Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 February 2021
I apologise for briefly leaving the chamber during the debate, Presiding Officer.
It has been a very good debate. Alex Rowley summed up why the bill is so important. He spoke eloquently about fuel poverty, and he mentioned a three-tier tariff scheme in Dunfermline, both of which are issues that the bill tackles. On fuel poverty, if we have more district heating schemes, we can potentially drive down the cost of heating. I say “potentially”, because that is not a given and will not be automatic.
That will be one of the two tests of the bill. The first is whether it will lead to greater take-up and use of district heating, and we do not know the answer to that. The second is whether consumers will be better protected as a result, and the jury is out on that, too. That is an important issue. As a number of members have raised during the process, if someone is tied into a district heating scheme, what happens if they do not like it and want to switch supplier? Those of us who are not in a district heating scheme can pretty much do that any time. There are difficulties with that issue.
What happens if a company supplying a district heating scheme goes bust or just decides that it does not want to do it any more? That brings me on to the question that Alexander Burnett raised about the supplier of last resort. Mr Burnett said that what is in the bill in that regard is not ideal. I agree—there are still questions to be asked about that.
I, too, must praise the minister for his approach. I do not want to embarrass him too much, but I have to say that he has given something of a masterclass in cross-party co-operation. The process has been driven by the minister. He has managed to get people virtually round the table and to agree on pretty much everything. He was doing so well until the final group of amendments, when Mr Wightman decided that the minister could not have it all his own way. Anyway, I say to the minister, “Well done—really well done.” As we have heard, there is cross-party consensus on the issue, which is important.
The minister started by telling us what a heat network is. I assume that people know this, but it is a network that delivers heat—obviously—most commonly through hot water or steam from a central source. There are a number of ways of doing that.
At all stages of the bill, we have heard various examples from across the country of heat networks that already exist, but we want the provision to expand. Members have mentioned the Danish experience. As we have heard, heat networks cover about 50 per cent of Danish heat consumption and two thirds of households, representing 17 per cent of national energy consumption. Therefore, as Sarah Boyack said, we have a long way to go. I did not realise that Sarah Boyack was a minister as long as 20 years ago—she certainly does not look it, does she, Presiding Officer? I am praising everyone today. However, if we have not made progress in 20 years, that is not a good record.
There are a number of issues still to be tackled, such as the issue that Citizens Advice Scotland raised about what happens when people’s heat is turned off by the network. However, we are fully behind the bill, as are all the parties.