Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 February 2021
Thank you.
The Government’s progress on community ownership of renewable energy is behind—I think that 70 per cent of the target was achieved by 2020—so there is a lot of work to be done on that. Community ownership of district heating systems is an important way forward and we need to look at how we can support it.
I take on board Alexander Burnett’s point about the need to have expertise in and knowledge of this type of system. I remember that, when I was leader of Fife Council, we put in £X million to erect wind turbines across Fife. The intention was to then get the payback from them and inject that into the community. It did not quite come off and I believe that one of the reasons for that was that we did not have that level of expertise within the local authority and we had not accessed or been able to buy in that level of expertise. If we want to reach the point that Denmark is at, it will take time, but we have to start somewhere and it is important to build up that expertise if we can.
A point about fuel poverty has always struck me. A number of years ago, I was campaigning in Paisley and knocking on doors there. I got talking to a lady who had just moved into a new housing association house. The key point that she made to me was that the house that she lived in previously, which was also owned by a social landlord, was damp and it cost a fortune that they could not afford to heat the house. Most importantly, during the winter months in particular, her daughter suffered from chest complaints and asthma and was never away from the hospital. The lady told me that, after she moved into her new house, not once had the daughter had to attend hospital.
Fuel poverty comes in many forms and the level of fuel poverty that we have is absolutely appalling, but when people live in fuel poverty, it impacts on the health and education and every other part of families’ lives. That is why we have to tackle fuel poverty and why I am quite excited by the progress that has been made.
I hope that I will be back in the next parliamentary session, but I certainly look forward to the Parliament, in the next session, doing the work and taking the bill forward so that, once and for all, we can tackle fuel poverty and invest in training, skills and jobs. That is what we need to see coming through under this new green agenda—jobs. I can understand why the trade unions are sceptical—I have raised the issue with the minister before. We have to deliver and we have to deliver jobs. The potential for Scotland is endless; we can do so much. I am pleased that there is unity in the Parliament to drive this agenda forward. That is a good start.