OIC welcomes £1.75m for home energy efficiency works in 2025-26

Orkney Islands Council has welcomed £1.75m from the Scottish Government’s Heat and Energy Efficient Scotland scheme for 2025-26, to help even more homes across the county make improvements to their heating and insulation.

Since 2015-16, the HEES: ABS (Heat and Energy Efficient Scotland: Area Based Scheme) and similar previous government initiatives have helped nearly 1300 households in Orkney make their homes warmer through the installation of energy-saving improvements, primarily insulation.

The 2024-25 project year saw just under £1.5m (£1,482,573.93) of measures delivered to homes across Orkney – that’s 106 households receiving 146 energy efficiency measures.

The original award of £1,210,260 in July 2024 was topped up by an additional £300k secured at the start of 2025, following pleas from the Council and the county’s MSP for more funds to help meet the high demand for the scheme in the county.

In Orkney, the allocation of HEES:ABS funding and the installation of measures is managed by Warmworks on behalf of Orkney Islands Council.

Scotland wide, Warmworks has helped nearly 50,000 people stay warm in their homes since 2015.

Commenting on this year’s allocation for Orkney, Gwenda Shearer - Chair of the Council’s Education, Leisure and Housing committee – said:

“The team here at the Council and at Warmworks worked very hard over the past year to demonstrate to the Scottish Government the improvements to private sector homes and the increases in energy efficiency we can deliver, given the resources to do so.

“This work has paid off, not only with a £300k boost in January, but with the very pleasing news this week that our full 2025-26 bid for £1.75m - which is £500k over and above the default amount for the county - has been accepted at the outset.

“We project this will help deliver 189 measures to 159 households over the coming year.

“This return to a higher level of funding means we can really focus on tackling the backlog of households waiting for funding - who I’m sure will be excited to hear this news too.”

The HEES:ABS scheme is open to homeowners, private sector tenants and landlords.

Warmworks has an office in Kirkwall and works with local contractors to install energy efficiency measures for eligible households.

Under the scheme, eligible households can receive funding for:

• Loft insulation.
• Internal wall insulation.
• External wall insulation.
• Under floor insulation.
• High heat retention storage heaters.

Householders should contact Warmworks to see if they’re eligible for funding.

Ross Armstrong, Chief Executive of Warmworks said: “It’s fantastic to see a return to a higher level of funding allocated to the Council and we’re looking forward to getting on with the job of translating that into warmer, more energy efficient homes for local people.

“We know people remain concerned about home heating costs, and our aim is to help them manage these costs by improving the energy efficiency of their homes.

“We can also advise on other sources of funding and advice, so we'd encourage everyone in Orkney who is keen to look at how they can make their home warmer and more energy efficient to get in touch.”

To find out more, call the Kirkwall Warmworks team on their freephone 0800 038 6022 or email orkney@warmworks.co.uk

You can also visit Warmworks’ office in Kirkwall at the following address (no appointment needed): 2 West Tankerness Lane, Kirkwall, KW15 1AL.