THE Highland Council has unveiled a new online tool which it says will help speed up the process of identifying households most in need of energy efficiency improvements.
The new domestic property dashboard comes on the back of the local authority’s launch of its energy benchmarking tool, which is used to monitor non-domestic property related carbon emissions and energy expenditure.
Described as ‘invaluable’, the new tool can be utilised when applying for external funding to support the delivery of energy efficiency projects across all tenures. Data can be filtered to identify properties which are likely to be eligible for external grant funding.
The local authority explained that this would previously have been a manual process, but the new tool will allow officers to speed up the process and meet external funding deadlines, which often have tight deadlines and short lead in times.
The tool also allows the team to filter property types and includes all tenure housing, covering every domestic property in Highland.
Externally funded domestic retrofit projects offer eligible Highland residents the opportunity to benefit from energy efficiency measures which reduce carbon emissions, can reduce heating costs, reduce levels of fuel poverty, and ensure a just transition to net zero.
Chair of the Highland Council’s climate change committee, councillor Sarah Fanet, said, “The aim of the dashboard is to allow the Council to identify the most inefficient properties across the region (all tenures) to allow the Council to develop place-based projects which seek to improve property efficiency and support the Council’s ambition to reduce fuel poverty across the region, this is in line with the Council’s Net Zero and LHEES strategies.”
