Meeting of the Parliament 26 June 2024
Hundreds of millions of pounds have been put into the bus network; however, I am a rural MSP, and I absolutely recognise that, in constituencies such as mine, long after the deregulation of bus services, a lot of action has been needed from successive Governments to put more investment into rural networks in particular. That is what we are committed to doing.
We also have a range of policy interventions that are designed to decrease fuel poverty, and we continue to press for reform at source in the reserved areas that affect that. Moreover, the just transition plans are in development for transport, agriculture and land reform, and buildings and construction, as is the site-specific plan for Grangemouth, which all demonstrates that commitment and action.
We are also strengthening Scotland’s resilience to the impacts of climate change, and we will set out how we are doing that with the publication of our Scottish national adaptation plan later this year. We are consulting on a new national flood resilience strategy right now.
Given the constraints of devolution, we cannot do this alone. Scotland lacks the full range of levers to deal with the long-term challenges in the way that others can. We also want to make the point that the UK needs to invest significantly in climate action if both Scotland and the UK are to meet their targets on net zero. One of us cannot do it without the other. The impact of the former UK Government’s wrong-headed real-terms cut to Scotland’s capital funding of almost 9 per cent over five years is having an impact on what we do. We have heard about that today.