The latest report from the Highland Energy Community Partnership examines how tradespeople and companies experience the supply chain in the Highlands.
The report draws on the experiences of the local installers, tradespeople and small businesses, who are essential to delivering energy efficiency improvements in remote and rural communities. Those interviewed offer a range of efficiency upgrades, including heat pumps, solar technology, and insulation measures.
The experiences shared within the report help identify both current barriers and potential solutions for establishing a robust supply chain in the Highlands.
We are holding a launch event for the report at the UHI Inverness on Wednesday 12th of August. The launch event will share the report’s key findings and create space for discussion, networking and practical solution-finding – book your free place.
On this page
Background
Previous projects show that improving energy efficiency in the Highlands can be challenging. The challenges and impacts have been well documented in another report from the Highland Energy Community Partnership: A Perfect Storm: 2026 Update on Fuel Poverty in Rural Scotland.
Challenges identified in that report included supply chain limits, skills availability, and short-term or disconnected funding cycles. These, coupled with other pressures, means that more than a third of rural households are living in fuel poverty.
Key findings
Local tradespeople and businesses reported that the retrofit supply chain is active in the Highlands and Islands, but under pressure.
The report sorts the barriers into five broad themes:
- Systems, standards and compliance – issues linked to accreditation, standards, rules and guarantees
- Funding, cost and financial risk – how funding processes, affordability and financial risk determine whether work goes ahead
- Coordination, logistics and place – how work is organised across trades, materials, time and geography
- Customer confidence, trust and demand – how customers understand retrofit, decide who to trust, and whether to proceed
- Delivery capacity and workforce – the availability of skilled people and the impact of training, recruitment and retention
The issues that tradespeople and businesses encounter can cut across several themes.
The solutions
Local tradespeople and businesses explained what would encourage them to take on more energy efficiency and renewables retrofit work. The many opportunities identified can be grouped into seven themes.
Where accessible training routes, apprenticeships and local employment support businesses to build and retain capacity.
Where predictable funding, advance notice of schemes and guaranteed work allow businesses to plan, invest and expand.
Where simpler pathways, aligned requirements and a reduced administrative burden make it easier to participate in funded work.
Where guarantees, approvals and retrofit pathways reflect traditional and stone buildings and local housing conditions.
Where area-based approaches, networks and shared infrastructure reduce travel, duplication and inefficiency.
Where confidence in standards and protection from poor practice support sustainable growth without compromising quality.
Where access to materials and components supports installation and ongoing maintenance in remote and rural areas.