Chamber and committees

As I said, we are cracking on with that work as rapidly as we can. I am glad that Willie Rennie is enthusiastic about pushing us further. If we were to say that we would complete the work by tea time, some people might still be outraged that we were not completing it by lunch time.

I hope that that is not what is happening here, because what is necessary to achieve that work is not simply about bringing in a regulation. It is about working with the supply chain; it is about working with the skills involved so that we can go from a few thousand installations a year to hundreds of thousands installations a year by the end of the parliamentary session; and it is about working with our electricity networks so that they can cope with the increased demand on them that that work will result in.

Our heat in buildings strategy has been well received, and it is well recognised that it is more ambitious than that in the United Kingdom, in relation to both zero-emission heating and energy efficiency. We need to tackle both as fast as possible.

I certainly support that call and I hope that everybody, regardless of party politics, supports the kind of quick resolution with as little disruption as possible for which Joe FitzPatrick calls.

I welcome the fact that Dundee City Council has apologised for the quality of the work and for not picking up on the change to the British safety standard and that it has approved the review that will take place. I appeal to all members across the political spectrum to support any local authority that picks up on such an issue to resolve it, so that the people who are affected get a solution, rather than turn the issue into a political football.

I suspect that everybody in the chamber would say, along with Siobhian Brown and me, that such a situation is not acceptable. People have a right to security in their home, which is part of the Scottish Government’s approach to a fundamental understanding of adequate housing as a human right. We would all have a great deal of concern for people who have been placed in the kind of situation that the member describes.

In relation to the expected levels of quality of a new-build house, we want the system to be strengthened so that buyers can purchase a new-build home with confidence and have access to efficient and effective remediation if things go wrong. We are consulting on a number of measures to do that. The United Kingdom Government introduced the Building Safety Bill this year, which includes provision for a new homes ombudsman scheme and a requirement that developers of new-build housing belong to that scheme. We are working with the UK Government as the bill moves through the UK Parliament to try and achieve a UK-wide scheme that works for Scotland while respecting the devolution settlement.

In the meantime, a home owner in such a situation should contact the home warranty provider to establish the extent of the warranty and should consider taking independent legal advice from a solicitor or advice agency to establish whether they have options available to them to pursue.

Collette Stevenson is right in saying that a great deal of work is happening. I am really pleased that we have a long-term vision for Scotland’s housing landscape to 2040. That kind of long-term vision is often requested not just by social housing providers but by the private rented sector and by those representing the interests of tenants. We now have that long-term vision. It is associated with the fuel poverty strategy, the heat in building strategy and, as the member mentions, the draft national planning framework 4, which sets out a vision for how our places will change and brings together a wide range of policies, programmes and actions, including on transport, energy, environment and housing. The 18 national developments in the framework will support the delivery of a spatial strategy, which has a crucial role in supporting our transition to net zero.

The Scottish Government is committed to a just transition to net zero. Our document “Heat in Buildings Strategy: Achieving Net Zero Emissions in Scotland’s Buildings” sets out how we will accelerate the decarbonisation of heating, together with energy efficiency improvements in Scotland’s homes.

The Scottish Government’s social housing net zero heat fund provides financial assistance to social landlords to retrofit their housing stock to meet the energy efficiency standard for social housing. Over the next five years, the fund will make available £200 million to support social landlords across Scotland in installing zero-emissions heating systems and energy efficiency measures.

I am grateful for the level of interest that Beatrice Wishart and other members from a number of political parties have shown in the issue. The Scottish Government has been clear that, although we are committed to investing at least £1.8 billion in the agenda across the built environment more generally, we recognise that much more will be needed. That is why we are establishing a green heat finance task force to consider ways in which the public sector, the third sector and the private sector can invest collectively to help landlords, including social landlords and tenants, to overcome the investment costs and to decarbonise our buildings.

I hope that Beatrice Wishart is also aware that the fuel poverty definition now takes account of the additional costs that are associated with living in remote and rural communities. We are committed to spending more per head on energy efficiency in remote and rural areas, where we know that installation and labour costs are higher.

We are working actively with the social housing sector not just on the energy efficiency standard for social housing but on its work on the ZEST—zero emissions social housing task force—report. We are committed to continuing to work collaboratively with the sector, and we will listen to any concerns that it has. If Miles Briggs wants to write to me with any specifics, I will certainly take that seriously.

The Scottish Government monitors the performance of all building standards services in local authorities, through quarterly performance returns. Returns adhere to a performance framework, which sets out the importance of sharing best practice. Officials offer, where it is needed, tailored support to local authorities, and they facilitate the sharing of best practice through a national engagement programme.

Since 2017, overall performance levels for local authority building standards services in Scotland have improved and I expect that trend to continue.

On the latter point, I can certainly say that the level of support for individual households in Scotland is higher than that provided by the United Kingdom scheme. The UK Government’s boiler upgrade scheme looks set to offer grants of £5,000 to £6,000 for renewable heat systems but the home energy Scotland scheme that the Scottish Government funds gives home owners interest-free loans with cashback grants of up to £7,500 for zero-emission heating plus up to £6,000 for energy efficiency measures. I hope that the Government has the support of members from all parties in providing that support to householders.

On the first point that Dean Lockhart raises, I am sure that he understands that the answer is no. I cannot pin down right now exactly what the share of costs will be right through to 2045 and no Government would be able to do so. That is why we are looking to create a green heat finance task force to cast the net for a wide range of measures to ensure that the necessary investment is available. The only alternative would be for Mr Lockhart to propose a £33 billion tax rise if he wants the public sector to pay for the lot.

The Scottish Government established a ministerial working group to consider building standards compliance and enforcement immediately after the tragic events at Grenfell tower in 2017. The group’s recommendations have been taken forward under the building standards futures board. The compliance plan that the futures board is leading seeks to improve levels of compliance through greater checking and evidence gathering and creating a new compliance plan manager for high-risk buildings. A consultation is currently under way on the compliance plan manager role and strengthening enforcement.