Continue and, where possible, accelerate current energy efficiency, energy conversion, waste reduction and reuse initiatives, within the Council and across the community
Energy efficient housing stock can help make a contribution to reducing domestic heating costs as well as impact on emissions. Our council housing Energy Performance Certificate ‘pass/exemptions’ rating, across over 1600 properties, has increased over the last four years, moving from 85% in 2018-19 to 92% in 2022-23. We continue to prioritise heating and insulation upgrades in our stock, making the most of any opportunities to carry out enhanced insulation works when properties become void.
Over the past couple of years the Council has used Scottish Government energy efficiency grant funding, with £1,232,842 being spent during 2021-22 and £1,050,857 in the year to June 2023. When reporting to Members last summer, the point was made that COVID and the lack of locally accredited installers has affected the programme.
The original plan had been to create a Major Works team to include fitting/maintaining renewables in private and Council housing. However, that was delayed due to the availability of budget and staff resources. Funding for a Team Leader post has now been provisionally put in place for 2024-25 and it is hoped that a recruitment exercise can take place later in the year.
In terms of recycling, our performance tends to be affected by the fact that we have a Waste-to-Energy facility that produces energy for the District Heating Scheme in Lerwick. It is an area we acknowledge we perform poorly on when compared to national data, with our recycling rate being less than half the national average (Shetland - 21%, Scottish average - 43.3%. However, our figures took a sharp increase after the introduction of the kerbside recycling scheme and have shown good improvements since 2020-21. It is worth noting that Shetland (along with other Island Authorities) is exempt from food recycling and also has one of the best ‘divert from landfill’ rates, with over half of the household waste generated in 2022 diverted from landfill.