Chamber and committees

The cost of living crisis for tenants has not gone away. Over the past 10 years, monthly rent for a two-bedroom flat in Edinburgh has more than doubled. Some tenants are already reporting spending more than 70 per cent of their income on rent. We agree on the need to provide for permanent rent controls in the Housing (Scotland) Bill, but the Government’s decision to scrap the vital bridging rent controls will give landlords free rein to hike rents for two years. It is absolutely no surprise that the Scottish Association of Landlords has called it “a very welcome announcement”. What does the First Minister have to say to renters who will be facing that cliff edge in just a few weeks’ time?

Rents across Scotland are skyrocketing. Tenants are paying the price while private landlords are lining their pockets. Although the Housing (Scotland) Bill will finally deliver the promise of permanent rent controls to fix the system, the provisions will not come into force until 2027. Right now, tenants are protected by temporary controls that were introduced while the Greens were in government, but those protections are set to expire in two months, which will expose tenants to extortionate rent increases. Despite having the powers to extend those protections, the Scottish Government has pledged not to do so. First Minister, will you do the right thing to protect tenants and ensure that those temporary protections are extended until permanent rent controls are in place?

I am very concerned by the report on the engineering skills gap. I recognise that this is now a very acute issue as we transition Scotland’s economy to a green one and invest in the opportunities ahead in that green transition—specifically in renewable energy, but also in heat networks and all the other engineering infrastructure that we will need.

The shortage of engineers in Scotland, and in the UK as a whole, is a long-standing issue. Two decades ago, when I arrived in the UK, I knew that there was a shortage of engineers here. That is one reason why I chose to come here. I had Canadian student loans to pay off and, at that time, getting $3 to the pound seemed like a good way to pay that off. I had heard that there was a shortage of engineers, so I bought a one-way ticket and rocked up. I was offered two jobs in my first week.

That is how acute the shortage of engineers is and has been for the past 20 years in the UK, including in Scotland. My colleagues and I experienced that daily as we tried to build ambitious projects in various parts of the UK, including for renewable energy in Scotland. We were trying to find electrical engineers, electrical technicians and mechanical engineers, but there were just not enough of them. Many of my colleagues were immigrants like me.

When we were members of the European Union, we were able to draw on the talents of EU citizens under the freedom of movement. The acute skills shortage in the UK due to a lack of home-grown engineers was previously supplemented by immigrants like me. However, Brexit cut us off at our knees by restricting the ability of a particular pool of talented individuals to come here smoothly to work. We have an acute situation, which is set against the needs that we have for our transition.

Whether through an apprenticeship, a higher national certificate, a higher national diploma or a degree programme, a career in engineering is exciting. The recruitment of more young people into engineering in Scotland and the rest of the UK is a long-standing issue. I have always thought that part of the problem was because engineering is framed as if it were all about maths and sitting at a computer staring at a screen, watching numbers scroll by like in “The Matrix”.

Engineering is very hands on. It is teamworking; it is being creative; it is solving problems that nobody has ever had before. Right now, it is problem-solving that will save our planet—that will change our future and mean that humanity can survive and thrive. Engineers are right on the edge of that.

For me, there is nothing more rewarding than working as part of a team to build something real that you can point at and say, “We created this thing that had not existed before. We have tried something new, maybe we have failed a few times, but we have learned a lot and here is this thing that we have built.” Presenting that exciting vision around engineering has to be the way to encourage more young people into this space, by emphasising the creativity, teamwork and rewards that come from solving the problems that our world desperately needs solutions to.

The Withers review of the role of Skills Development Scotland is a timely opportunity to look into this space. I challenge some of my colleagues’ assertions that Skills Development Scotland is not in need of significant review. I think that it is, particularly around careers advice and the way that skills are taught and made available to people at different ages. More young people need to be encouraged to take up maths and physics, but also career changers, upskillers and career returners need to have access to engineering skills and the pathways into engineering, whether that is through apprenticeships for all ages or being able to access university and college courses at older ages.

I want more people to consider learning the basic engineering skills, whether in mechanical, electrical, civil or computer engineering, because all of those areas lead to exciting careers. You do not need to have a fancy master’s degree in environmental engineering to work in renewable energy and the environment. Get those basic degrees behind you—they are what we need, and I absolutely encourage anyone who might be interested to take those up.

Cheaper bus tickets are the right thing for people and planet. They would help people to save money and to leave their cars at home, and they would open up new opportunities. Already, thanks to the introduction of free bus travel for everyone under 22, which was secured by the Scottish Greens, young people across Scotland have made more than 150 million free bus journeys.

We must go further to deliver a truly affordable, reliable and accessible bus network across Scotland. We must reverse the damage of privatisation, protect essential routes and build publicly owned services that deliver for all passengers. What more is the Scottish Government doing to cut the cost of buses and to support workers and commuters?

Buses in Scotland are too expensive. We see fare hikes every year, with passengers across the country having to fork out even more cash to get on board. As part of this year’s budget negotiations, the Scottish Greens have called for a £2 cap on bus fares. For example, folks living in the First Minister’s constituency are paying an extortionate £5.10 to travel from Blairgowrie to Perth. A £2 cap on bus fares would save a commuter on that journey £31 a week, or £124 a month. Does the First Minister agree that we should cap fares and make buses in Scotland cheaper?

I, too, am very grateful to Michelle Thomson for hosting this debate.

Only 16.5 per cent of engineers in the UK are women. The recent report on the engineering skills gap outlines how far we are from having the skilled workforce that we need to fully take advantage of all the opportunities ahead of us as we build a low-carbon economy. Transitioning to a new type of economy is about not just finding new jobs for oil and gas workers—most of whom are men—but unlocking opportunities for the whole country.

Among the concerns on all our minds is how we maintain our income tax revenue as high-paying oil and gas jobs disappear. If we can support significant numbers of women, who, historically, are lower paid, to take up training in engineering and skilled trades, we tackle both problems—having skilled workers and increasing our income tax take—not to mention tackling inequality and boosting our economy more generally.

We have an exciting opportunity here for a generation of 21st century Rosie the Riveters: Rosie the control systems engineer, Miriam the welder, Fiona the pipe fitter. There are many known barriers to women taking up such jobs: a lack of role models, and teachers steering girls away from studying maths, physics and computers.

When the Economy and Fair Work Committee visited Ferguson Marine, we had the chance to speak to a group of apprentices—all young men. When they were asked what made them decide to take up the apprenticeship, the answers were, “Because my uncle did this,” and, “Because my parents said that if you have a trade, you’ve got a job for life.”

When I challenged the human resources representative about the lack of women, the response that I got was, “Well, we go along to the local high schools regularly, and we ask the girls if they have a passion for shipbuilding—and they say no.” I was absolutely gobsmacked. Young men need only to go along with their family expectations and a desire for well-paid regular work, but young women are expected to demonstrate enormous passion for the topic. That is a huge inequality and barrier.

Efforts to get more women into skilled trades and engineering in Scotland have been haphazard at best. Questions are normally met with the response, “Well, we are doing things. They are just not working.” No, they are not working. It takes a critical mass—about 35 per cent women in a space—to change the social dynamic to one where women can start to feel welcome, normal and not singled out.

The goal, therefore, needs to be to get critical masses of women into key skills areas, and I have some suggestions that will work. There should be gender quotas for any skills programmes that are funded by public money—apprenticeships, college placements and scholarships. Publicly funded colleges should not be allowed to trap young women into low-paid careers, and they need to review the gender ratios in all their courses with respect to the wages that their graduates are achieving. Apprenticeships should be open to people of any age, to enable everybody who needs it to retrain in key areas. That would support women, career returners and career changers.

Every strategy in the green economy—the energy strategy, the national strategy for economic transformation and the climate emergency skills action plan—must have clear, actionable steps to improve gender balance, and not just a footnote of warm, fuzzy intentions that does not actually lead to anyone doing or changing anything.

Organisations that are doing well with gender balance need to be asked how they are achieving that and must be given the opportunity to share best practice. Examples from other countries should be investigated, as other countries have much higher numbers of women in engineering and similar trades. Schools and careers advisers must actively encourage all young people, but especially women, to study maths, physics, computing and practical skills. We need to tell a story about gaining the skills to save the world, about the excitement and rewards of working as part of a team, and about problem solving and coming up with creative solutions. An exciting future is waiting for Scotland’s women. The implementation of the recommendations of the Withers review are an opportunity to address the matter seriously. I hope that the Scottish Government will do so.

Presiding Officer, 2024 was the hottest year on record. We are seeing the climate break down in front of our eyes in devastating floods and raging wildfires. This is just the start now that planet earth has crossed the threshold of 1.5°C of global heating. The promises that were made in the Paris agreement have proven worthless, and global leaders have failed to protect our planet. Is Scotland’s First Minister prepared to take serious action on land use change; on reducing traffic by introducing road charges and cutting the cost of public transport; and on making homes warmer, greener and cheaper to heat, so that we can get back on track to meet our climate targets?

Presiding Officer—[Interruption.]

We have a duty to future generations not to let global heating spiral out of control. Existing oil and gas production must wind down as we transition to renewable energy, and new oil and gas exploration is not compatible with Scotland’s climate commitments.

The last time that the First Minister was asked about Scotland’s energy strategy, he said that the reason for further delay was recent court decisions blocking oil and gas projects on environmental grounds. However, those decisions would worry him only if he intended to support new oil and gas projects in Scotland. Will he confirm the presumption against new oil and gas in Scotland?

I speak as what we might call a person of global talent, who chose to move to Scotland. I have a master’s degree in electromechanical engineering and worked here, as part of an engineering team, with people from Spain, China and France as well as Scotland, to deliver the world’s largest tidal turbine. People come to this country from all over the world to work in our exciting, growing industries. I do not recognise Mr Hoy’s comments at all. He cannot have been out in our growing and thriving industries—which are exciting places to be—or spoken to anyone who is part of the pool of global talent coming here.