Chamber and committees

I, too, thank Jamie Halcro Johnston for securing the debate, and I welcome the review of the policy that the minister announced yesterday. We all know that we need to reduce emissions and move to sustainable heating, but there needs to be a just transition, and there was nothing just in the way in which this matter was handled.

We need to develop sustainable heating for rural areas, as simply imposing urban solutions does not work. I ask the minister to give some thought to those who are currently on the cusp of installing efficient and sustainable wood-fired heating systems, and who have been stopped in their tracks. It seems perverse that a person can have a grant for installing such a system but now cannot get a building warrant in order to do the work. I ask the minister to perhaps put in place a derogation for those new builds in order to allow them to be completed, given the time that will pass before the review is complete. As she said, it will not be completed until after the summer.

In addition, guidance to local authorities needs to be consistent. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s planning department has deemed it unlikely that applications would warrant an exemption in any instance, whereas, in Highland Council, there has been a different interpretation, depending on the specific location of the new build. Councils need to know what they can and cannot approve. Perhaps renewed guidance could be issued in the interim so that much-needed homes can be completed.

A modern urban house can withstand a power cut of a few hours, which, in truth, is probably as long as an urban power cut lasts. However, the same modern home in a rural community needs to be able to withstand a power cut for a number of days and even, in extreme conditions, for weeks. No house can hold heat for that long, and those homes therefore need a secondary source of heat.

Weather patterns also have an impact, as Alasdair Allan mentioned. That means that it might not be possible to heat a house from an ambient heating source alone and that, realistically, a direct source of heating might be needed to work alongside that.

What was even more perverse about the standards was that we were told that emergency wood-burning and peat-burning stoves needed to be “portable”. A solid fuel burner needs a chimney and cannot, therefore, be temporary or portable. Again, that displayed total ignorance of the impact that the policy would have if it was pursued. I was having visions—as, I am sure, many others were—of people having to take their fire pit or chimney inside from the garden, coughing and spluttering through the smoke. It was absolutely senseless.

We need to rural proof policies and have them developed by people who understand the conditions in the rural areas in which our constituents live. It adds insult to injury that the areas that already suffer the highest level of fuel poverty are also suffering the worst excesses of urban-centric policies, given that, as things stand, heating their homes is far more expensive.

A Changeworks report from 2023, entitled “A Perfect Storm: Fuel Poverty in Rural Scotland”, highlighted that one in four houses in the Highlands and Islands is in “extreme fuel poverty”. The same report highlighted that, in the Highlands and Islands, the fuel poverty gap—that is the amount by which fuel bills need to be lowered to lift a household out of fuel poverty—was £1,260, in comparison with £750 to move urban homes out of fuel poverty. We need to address that.

With reference to herring spawning areas such as those off Gairloch, is there not an opportunity to work with the fishing community to put in place practical measures that would enable the quick closure of fish spawning areas for the duration of the event, so that no damage is done to juvenile stocks?

Will the minister consider emergency fuel sources? Under the previous legislation, they were to be temporary and portable. I am sure that she knows that a wood-burning stove cannot be portable—it needs a chimney. Will she also take into consideration woodland crofts, which were created especially to ensure that there is a sustainable fuel source for those homes?

One of the recommendations of the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission was that no further greyhound tracks be permitted in Scotland. What is your response to that?

At the moment, you can do something on licensing? In what regard can you do something on licensing in relation to greyhound tracks?

Okay, but if someone decided tomorrow to open a greyhound track, they would be able to do that, if their local authority gave them planning permission, because there is no licensing scheme.

I want to ask about banned substances. Some organisations have suggested that there should be an independent regulatory body to look for such substances.

What tools do you have to take action in that regard? We do not have licensing at the moment. Could planning permission be denied? How could you influence whether one opened?

There is no drug testing at Thornton either, so we do not know if there is any substance misuse there.

Okay. So, you have given it no thought.