Chamber and committees

The Government has funded the service for more than 15 years, and the Energy Saving Trust administers the Home Energy Scotland advice service on our behalf. Demand for the service has been high, although it has decreased from the 138,000 households that the service supported in 2022-23. As a Government, we are committed to ensuring that the funding is applied to ensure that the advice service exists in the future, and the Scottish Government regularly reviews the grant to ensure that that happens.

I reiterate that both the difficulty of working during Covid and the cost of materials in its wake were deterrents to many contractors.

I should be clear that, although we are awaiting important information from the UK Government, which we are having good conversations with, I am not suggesting that the timing of our decisions about the bill is based on any of that information.

UK Government decisions are nonetheless relevant. As you are aware, there is an on-going conversation about electricity pricing, the relative price of electricity and gas, the review of electricity market arrangements and the reform of many parts of the network. The decisions that the UK Government takes will clearly interact with our own legislation.

I will bring in others to talk about some of the conversations that we are having.

My predecessor, Patrick Harvie, made it clear that that particular target was not achievable. I agree with Mr Harvie on that. It is as well that the Government comes to the Parliament and presents targets that are achievable. It is not honest to do anything else.

I will bring you in, Gareth. The figures that I have for annual heat pump installations are as follows: 2,448 in 2019; 2,993 in 2020; 4,667 in 2021; 5,146 in 2022; and 6,388 in 2023. The importance of heat pumps in our effort to decarbonise and improve Scotland’s housing stock is increasingly significant as the years go by.

The Home Energy Scotland grant and loan scheme offers a £1,500 uplift to the grant funding that is available for energy efficiency measures in remote rural areas and islands. Through our area-based schemes, we provide an uplift to reflect higher delivery costs in those areas. Households in extreme fuel poverty in remote rural and island areas can benefit from insulation improvements worth up to £21,100. The warmer homes Scotland scheme operates a national customer price model to ensure equal access to grant-funded installation of energy efficiency improvements across Scotland, including in the areas that the member mentioned.

I met ministerial colleagues on 12 September 2024 to agree the issuing of grant offers for area-based schemes. We agreed that that was a priority and noted the challenge in completing some projects by March. The grant offer therefore extends to June 2025 to help to ensure ABS project completion.

We have also boosted fuel poverty support this winter by allocating an extra £20 million to the warmer homes Scotland scheme, taking its support to £85 million. Through the 2025-26 budget, we propose to invest more than £300 million in our heat in buildings programmes, including support for people in fuel poverty.

As Mark Griffin identifies, area-based schemes are very valuable in addressing fuel poverty. Area-based scheme funding of up to £64 million was identified in the 2024-25 budget documents, as per the distribution agreed with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. However, ABS 2025-26 grant offers were delayed until September 2024 due to the Scottish Government facing what I hope he and others will acknowledge was an emergency spending control situation. However, from what I have said, he will be aware of the value that the Scottish Government places on those schemes.

The member rightly points to the distinctive housing types in different locations, including in many parts of rural Scotland. We are committed to building on the progress that has been made in improving the energy efficiency of those houses. Although some rural and island households have made the transition, we recognise that, for some properties, there are limitations due to their location or building type or, indeed, due to grid capacity. In rural and island communities, Scottish Government support is available to improve the energy efficiency of homes and to switch heating systems through, for example, the social housing net zero heat fund and various other schemes. Many of those schemes include a rural and islands uplift to reflect the very issues that the member rightly points to.

We are committed to delivering vital support to decarbonise homes through the social housing net zero heat fund, which has been supporting social landlords to retrofit their housing stock since 2020. To date, the fund has helped to decarbonise more than 13,000 homes. To support rural housing providers, the most recent fund refresh included a grant per property uplift for rural and remote rural locations of 11 per cent and 22 per cent respectively. That acknowledges the increased costs in rural locations and heeds calls from the sector to ensure a just transition to net zero.