Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government must adopt a range of approaches to address housing pressures, not just in Glasgow but right across Scotland. I feel that part of the approach should be to ensure that existing housing stock is being used effectively. Can the minister update the Parliament on his work to ensure that long-term empty homes are brought back into use? That would go some way towards addressing the current situation.

Tragically, a train derailment at Carmont on the Aberdeen to Dundee line in 2020 resulted in the loss of three lives. What work has been done to improve safety and resilience on the Aberdeen to Dundee line?

I know that the motion mentions industrial zones—

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am a former councillor in Aberdeen City Council. As it is traditional to do so, I congratulate Douglas Lumsden on bringing the debate to the chamber.

His timing in lodging the motion ties in with what has happened not just in Dubai, on the global stage of COP28, but in our old stomping ground of Aberdeen City Council. On the same day that COP28 came to a close, Aberdeen City Council was due to discuss a petition calling for it to join Nuclear Free Local Authorities, whose members aim to

“tackle, in practical ways and within their powers, the problems caused by civil and military nuclear hazards.”

I understand from my former council colleagues that the petitioners, when they finally spoke to councillors earlier this month, gave a very impressive presentation, in which they spoke of how renewable energy generation is cheaper and does not leave future generations having to deal with the nuclear waste that is left behind.

During a cost of living crisis that has been driven, in part, by high energy prices, it is particularly important that we consider how much it costs to generate energy, especially if there is a risk that those costs will be passed on to consumers.

In case the member did not realise what I meant, I was referring to places where new plants would be built, because Mr Lumsden seems to have decided that they should be near the places that they are going to serve.

There might be a role for nuclear in Scotland at some point in the future but, at present, the cost of new power stations runs into billions of pounds, they take years to construct, and they look set to cost about three times as much per unit as can be achieved from renewables sources. I firmly believe that, as we look to tomorrow, our focus should remain on clean, green and cheap renewable energy.

—but I want to hear place names, and which parts of Scotland—[Interruption.]

I will take an intervention from Mr Hoy, because he is chuntering from the sidelines, as usual.

No male Opposition member took an intervention from any of the females on the SNP side of the chamber yesterday, so I will not give way to any male MSPs tonight. If we cannot intervene on the gentlemen, I will not take an intervention from the member.

I understand that, as things stand, nuclear costs £92.50 per megawatt hour, whereas offshore wind costs £37.65 per megawatt hour. The major driver of that higher price is the up-front costs of constructing the power stations. That ties into the Scottish Government’s position, whereby it supports extending the operating lifespan of Torness, provided that strict environmental and safety criteria continue to be met, but it does not support the building of new nuclear fission power stations in Scotland with current technologies.

That cost remains high—too high, I believe—despite significant investment by the UK Government. Meanwhile, greener renewable technologies are not getting anywhere near the same level of financial support. An example is pumped storage hydro, which the minister has spoken of previously. It is able to plug gaps in the intermittent supply that can result from other forms of renewable generation.

Douglas Lumsden and I, along with Audrey Nicoll, who is also in the chamber, have the great privilege of representing Aberdeen, which is—I will keep saying this—the future net zero capital of the world. Alongside our hugely skilled workforce, which I maintain is our biggest asset, we also have, across and around Scotland, an abundance of renewable energy sources.

The motion that we are discussing states that nuclear technologies

“can be located where they are needed”.

Before I finish, I pose an open question. In a Scotland that has as much potential to generate wind, wave, tidal and hydro energy as we have, where exactly do Conservative members think should be fully considered for hosting new nuclear plants in the future?

Recent reports that renewables technologies generated the equivalent of 113 per cent of Scotland’s overall electricity consumption in 2022 were welcome. How will the Government’s planned green industrial strategy bring about the investment that our renewables industry needs to build on that success and fully deliver our net zero ambitions?

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the net zero secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the role of the renewable energy sector in meeting its net zero ambitions. (S6O-03074)

You said that the Scottish Government has been critical of the way in which the UK Government’s Department for Work and Pensions has handled things. Are you critical of it, or do you think that what it has been doing for the past few years has been acceptable?