Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting Aberdeen City Council to manage the impact of the UK Government’s increase to employer national insurance contributions. (S6O-04387)

Thank you.

As I said, if folk truly believe in nuclear power, they would want a plant in their areas, and I am grateful to Mr Whitfield for owning his point of view. I remind members that, as Mr Stewart said, nuclear power stations need pylons to carry electricity. I believe that it was the former Tory Government that denied us the opportunity to have power lines going underground, because that would have cost far too much money.

I want Scotland to become a hub for clean, green and cheap renewable energy. I want a just transition for the north-east. I want Aberdeen to become the net zero capital of the world. I want my constituents to no longer struggle to heat their homes. That is what I want, and the way to realise that is through a renewable future.

We must be steadfast in our support for Ukraine at this uncertain time, and I echo the need for international solidarity to defeat Russian aggression. Can the First Minister provide an update regarding the financial support that the Scottish Government has made available to support the humanitarian response to the conflict in Ukraine?

Mr Whitfield, please tell me where the nuclear power station should be.

We have a £500 million just transition fund that will help our workers in the north-east of Scotland and Moray. That is one way of doing it.

Let us contrast that with the alternative. We could dither about for decades to plan and build nuclear power stations, which would then likely take decades longer to break even. It is estimated that Hinkley Point C’s construction will cost about £46 billion in today’s money—that is for just one plant. I do not for one second believe that MSPs in the chamber who have campaigned against pylons in their constituencies and regions would be willing to welcome a new nuclear power plant in their patches.

At this point, I will take an intervention from any member who wants to campaign for a nuclear power plant in the area that they represent.

Can I speak? I am aware that I have only 10 seconds left—[Interruption.] Mr Kerr, you may laugh, but I have taken your intervention and I have taken Mr Whitfield’s.

I seem to be speaking a lot about energy recently, and that is not just in the scheduled debates. Energy bills are a pressing concern for folk right across Scotland. Thousands upon thousands of folk are struggling to pay them, and many who would have been comfortable just a few years ago are now feeling the pinch. As if folk were not scunnered enough, they have just heard the news that their bills are due to go up again.

In my Donside constituency, every day this winter, I have heard folks’ experiences of fuel poverty. Even in the energy capital of Europe, folk cannot afford their energy bills. That needs to change, and it needs to change soon.

People are not willing to wait two decades for their energy bills to go down. I believe that that is the timeline for a new nuclear power station to be planned and constructed in the UK. It is also a timeline that I do not think delivers for thousands of my constituents who rely on the energy sector for their livelihoods. I will not miss any opportunity to shoehorn in a call for more funding and support for a just transition and to keep making the case for those workers’ futures.

To my mind, the future of many of those workers is Scotland’s renewable future. We have the energy; we just need the power. Actually, we do not just have the energy, because we have the people as well, and we need to keep them. Since the 1970s, we have assembled one of the best workforces in the world, by training folk locally and encouraging people to move here from far and wide. We have had a little bit of an advantage, because not that many places have oil, and many of the other places that do have it have harsh climates or political regimes that are based on different values to our own.

Although it may feel like we have more wind than most and although our coastline offers huge opportunities, we have to recognise that everywhere has sun, wind and water. Looking ahead, we are now truly competing against the world. If we are going to seize the opportunity to become a net zero capital, we need to act now. We have a huge head start, though, given the amazing workforce that we have. Some of their skills might not match perfectly with what is needed, but Aberdeen has a long history of being able to improvise and adapt.

Our city has been weathered by the North Sea and carved out of granite. It established itself as Europe’s oil and gas capital through tremendous engineering feats that saw us extracting oil 100 miles off our coast from miles beneath the surface. Aberdeen has helped to shape the modern world, and it will do so again in the move to net zero. We are the future net zero capital of the world, so the next chapter in Aberdeen’s story will see us harness the energy of mother nature.

To make that happen, though, a number of things have to occur. One is investment—in green skills, in the supply chain, in a just transition and in the Acorn project, which should be given the green light. We need certainty. New technologies need price guarantees, and the whole industry has been calling for tax certainty. No other industry sees its taxes vary to the extent that the energy industry has seen over the past few years. Finally, there is migration. We have a track record of assembling the best workforce in the world, but employers across my constituency have told me that they are struggling with the visa rules that are in place now.

I will take an intervention from Mr Kerr. If he is going to speak about nuclear power stations, I would like to ask him where one will go in his region.

The UK economy is not delivering for the average Scot. The costs of basics—food, energy and housing—have gone up much more quickly than inflation has risen, and wages are not keeping up. The problem has reached breaking point with the cost of living crisis, but it has been a long time in the making.

A large part of that is down to how the UK has run our economy. It has overseen deindustrialisation. It has handed key industries to the private sector. It has isolated us with Brexit, which has closed off markets and locked out skilled workers. It has allowed a situation to arise in which we now talk in the chamber about in-work poverty. The UK economy does not work for our workers.

The north-east is one of the few exceptions to that deindustrialisation, and that has served everyone well. The oil crash aside, industry has supported jobs and has underpinned our local economy in Aberdeen. On a UK level, it has provided energy security, and North Sea revenues have propped up Governments of every shade. If the vast wealth from Scotland’s oil had been reinvested in Scotland, we would perhaps be having a different debate. However, we need to deal with what is in front of us. Whether the oil runs out or is phased out, we are moving into a new chapter in Aberdeen’s story. The just transition and the global move to net zero offer a golden opportunity for the north-east and Scotland as a whole, but we need the investment to make that work.

The Scottish Government has already stepped up to the plate with a £500 million just transition fund. With another £500 million to develop the offshore wind supply chain and a range of other investments, such as £100 million for digital infrastructure, £200 million to fund the Scottish National Investment Bank and £320 million for enterprise agencies, the Scottish Government is putting money where it is needed to support existing industries and nurture new ones. The UK Government would do well to step up to the plate and at least match the just transition fund.

Beyond direct investment, our Scottish Government is doing a great job of marketing Scotland. I accept that that might not seem like a hard job at times, as we have an awful lot to offer, but that work is bringing in investment and creating jobs. When it comes to inward investment, Scotland is outperforming every part of the UK except London. When it comes to foreign direct investment, Scotland outpaced both the UK and Europe in FDI growth last year. Aberdeen was the eighth-best city outside London for FDI, with Edinburgh and Glasgow also in the top 10.

Since 2007, when the SNP came to power, gross domestic product per person in Scotland has grown by 10.5 per cent, compared with growth of just 6.5 per cent in the UK. I want that success to continue in spite of Labour’s shambolic approach to the economy. Labour is risking north-east jobs with an extended windfall tax, taxing work with a national insurance rise for employers and refusing to break down trade barriers by rejoining the single market. However, I am pleased that, whatever barriers the UK Government puts in Scotland’s way, whatever shade of UK Government we have and for as long as we have a UK Government, the Scottish Government is continuing to bring in investment and is getting on with the job of making Scotland a fairer and more prosperous nation.

On Tuesday, Ofgem announced that the energy price cap will rise by 6.4 per cent in April, which means that energy bills will rise for the third time under the Labour United Kingdom Government. Despite Labour’s election pledge to cut energy bills by £300, those bills have instead increased by £300. Citizens Advice Scotland has stated that it has supported 9,000 folk with their energy needs and that the average energy debt is currently £2,500. Does the First Minister agree that that blatant hoodwinking of voters from Anas Sarwar’s Westminster bosses is nothing short of disgraceful during this cost of living crisis, especially in Aberdeen, which is the energy capital of the world?