Chamber and committees

We have allocated £1.8 billion for heat and energy efficiency improvements, including an existing package of grants and interest-free loans, which has recently been made more generous and flexible. The green heat finance task force’s forthcoming interim report, exploring options for scaling up existing financial products, will help to shape our policy for encouraging low-carbon heating investment from the second half of the decade. Decarbonising Scotland’s buildings will require a mix of public and private finance. It will sit within a wider package of measures, including regulation to provide market certainty, develop supplier and skills capacity and enhance information provision.

Absolutely. That capital investment is a record already, and it is set to rise next year. We are keen to work not only with local authorities but with the third sector to ensure that the local leadership matches the scale of investment.

I mentioned that, outside of London, just £1 a head is being spent on active travel in other parts of England. In comparison, the Scottish Government’s spending sits at £34 a head and will rise next year to £58 a head. That is the kind of commitment that is required if we are going to make the transformational change that this Government is determined to see happen.

The Scottish Government undertakes annual budget setting in line with the processes set out in the Scottish public finance manual, as well as the commitments made in the programme for government and the Bute house agreement.

The active travel budget forms part of the overall budget for the transport portfolio, taking into account legal or contractual commitments along with other policy commitments. Investment priorities in transport are also set out in the second strategic transport projects review, which was published late last year following extensive public and stakeholder feedback.

I am happy to explore with the City of Edinburgh Council any issues or concerns that it has about that situation. Very clearly, if we are remotely serious about our climate ambitions in relation to transport, as well as the wider economic, social and health benefits from active travel, and if we are serious about the 20 per cent car kilometres reduction target and the role that active travel can play in that regard, investment in that is not only value for money but a long-term priority. The countries that have seen a transformation in active travel have achieved it with strong local leadership and long-term investment. That is the opportunity that Scotland has to make that change.

We are also undertaking a transformation project on active travel because we know that delivery models will need to change to match the scale of ambition and the scale of budgets that we have now and that are coming next year. There will be more to say on the results of that transformation project later in the year.

I do not have a figure for job projections with me at the moment, but I would be happy to write to the member about that. I am pleased that she shares the enthusiasm for the opportunity to transform Scotland’s towns, villages, cities and communities and to make active travel not only the natural choice but the safe and attractive choice for a far greater proportion of the journeys that we make.

There may be some differences in expectation here. We have always been clear that the detail of our heat in buildings programme, which has already been consulted on at a high level, will be subject to a detailed consultation that we will publish this spring. The detail of our heat in buildings regulations, and of the large amount of support that we are providing to households and organisations to help them decarbonise their buildings, will be included there.

I hope that Labour colleagues, and others who are urging us to go further, will welcome the ambitious programme that we are setting out. For example, £7,500 per household for heat pump installation, with an additional uplift for those living in rural areas, is a substantially higher level of support than any that exists elsewhere in the United Kingdom. In addition to that, there are grant and loan schemes for energy efficiency.

That package, taken along with our investment in supply chains to ensure that the cost of insulation will reduce over time, means that we are balancing an ambitious package of regulations with a generous package of support to ensure that the heat transition works for everyone.

Not only has the overall budget for active travel risen to a record £189 million this year as part of our commitment of £320 million—10 per cent of the transport budget—by 2024-25, at the same time, we have seen a sad lack of similar commitment in many parts of the United Kingdom outside of Scotland. Outside of London, the spending per head is just £1.

James Dornan and I both represent Glasgow. Glasgow now has an ambitious long-term plan for a network development of active travel routes. If we want to see that opportunity turn into a reality, it requires a long-term commitment to funding from the Scottish Government, and that is what we are determined to deliver.

We understand that the figure of 224 that the member quotes relates to the number of eviction hearings or case management discussions that were scheduled to take place up to 15 March 2023. That is not the number of eviction applications that have been received by the tribunal. Each application can involve a number of hearings or discussions, so the number of those will not be the same as the number of eviction applications received.

The Cost of Living (Tenant) Protection (Scotland) Act 2022 does not prevent landlords serving a notice to leave or making an application to the tribunal, and the tribunal will still make a decision on whether to issue an eviction order or decree. However, enforcement of the eviction must be paused for up to six months, except in certain narrowly defined circumstances.

We are keeping the operation of the 2022 act under continual review. We will report on it regularly to Parliament, as the act requires us to do.

The member will recall debates during the passage of the legislation on the question of rent arrears. I made the case that, although the arguments are balanced in some ways, the help that people with rent arrears need is not simply to be stuck where they are as they build up ever more unpayable debt. The form of help that they need is direct assistance, and that is what the Government has made available in other ways.

Rather than thinking that we will go back and unpick the legislation, which was passed with the support of Labour colleagues, let us make sure that we continue to operate it as effectively as we can to give tenants in Scotland the protection that they so badly need, and which is so completely lacking in other parts of the United Kingdom.

The member might be aware that Transport Scotland is supportive of the proposal for a developer-funded station at Winchburgh. The Minister for Transport met Winchburgh Developments Ltd, Fiona Hyslop, Transport Scotland, Network Rail and West Lothian Council on 6 December 2022 to discuss progress in developing plans for the new station.

Network Rail has been working on an estimate for the next stage of station design development, which was handed over to Transport Scotland just this week. I anticipate that further meetings will be scheduled once the detailed estimate has been reviewed.