Chamber and committees

Thank you, Presiding Officer; I am delighted to do so.

I open the debate at what feels like a critical moment for active travel in Scotland. As members might know, walking and cycling are always my preferred ways of getting about, so I know first hand the many benefits of active travel. However, every day, I see places in my community and across the country where it needs to be made easier and safer.

In my role as the minster who is responsible for active travel, it has been a genuine privilege to be able to help to bring the benefits of active travel to other people. Perhaps the most impactful is when I meet young people who have been helped to get access to a bike for the first time, to gain the skills to maintain it and to have safe routes to use it. The independence that that gives them to go where they want when they want without cost or hassle is surely worth at least as much as the health and environmental benefits. I have found the role to be incredibly fulfilling, so I want to take time to acknowledge some of the progress that we have made so far, in this session of Parliament.

I have spoken before about the experience during lockdown of how, in the midst of otherwise dire circumstances, many people discovered their neighbourhoods anew through walking, wheeling and cycling. Hanging on to that benefit in the longer term was never going to happen by magic; investment is required to transform our built environment to support active travel. Therefore, we have committed record levels of funding, with just under £190 million in our budget for active travel in this financial year. We are well on our way to investing £320 million by financial year 2024-25.

We have helped to deliver flagship projects such as the bridges in Stockingfield and Sighthill in Glasgow, which bring communities closer together with connections and opportunities.

Less headline grabbing but no less important is the fact that we have been improving what we already have, such as by providing £14 million to extend and improve the national cycle network. The removal of more than 200 barriers over the past year has helped to make the network’s routes more accessible for everyone who chooses to walk, wheel or cycle along them. Those small measures can have a big impact for people who use the network, making everyday trips safer and more convenient.

The development of the project is designed to be in line with the transformation project—the wider transformation of the delivery of active travel. We know that we need to change those delivery models if we are going to have a way of delivering active travel that is on the scale and at the level of ambition that the budgets to come set out. Because of that, we have launched the transformation fund this year to trial the model of giving the money directly to local authorities.

Because of the way that we have developed the fund in this first year, we have removed match funding requirements as we know that they can make delivery difficult, particularly for smaller delivery partners. We have a great first group of projects that have been funded this year but, beyond that, the process has identified a pipeline of projects across Scotland that are worth nearly £700 million. I commend the genuine ambition that has been demonstrated by everyone who has developed them. The pipeline of projects stands us in great stead as it means that we have an exciting portfolio of projects that are ready to go and which match the scale of our budget commitments.

Because the real work of the fund is about turning ambition into delivery, I do not just want to see strategies; I want to see cycleways. I want to see the pipeline projects being turned into the fantastic environments for walking, wheeling and cycling that Scotland needs. The projects around the country that are included in today’s funding announcement will help to do that, but they are just the beginning. The fund will deliver a diverse range of active travel infrastructure in both urban and rural locations. By providing more safe and segregated infrastructure, the projects will help to remove one of the key barriers to greater modal shift towards active travel.

I could not lead today’s debate on walking, wheeling and cycling without reflecting on a huge event that will happen this summer. Scotland is in a unique position as the first country to host the UCI cycling world championships. You will be relieved, Presiding Officer—and I am sure that members will be as well—to hear that I am not the kind of person who will ever be seen in a Lycra skinsuit, hurtling round a velodrome. I am much more likely to be found going sedately along Sauchiehall Street dressed pretty much as I am today.

However, that difference captures a challenge and an opportunity that arise from the championships. The presence of world-class athletes from 13 disciplines and something like 1 million spectators converging on the country for two weeks will be a sporting spectacle, but I do not want it to leave a sense that active travel means only cycling or that cycling means only elite athletes using expensive specialist bikes.

Our task is to create a legacy that is about active travel as a way of going to work, to school or to the shops. It has been noticeable over decades that many of the countries with cycling superstars are also those with much more significant levels of everyday active travel.

We do not have to look far afield. Here in the UK, we have people such as Chris Boardman, former Olympic gold medallist and Tour de France yellow jersey holder, who now works as the national active travel commissioner with Active Travel England.

Here in Scotland, we have our own incredibly successful former professional cyclist in Lee Craigie, our ambassador for active travel. Lee is due to complete her term in that role in September. I express my gratitude for the contribution that she has made to our national conversation on active travel. Lee has been passionate, considered and thoughtful in her role—and, what is most important, she has consistently provided robust challenge to Government. I am sure that she is looking forward to supporting Scottish Cycling ahead of the UCI World Championships over the summer and continuing to show that cycling is for everyone.

Whether people are training for the world championships, cycling to school or work every day, or just heading out for a bit of exercise once in a while, they deserve to be able to do so with confidence and in safety. It saddens me to hear from people that they would love to cycle more and would love their children to walk or scoot to school but that they fear for their safety. Yet again, this week, there have been tragic reports of deaths and injuries on our roads. Far too many people have lost friends and family members who were simply walking, wheeling or cycling to get around. One death or serious injury on our roads is one too many, so I say again that, as a nation, we still have a great deal more to do. We can, must and will do better.

We are putting in place the right building blocks: a record level of investment of nearly £190 million this year; the even higher commitment of £320 million next year; the new active travel transformation fund of £20 million, which I have announced today; the commitment to getting results from our policy not just on active travel but on transport as a whole, as well as on planning, economic development, procurement and more; and the recognition that we get the best results when we work together—national Government, local government, regional transport partnerships, the third sector and, above all, the communities that give leadership and bring forward their ideas for change. The Scottish Government, will continue to make that sustained investment, working together to achieve an active travel transformation for Scotland.

I move,

That the Parliament believes that active travel can bring significant benefits for people’s health, the economy and the cost of living, and is critical for tackling the climate emergency and delivering on the commitment to reduce car kilometres by 20%; welcomes the Scottish Government's record budget for active travel in 2023-24; recognises that this is by far the highest investment in active travel per head across the UK; welcomes the new and additional £20 million Transformation Fund going directly to delivery partners to deliver new infrastructure at pace; commends the work of local authorities, regional transport partnerships and active travel delivery partners in turning that record level of investment into changes on the ground; notes the publication of the new Cycling Framework in supporting the wider 2030 Active Travel Vision, where walking, wheeling and cycling are the most popular modes of transport for shorter everyday journeys, and looks forward to the opportunity presented by the UCI Cycling World Championships coming to Scotland in August 2023 to encourage more people to choose active travel.

We have a huge amount to do, not only with infrastructure, so that routes are safe, but to ensure that young people have access to bikes—and to different bikes as they grow and their needs change—and to the skills that they need to maintain them. There is a huge amount to do.

We are still in the early days of becoming an active travel nation and even the most ambitious projects that we begin today will take a few years to bear fruit, but I am determined to see our commitments and our record funding translate into real change on the ground.

In leading European cities, such as Utrecht and Copenhagen, such projects are commonplace and everyday. They are almost unremarked upon and are just business as usual, but getting to that position did not happen overnight; it took decades of persistent commitment across political and funding cycles. It also took an appreciation that increasing active travel is not just about active travel policy itself, and that how we manage wider transport policy is just as important. Therefore, our work on 20mph speed limits and traffic reduction targets matters, as does our economic development policy and how we plan, build and use our places—there is a role for national planning framework 4—as well as the commitment to 20-minute neighbourhoods.

That kind of sustained and integrated approach is becoming commonplace in other European cities, including in places such as Paris, Barcelona and Ghent, which some people might not associate with active travel. We can see our European neighbours transforming and re-imagining their cities and that is what we want to do here too.

That is precisely why we are delivering record investment in this area. I repeat my case that places such as Paris and Barcelona perhaps did not have a strong track record and, unlike Amsterdam or Copenhagen, did not come from the higher starting point that the member talks about.

Where cities have achieved that change, they get more than health and environmental benefits. They find that, once their communities become safer and more pleasant places to spend time, they thrive. That is my ambition: that great environments for walking, wheeling and cycling become the default expectation. It must also be safe and easy to choose active travel in our rural areas and in smaller towns and villages, just as it should be in our cities.

There is still much more for us to do. That is why I published the new cycling framework for active travel in April this year. It supports our vision for active travel in 2030, when we want walking, wheeling and cycling to be the most popular modes of travel for short, everyday journeys. It will shape how Government, councils and active travel organisations will work together to deliver ambitious improvements and to remove barriers to cycling across the country.

The ambition shown by this Government in committing to the highest level of capital funding for active travel anywhere in the United Kingdom, and by far the highest amount in our history, means that we are starting to deliver. That is why I am very pleased today to announce an additional £20 million of active travel infrastructure funding that will go directly to local authorities, regional transport partnerships and the national park authorities. That new active travel transformation fund has been developed over the past few months in partnership with local authorities and others as a step towards reinvigorating our delivery models for next year and beyond.

This morning, I visited the south side of Glasgow and heard from city council colleagues how the fund has enabled the delivery of a project that will extend the already impressive south city way, connecting to the New Victoria hospital and a nearby housing development of 400 homes. That £2.5 million scheme will improve local public spaces, prioritise people over vehicles and improve connectivity throughout the area.

It is certainly not because I do not like the findings. The amendment slightly misrepresents them. The report said that the impact of coronavirus on schools

In 2020 and 2021 ... was a substantial additional factor”,

so it is not reasonable to present that as though it is a reduction in active travel to school more generally.

Several members, including Evelyn Tweed and Beatrice Wishart, mentioned the urban-rural issues. It is true that the easiest way to get emissions reductions alone is through busy routes in urban areas, which can achieve high levels of modal shift. However, it is not enough to imagine that urban areas see active travel and cycling as only for transport and emissions reduction and rural areas see them as only for recreation. That is not a reasonable way forward. It is not true and it does not recognise the demand for active travel in rural areas and smaller towns. I hope therefore that members will welcome the successful bids for the active travel transformation fund from rural and remote areas, including Shetland.

Several members mentioned either their local infrastructure projects or local charities that are doing excellent creative work to encourage active travel. I will be happy to visit as many of those as I can. I am a particular fan of the bike bus movement because it is one of the most joyful ways of encouraging and demonstrating the appetite for active travel.

John Swinney talked about the perception of safety and I recognised his description of that. It was one of the things that held me back from getting back on a bike in Glasgow. He was also right to say that, on climate action, we are approaching the stage at which the challenging tasks that are ahead of us need to be done if we are to get back on track with climate targets. There are those who will the end but do not will the means; we need to challenge that.

Active travel can sometimes be polarised and opportunistically opposed. Sometimes it even gets caught up in culture wars nonsense such as conspiracy theories about 20-minute neighbourhoods and low-emission zones. We need to challenge that perception.

Ben Macpherson commented on how Edinburgh might have changed for the worse as a city if it had done what others did in indulging too much in the road-building obsession of the 1960s. That is what the active travel debate should be about. It is not just about one particular bike lane on one particular route; it is about a long-term vision of the kinds of cities, towns and communities of all sizes that we want to live in in 10, 20 or 30 years. I hope that we can bring that positive vision forward. It will require on-going investment, which is tough, particularly in times of heightened pressure on resources. It will also require a willingness to challenge and change the status quo. Our approach to delivering active travel is preparing the ground for the record investment that we are committing to that will lead to healthier communities, generate jobs, reduce costs on household budgets and revitalise local economies.

I begin by thanking members for contributing to the debate today, in particular those including Graham Simpson, Mercedes Villalba, Beatrice Wishart and Mark Ruskell who chose to use part of their contribution to offer their best wishes to Kevin Stewart in light of his announcement today. I hope that the whole chamber will join together in wishing him very well in recovering from the issues that he has been facing.

It is clear that there is a broad consensus on the benefits that active travel can bring, even if not all members are quite willing to accept the reality that it now comes with a higher level of political commitment and a higher level of funding than ever before. I will not have time to address every member’s contribution, but let me start with those who moved amendments.

Graham Simpson started with a personal example of how active travel can end up supporting local businesses of one kind or another with a bit more cash going into their tills. That is something that we need to recognise—it is not just a change of culture on our roads but something that can benefit small businesses when they see that greater footfall from active travel. He also reflected on the fact that we need to see a change in driver behaviour in many parts of the country.

However, Graham Simpson’s amendment deletes a significant amount of the motion, including the recognition of the level of funding that we are putting in, such as the active travel transformation fund, so we will not be able to support it. I know that the Conservatives do not necessarily like hearing fair comparisons with funding in the rest of the UK but, even in the Scottish context, it is a higher level of commitment to active travel by some margin than Scotland has previously seen and the Scottish Government is determined to continue that.

I will certainly look into the specific local projects that Graham Simpson mentioned, but it is relevant that the clear commitment to providing long-term increased investment—such as the active travel transformation fund—direct to local authorities will help them to have confidence and increase their capacity and skills to deliver active travel projects.

Mercedes Villalba also offered support for our active travel objectives. I share her view of the need to address, for example, congestion and air pollution. I hope that we are all able to welcome the groundbreaking progress that has been made in putting in place the first low-emission zone. It will be, and should be, only the first.

Mercedes Villalba also restated many of the multiple benefits from active travel: reduced greenhouse gas emissions; improved road safety; the nature recovery that comes with quieter streets and cleaner air; public health and much more. Her arguments on the costs of transport are also important. Let us recognise that, although active travel is the cheapest way of getting about, if the cost of the repair that somebody faces having to make to their bike is much more than the cost of tomorrow’s bus ticket, it might force them back on to a more expensive and less accessible form of transport.

We need to ensure that we are addressing access to bikes as well. The Scottish Government is doing that. Members know that the free bikes pilot was implemented to develop the best models of giving free bikes to young people, because one size will not fit all. We are also working with Bike for Good on the option of a bike subscription model and, later this year, with Cycling UK, we will launch an open fund to support bike share schemes, because there are multiple ways of giving people access to bikes, not just ownership.

The member, like others across the chamber, will be aware of the additional pressures that come from the current financial situation, including inflation and its impact on the Scottish budget, and the need to ensure that there is scrutiny.

One of the reasons for increased scrutiny of active travel is the increased level of budget. As something comes up the scale of spend, it requires additional scrutiny across the Scottish Government’s budget. I am very grateful for active travel partners’ understanding of the additional pressures that that brings to bear, and the extra work that they have done to provide the information that allows us to clear a huge amount of the spending that we have already committed to. They know that this Government is fully committed to a hugely increased budget, unlike those elsewhere in the UK.

Something has gone very right, in that we are replacing that scheme with a much-improved successor. While that transition happens, new referrals will be referred to the provider under the terms of the successor scheme, rather than the less generous terms of the previous scheme.

Beatrice Wishart and other constituency and regional members who represent rural and island communities have repeatedly expressed their concerns, but the Scottish Government’s heat in buildings programme is the most ambitious of such programmes in any part of these islands and is looking to achieve investment in a sustainable and equitable system that insulates people from fuel poverty and is comparable to the best achievements in other countries in Europe in previous decades.

I thank Changeworks for its work in that area and for bringing forward that important report.

The average energy performance certificate rating of rural properties is lower than that of those in urban areas because of the typically more expensive fuels that are used or available, how those are reflected in the current EPC metric, and the historically lower energy efficiency standards.

We propose that all housing in Scotland meet the equivalent of EPC rating C by 2033 and that we revise EPC metrics. We offer support to improve the energy efficiency of rural homes, including a funding uplift to our home energy Scotland grant and loan scheme, and targeted fuel poverty support.

We are working on policy on biofuels in line with the United Kingdom Climate Change Committee’s recommendations, which see something of a role but recognise that there will be limits to the role of bioenergy in the heating system.

Meanwhile, as I said in my first answer, we provide an uplift of the grant and loan schemes for rural areas. In particular, we need to ensure that we invest in skills and capacity in the industry. To give just one example, we have invested in a mobile training centre for heat-pump installation, which is hosted by South Lanarkshire College, but is available to any college in Scotland for training in rural areas on site. That will help to ensure that local communities have access to skilled professionals who are able to assess and install heat pumps in all types of buildings.