Chamber and committees

The Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) now provides loans to farmers, land managers, rural businesses, cooperatives and communities for the pre-planning consent costs of developing proposals. The spending review later this year will give an opportunity to consider future funding for community renewables.

In the 2020 Routemap for Renewable Energy in Scotland, the Scottish Government has set a target of 500 megawatts of community and locally-owned renewable energy by 2020. The Routemap is published on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/RoutemapforRenewableEnergy.

The Community and Renewable Energy Scheme provides loans of up to £150,000 to farmers, land managers, rural businesses, cooperatives and communities to help meet the pre-planning consent costs of developing a proposal. It is a requirement of the loan scheme to have in place a binding legal agreement on community benefit, with payments to begin when a project becomes operational, and continue for a period of 20 years.

The Scottish Government is also committed to securing the establishment of a Green Equity Fund for community renewables for the post-planning phase of development. More detailed proposals for supporting community renewables from the next financial year onwards will be set out in the spending review later this year.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. Scottish Enterprise leads on this program providing staff, marketing and other support.

I will ask Scottish Enterprise’s chief executive to write to you with the information.

The Scottish Government is leading by example through achieving levels of £5,000 per megawatt per annum community benefit on commercial developments recently leased on Forestry Commission (Scotland) (FCS) land. The recent leasing process by FCS also gives an opportunity for communities to engage and invest in up to 49 per cent ownership of projects.

We are further considering how to optimise community benefit and community engagement with renewables as we review the responses to the “Securing the Benefits of Scotland’s Next Energy Revolution” consultation.

This is a matter for the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT). SFT and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) are exploring ways to support Local Authorities in the development of renewable energy projects. These approaches may provide a platform from which to develop specific schemes for renewable district heating.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. Scottish Enterprise leads on this program providing staff, marketing and other support.

I will ask Scottish Enterprise’s Chief Executive to write to you with the information.

The Scottish Government does not provide direct financial support to the Scottish Energy Laboratory. The laboratory does however receive some financial support from Scotland’s enterprise agencies.

We aim to deliver 30,000 affordable homes – an average of 6,000 per year over the next five years. We plan to build 5,000 new council houses during this parliament, but have not set an overall target for council/housing association homes for social rent.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-01735 on 11 August 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Homes built through the National Housing Trust initiative (NHT) will be available for rent below the levels of housing benefit limits which makes them accessible to households on lower incomes. The homes will form part of the overall programme of affordable housing supply receiving financial support from the Scottish Government.