Centre for Public Policy

Join us on 28 July for an event co-hosted by the Glasgow Centre for Sustainable Energy and Centre for Public Policy Early Career Researchers' Network, focused on housing and energy in Scotland.

Please note that this is an in-person only event

The Scottish Government has identified the retrofitting1 of existing housing as a key component in the transition to net zero. In 2024, the Scottish Government asked experts to help design a new way to assess home energy upgrades. The goal is to encourage smarter retrofits, build stronger public trust, and make real progress toward cleaner heating.

This event, co-hosted by the Centre for Sustainable Energy and the Centre for Public Policy Early Career Researchers' Network, will focus on housing and energy in Scotland. It will explore research concerning best practices in retrofitting and how current approaches risk adversely impacting low socio-economic communities. The session will pay particular attention to the ways in which existing policy can be used and misused; attending to the recent phenomenon of ‘renovictions’, where landlords use the retrofitting policy as a mechanism to evict low-income renters and increase rents post-renovation.

The event will bring together leading academics, from housing policy to engineering, and third-sector organisations to discuss the relationship between housing policy and socio-economic inequalities in Scotland and how we can move toward a more sustainable and equitable future together. The afternoon will begin with presentations on housing and energy, which will be followed by a panel discussion focused on the proposed Housing (Scotland) Bill, which is currently being discussed in the Scottish Parliament. The panel will be chaired by Prof. Ken Gibb, an expert in housing economics and devolved housing policies across the UK. He will be joined by leading practitioners and activists in the housing and inequalities space.

1 Understood as making improvements to an existing building to increase its energy sustainability, sustainability, and comfort.

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First published: 9 July 2025