a homeowner, what the SNP are spinning as “flexible” standards will mean one thing: spending thousands improving insulation or ripping out the current heating system.

Whether by design or by accident, the result will be the same – another enormous bill landing on the doormats of hard-working families already struggling with the cost of living and the SNP making Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK.

And landlords won’t escape either. Separately from the bill, the Scottish Government is preparing new regulations to force every private rented property to meet minimum energy efficiency requirements – by 2028 for new tenancies and 2033 for all homes.

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Scotland’s rental sector is already on its knees. Piling new environmental costs on providers will only accelerate the landlord exodus, driving up rents for tenants and deepening the housing emergency which the SNP created and claims to want to solve.

Small landlords – often ordinary people who invested in a second property for their retirement income – are being driven out of the market altogether. The result is fewer homes to rent, higher prices, and tenants left with less choice and poorer standards.

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Tackling climate change in an achievable way

I want to be clear: improving energy efficiency is a good thing. Reducing emissions is a good thing. But policies must be fair, affordable, and achievable. Right now, the SNP’s approach to net zero is none of those things.

The Scottish Conservatives have been consistent. We support tackling climate change, but not through punitive measures that hammer households by imposing regulations that are prohibitively expensive to comply with.

That is why we have pledged a moratorium on new compulsory energy upgrades for the next parliamentary session. We will not allow ideological grandstanding to empty the pockets of Scots who simply want to live in warm, safe, affordable homes.

The problem is exacerbated by the SNP’s dire record on housebuilding. In the last year, only 18,869 new homes were completed, the lowest figure since the pandemic. Of those, just 6,851 were affordable homes.

At this pace, the SNP will fall hopelessly short of their promise to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. That would be more than just another addition to their litany of broken promises. It would amount to a betrayal of every young family hoping to get on the property ladder.

The problem with rent controls

Throw in the SNP’s obsession with rent controls and you have the perfect storm for a housing crisis. Rent controls have failed everywhere they’ve been introduced around the world. By discouraging landlords from letting their properties, they shrink the rental market and drive prices up even further.

We’ve already seen many small landlords leave the sector altogether because the SNP government is working against them, rather than with them.

Instead of punishing those providing homes, the Scottish Conservatives would create a rental market which incentivises property letting, as well as increasing the supply of housing.

We would scrap the SNP’s plan for permanent rent controls to halt the exodus of landlords and the exponential rise in rents that goes with it. We would also do more to make homeownership a reality.

Scrapping LBTT on primary residences

Right now, it is so difficult for Scots to get on the property ladder because of the unaffordability of homes and the huge sum of capital needed upfront. What used to be a normal rite of passage for young working people has become a distant fantasy for many.

That’s why we would abolish the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax on primary residences. Mirroring Kemi Badenoch’s UK policy to abolish stamp duty, this transformational plan would remove one of the biggest barriers to people getting a foot on the property ladder and give a massive boost to the housing market.

We would also protect homeowners from net-zero regulations by guaranteeing that no new energy efficiency upgrades will be required by law over the next session of parliament.

And let’s be clear, rural Scotland will be hit hardest by the SNP’s plans. Communities in the Highlands and Islands, where oil heating is often the only viable option, face disproportionate costs. The reality for them will be a forced transition that ignores geography, infrastructure, and affordability.

A simple vision

As Conservatives, we believe that owning your own home should be within reach for everyone who works hard and plays by the rules. Our vision is simple: cut red tape, speed up planning, empower councils and create the conditions for builders, landlords and homeowners to thrive.

Scotland deserves a housing policy grounded in reality, not wrapped in rhetoric. It’s time for common sense to replace ideology, and for the SNP government to put people, not arbitrary and unaffordable targets, at the heart of its decision-making on housing.

Meghan Gallacher MSP is Scottish Conservative Shadow Housing Secretary