Chamber and committees

Does the minister regret describing the situation for islanders as “not brilliant”? Would it be more appropriate to say that it is disastrous?

I congratulate Ariane Burgess on securing the debate. Before I get into the meat of the subject that she has raised, however, I highlight that what Evelyn Tweed had to say should be taken extremely seriously, and the matter should be investigated by the minister as a matter of urgency and taken forward in some way.

I turn to community-led housing, which is the subject of the debate. I know how passionately Ariane Burgess feels about it, because we both sit on the cross-party group on housing. We recently held a session—in fact, it was our most recent meeting—at which we looked at community-led housing and discussed some of the projects that Ariane Burgess mentioned, including the project in Gairloch, where 25 affordable homes are being built, and the one in Staffin.

It is fair to say that community-led housing is a success story, where it exists in Scotland. It provides an additional supply of homes, it helps the local economy and local industry, it encourages investment in communities and it helps younger people to realise their housing ambitions.

At the meeting that I mentioned, we heard from Ailsa Raeburn, the chair of Community Land Scotland; Ronnie MacRae, from Communities Housing Trust; and Mike Staples, from South of Scotland Community Housing. Following the meeting last month, I, as convener of the cross-party group, wrote to the then Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, Shona Robison, with the following asks. First, we asked the Government to publish the remote, rural and islands action plan; secondly, we asked that it consider forming a Government action group; thirdly, we asked it to commit to funding the activities of intermediary organisations; fourthly, we asked for a review of grant conditions for community-led housing; and, fifthly, we asked for funds to be made available for urban community-led housing, which Ariane Burgess mentioned in her speech, because it is not only rural housing that we are talking about.

Fast-forwarding to the present, we now have a dedicated housing minister who, to his credit, has responded swiftly to the CPG. He sent a letter dated 12 April, which I am happy to share with any member who wishes to see it. It covers most of the things that we addressed in our letter—in some respects, it is quite vague, which is not unusual for a letter from a minister, but at least it is a response. The minister has also offered to meet me—I think that that offer should include Ariane Burgess—and I hope that he will attend a meeting of the cross-party group at which we can discuss this subject, which I recognise that he feels strongly about, too.

This is an example of where Parliament can work together and shows the value of cross-party groups. If we remove party politics from an issue, we can achieve good things.

I thank the minister for his encouraging response and his approach to this issue, and, once again, I thank Ariane Burgess.

I am delighted that we have heard from Chris Bryceland; I was feeling rather sorry for him. I have a follow-up question for him. Has the UK Government set a timescale for deciding on that project? I do not know the answer to that; perhaps you do.

That is good to hear.

Cabinet secretary, you have visited the site, as we have done. You mentioned aviation fuel, which is already produced there, but there is a big opportunity for Grangemouth and Scotland to produce sustainable aviation fuel—SAF. Did you discuss that with Ineos when you visited? What do you think needs to happen for SAF to be produced at Grangemouth? That could be a massive opportunity for Scotland.

That is what he was referring to.

I have one more question. I have been reflecting on what you have been saying throughout the meeting. The UK Government has been mentioned quite a lot. It occurs to me that, when you are producing the plan for Grangemouth, the UK Government should perhaps be involved in some way. I do not know how you feel about that. The UK Government has come up in our discussion today, and it has clearly been investing in the area through various schemes, so it would seem appropriate for it to be involved at some point.

I feel like I have joined the panel to help Mr Beattie out. The simple answer to his question is that, at the moment, hydrogen cannot be used for larger planes whereas the airlines will tell you that SAF could be used. It is, basically, a like-for-like replacement. That is a simple answer. We are not quite there yet with hydrogen.

Thanks for that. I have a few questions that arise from the sessions that we have already had and that have not been asked already.

Going back to the plan that you hope to produce—obviously, you cannot tell us what will be in the plan; I understand that—I wonder about the level of detail that might be in it. Will you set out when you hope to do things by? Going back to Fiona Hyslop’s question about transport, would it set out which roads you will fix, or will it just be aspirational?

Yes, that is correct. However, Jim Skea, who you mentioned earlier, said that he did not see the evidence to justify your belief—let us hope that you are right and that he is not—that we could be a major exporter of hydrogen. Furthermore, Friends of the Earth Scotland has referred to the Scottish Government’s “pie-in-the-sky predictions”. Who is right?

You are completely right, but the issue relates to a just transition.

I think that Màiri McAllan and Neil Gray must work together closely on the issue, and with the UK Government. Once we start to produce SAF in greater quantities, the price will come down and Scotland’s airports will benefit, because airlines will go there as they have SAF available. That represents a huge opportunity.

By the way, the cross-party group on aviation sent its report on the subject to the Scottish and UK Governments. We are still waiting to hear back from both Governments. It would be useful to get a response.

I will move on to hydrogen, which has been mentioned. Cabinet secretary, you were quoted in one of the newspapers—The Herald, I think—as saying that you thought that hydrogen could be a major export for Scotland. What did you base that on?