What Scotland’s voters think about energy and why it matters
James Crouch on recent joint Opinium–iNHouse polling that shows how engagement with Scottish voters and communities is key to the successful delivery of Net Zero.
Republished 30th May 2025
This week, we were delighted to join a thought-provoking panel discussion with iNHouse Communications, delving into public attitudes in Scotland towards energy. The event, chaired by Jonathan Millman and featuring expert insights from Jennifer Watson (iNHouse), Alex Chitty (Labour Climate and Environment Forum) and yours truly from Opinium, saw us deep dive into recently commissioned polling on how Scots view energy, renewables, and the looming Net Zero transition.
Central to the event was recent research that Opinium conducted in Scotland. Scotland will be crucial for both government and the sector in delivering Net Zero, and by extension, Scottish public opinion is upstream from successfully delivering that goal.
Earlier this year, Opinium and iNHouse Communications conducted a nationally representative sample of 2,000 Scottish adults. Our findings show not just how politically potent this issue could be in Scotland in the run-up to the Scottish Parliament elections in 2026, but also what the public expect from both government and sector alike in delivering Net Zero.
Energy bills central to voters’ concerns and wallets
Unsurprisingly, rising energy bills remain front of mind for the Scottish public. Four in five believe bills will continue to rise, both in the short (81%) and long term (78%). This persistent pessimism explains why energy continues to be not only a salient policy issue, but also is a major element of the economic and cost of living debate which is even more central to political and public concerns. Despite a small dip in prices in recent weeks, there is yet to be any evidence of public perception shifting significantly. A reminder for all who follow headline inflation figures: if your bill doubled and then dropped by 20%, it still feels like a hike.
With this in mind, we asked who Scots trust most to bring down bills. While the SNP have a lead, it is far from insurmountable, and in a highly volatile political period, very much open to challenge.
A fifth (19%) of Scots trust the SNP the most to bring down energy bills, while 14% trust Scottish Labour the most. That 5-point lead is pretty narrow, and really our focus should be on just how open the field remains. A significant portion of the public remains undecided (36% don’t know which party they trust the most).
With Holyrood elections around the corner, this is clearly a live issue where all parties stand to gain or lose depending on how convincingly they can offer solutions. The SNP will look to entrench their slim advantage (most likely making whatever headway they can with the unpopularity of UK Labour), while Scottish Labour will feel they can make a case that they are the party really prepared to build the energy of the future. We don’t yet know what Reform’s contribution could be. All in all, energy remains a potent political battleground where all political players see some advantage in focusing on it over the next year.
Supporting renewables is all well and good, but it’s not enough
Turning away from the headline political battleground and towards the actual policy aspects, if Scottish voters could put their eggs all in one basket, it would be one marked ‘renewables’.
When asked what form of energy investment is most likely to bring down bills, the answer was clear: 48% said investing in renewables was the best way, compared to 19% for nuclear energy and 11% for fossil fuels. Across the board, Scots view renewable energy as the best path forward to address the UK’s energy and economic needs. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Parties of all stripes (for the most part) over recent decades – along with the industry’s messaging as a whole – have been geared towards saying that renewables are the cleaner and cheaper future of energy, and that other forms are dirtier, and hence more expensive. That PR battle has been won.
However, this striking top-level public support comes with caveats. It’s not enough for projects to be green. They must deliver real results. But what are people looking for and how do we communicate it?
The key challenge is both delivering and being seen to deliver
A key point to get across is that the bottom line with energy is, well, the bottom line. Bills matter, and bringing them down is what the public want (in Scotland and across the UK). When we asked what’s important for renewable energy projects to do, 56% said they should “provide reliable and affordable energy to Scotland” – almost twice as many as the second most popular answer. By a country mile, the public want renewable energy projects that produce the energy we need, at the price we need it. So really, the emphasis is that we’d better get on with it – and what we do build should be producing as much as possible.
That being said, commissioning, building and delivering the energy that will bring cheaper bills isn’t a job that will get done tomorrow – or even the day after. Fortunately, there’s a pretty long list of things we can talk about in the meantime. Because while that’s what these projects ultimately have to do, there’s a whole range of wider benefits the public expect that can serve as more tangible signs, on a hopefully shorter timescale, that progress is being made.
These aren’t just nice-to-haves. If we ask a slightly separate question – what should the Scottish Government consider when signing off new energy projects? – we find that, immediately behind the bottom line, are economic benefit and jobs created (49%), low environmental impact (47%), and what benefits it can bring to the local community (43%).
What that means is connecting major infrastructure developments to the things people really care about: investment in jobs, local services, environmental conservation, in addition to those crucial lower bills. There’s a clear imperative for developers and political leaders alike to engage early and meaningfully with communities, showing not just what projects are, but what they deliver – particularly how they’re meeting the needs of the ordinary people these projects are ultimately meant to benefit.
As we approach a pivotal election year for Scotland, both government and the sector should bear in mind just how important it is not just to show they mean business in the long term, but to find clear ways to communicate and demonstrate that they do in how they go about delivering the energy transition in the here and now.
Next steps
If you want to work with us on or find out more please feel to email politicalsocial@opinium.com or contact@inhouse.london.
Notes to Editor:
Opinium carried out an online survey of 2,099 adults aged 18+ in Scotland from 7th to 13th February 2025, commissioned by iNHouse Comms. Results have been weighted to be politically and nationally representative.