Chamber and committees

Minister, I previously asked about net zero being part of the new deal and agreements with local authorities. Are you convinced that nature-based solutions and the climate emergency are given equivalence to the biodiversity in nature crisis that we face? Will that be in your new deal negotiations, on an equal footing with net zero?

For our interest, do you know when the revised grant scheme will be delivered?

Everybody says that public funding is not sufficient to do what we need to do, so the financial expertise to leverage in private funding will be essential. Those skills are very few and far between and the need is particularly in that area.

Is that a yes or a no?

Good morning. Recognising that delivering net zero is a massive task and recognising the independence of local authorities, we have heard from councils that they need not just fiscal resource, but experience and skills. Cabinet secretary, might you be open to the call for some centralised pool of expertise and training resource, but also skills to go into local authorities to help them? People might be seconded to local authorities when they have major projects, whether in investment, infrastructure, or other areas. I know that we have the Sustainable Scotland Network and that collaboration and advice are important, but experience is really needed. The private sector could maybe snap up those people in councils who are very good at this. Is there a way of helping to share that experience? Not everywhere can be like Dundee or Glasgow or Edinburgh, where we have heard that there is a great deal of experience and a real drive. Not all local authorities have access to that.

I want to look at how we get the economic benefits from renewables. I agree with the comments that you have just made, cabinet secretary, but the oil and gas sector has said to us that, if it is to invest in upskilling and reskilling its staff to move into renewables, it needs certainty on renewables and what is likely to come down the track. That is what it is looking for from the energy strategy. Given that some of that work might not come on stream for maybe five years, how can we help support the transition? Will the whole-system approach that you have said that you are taking to the energy strategy make it clear how the economic opportunity for Scotland will be realised for manufacturing and, in particular, for the skill base?

I want to move on to the much-anticipated energy strategy. Will you give us an update on the timing of the publication of the energy strategy and the associated energy just transition plan? What impact has the energy price crisis had on that? What are your views on the UK Government’s announcements on reserved energy matters and on the implications for Scotland’s future economic and energy strategy?

We are coming to the end of our inquiry, so it would be helpful if you could do that quite quickly.

What can and what is the Scottish Government doing to de-risk investments in net zero infrastructure? What barriers are preventing more successful partnerships between councils and private investors? How do you make sure that there are investable opportunities? The criticism that we have is that the propositions are not big enough, so who helps to resolve that situation?

Heat and transport are the big issues that we have to address, but not all heat is in council housing. There is also social housing and private sector housing. How will that be financed and how do we make sure that we have propositions of new finance models to make net zero happen? Is there any role whatsoever for local government in that? Is that what we can expect? Or, in a place-based approach, who will do it? There are big questions around that wider investability and how we leverage in the money. What role do local authorities have and what are you doing to support them? Do they have any responsibility whatsoever for private sector housing in a place-based approach to tackle net zero?

I will move on to the Minister for Social Security and Local Government. How convinced are you that net zero will be at the heart of the new deal that is being prepared between the Scottish Government and local government, as it needs to be to ensure that we can deliver on it? In particular, how will local authorities manage a place-based approach to net zero? We have just heard comments from the cabinet secretary about fleet replacement and EV charging. Some of that is for the private sector and for car owners. A lot of what we will expect councils to do is to help lead action that is about privately owned housing. How are you factoring in what local authorities will have to do to lead a place-based—not just a public sector and local authority responsibility led—approach to net zero? How is that being built into the new deal discussions and negotiations and how can local authorities be resourced to do things that are outside their direct responsibility for public sector housing or schools and so on?