Chamber and committees

I need to make a bit of progress to set out the action that we are taking.

The new housing rights bill will incorporate the right to adequate housing into Scots law within the limits of devolved competence.

For a considerable time, we have been pressing the UK Government to end the freeze on local housing allowance. I am relieved that the chancellor has finally given in to that pressure and has scrapped the freeze on LHA. It is an important source of support for low-income households and should never have been frozen in the first place. The damage done by three years of that freeze is an estimated £819 million cut to the allowance across Great Britain, coupled with cuts of £181 million to Scotland’s capital budget. It has also hampered efforts to increase available housing. I sincerely hope that a freeze like that is never considered again, because no one should have to make the choice between paying their rent, feeding their family and heating their home.

I want to be clear that the scale of homelessness and inadequate housing is one of the big challenges that Scotland faces, but it is by no means unique in that respect. For example, statistics show that there has been a 74 per cent rise in temporary accommodation in England over the past 10 years. Acknowledging the wider situation does not by any means absolve us of the need to take action, but we should be clear about that wider context.

In 2023, we are not where we should be, but from listening to some members—some from the Conservative Party and some from the Labour Party—one could be forgiven for thinking that such housing issues exist only in Scotland. Brexit continues to cast a dark shadow over our construction industry and our workforce capacity. [Interruption.] I know that some members do not want to hear that.

The pandemic was followed by a cost of living crisis, which was topped by a disastrous experiment with far-right economics in the Truss-Kwarteng mini-budget. That has put a huge strain on our resources. All too often, it is the people with least to fall back on who are hit the hardest. They are the same people who have already been hit by a decade of austerity and brutal welfare cuts—the people who are in temporary housing accommodation or in the poorest housing. That is why we, in Scotland, are determined to do all that we can to turn that tide.

If we offered our package of action to tackle the issues that we are debating—a programme that has included providing 120,000 affordable homes over the past 15 years, getting rid of the right to buy, ending no-fault evictions in the private sector, introducing an emergency rent cap, bringing empty homes back into use and enhancing homelessness rights—to colleagues in England, whether Labour campaigners or housing organisations, or to people elsewhere in the UK, I think that they would bite our hand off.

We will continue to be open to positive, constructive ideas, whether from Labour members or anyone else in the chamber, about how we can continue to make greater progress. People in the most difficult housing situations in Scotland need action and commitment, and that is what this Government is determined to continue to deliver.

No, thank you.

The private investment will be driven by creating demand for heat networks. The funding that we have currently allocated to heat networks is to 2026, whereas the target is for nine years later. We know that there is significant interest from private investors in developing such schemes and we have already seen good examples of collaboration, as in Midlothian, where the public and private sectors are working together. Therefore, it is misleading to compare overall cost projections to public budgets.

Based on our best estimate, in 2022, heat networks supplied 1.35TWh of heat. We have committed to keeping the 2035 target and any future targets under review as further evidence emerges—for example, as heat network zones are designated. Setting the 2035 target is just one part of our plan to help grow the sector. We are already taking a range of other concerted actions to allow the heat network sector to flourish. We are resourcing local authorities to develop local heat and energy efficiency strategies, which are identifying opportunities for heat networks across Scotland.

For example, Glasgow’s LHEES identifies that heat networks there have the potential to supply between 1TWh and 4TWh of the city’s heat annually. We have launched the heat network support unit, which is already helping local authorities through the pre-capital stages of heat network development.

Collectively, those actions will help us to achieve our proposed target. I ask Parliament to support the SSI.

We are active in that area. In concert with industry voices, we have worked on the heat in buildings supply chain delivery plan and, in joint discussions with Graeme Dey, I am taking forward work on the skills and education side of things. It might be helpful if I were to give an update as part of my statement to the chamber when we launch the heat in buildings consultation.

We run a regular nationwide marketing campaign to promote the support that is available. I encourage anyone who is interested in making energy efficiency or heating improvements to their home, whether they are in a rural or an urban area, to contact Home Energy Scotland for advice and support. It has a website that highlights the support that is on offer, and its network of regional advice centres allows us to maximise and tap into local promotional opportunities, including outreach and training sessions. We keep our approach to engagement and awareness raising under review, and we are keen to work with rural stakeholders to continue to increase awareness of the support that is on offer.

Ministers routinely discuss cross-portfolio matters. The Scottish Government’s ambition is for everyone to have access to a warm, safe, affordable and energy-efficient home that meets their needs. That is why we have committed to delivering 110,000 high-quality and energy-efficient affordable homes by 2032, 10 per cent of which will be in rural and island areas to help to retain and attract people to those communities. That is on top of the additional funding that we provide in rural areas for social landlords and home owners to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes.

Those are the existing targets under the act. The 2035 target is for what happens beyond that.

As we set out in the consultation, the three proposed targets were based on not only the information from the first assessment report, which looked at where heat network zones will be, but a range of scenarios about the viability of heat networks—a high or low scenario might mean more or fewer heat networks respectively in those areas that have been found to be suitable—and assumptions about a connection rate of 50 per cent.

As we go forward, we will have to address some of the issues around demand assurance so that those developing and investing in heat networks have confidence that there will be consumers connecting to them. However, we made that connection rate assumption for the short period ahead, before the demand assurance measures are in place.

Therefore, from those three factors, we derived proposals for targets of 6TWh and 7TWh and the other stretch target of 12.5TWh. Although a case can be made for any of those targets, it was felt pretty clearly that the target of 7TWh was stretching in terms of achieving significant growth in the sector but also achievable.

It will depend on the specific settings in each area. That is why LHEES are being taken forward at the local level.

If the committee has not had the chance to learn about the heat network in Shetland, for example, I think that that would be instructive. It has been in operation for 25 years, and the company is now looking to expand and extend it, including to potential customers who are not right in the town centre.

There are some energy losses that come from extensive heat networks, but the experience of Denmark is that you can have them over a very wide area, and they do not just have value in the inner core of a city, so we would like to ensure that as many parts of Scotland as can benefit from heat networks do so.

Of course, in less densely populated areas, other approaches to decarbonisation—including individual heat pumps and other technologies—will be, and already are, extremely successful.