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The importance of buses in tackling some of the challenges that we face in getting folk to move to public transport is often underestimated. After all, 80 per cent of public transport journeys are by bus, and buses play a huge role in getting folk out. That said, I recognise the challenges that communities face; indeed, I suspect that we all have the same challenges in our communities with regard to the quality of bus services, services being withdrawn and so on. I certainly have those challenges in my own constituency.

We want our bus services to be sustainable. One of the provisions in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, which the convener will be very familiar with, was a suite of options for local authorities to play a more effective regulatory role in managing and delivering bus services, whether that be through bus improvement partnerships, running bus services on their own or a franchise model. I sense that a number of local authorities are looking at franchises, which give them much more direct control over specifying the services that will be delivered within their communities.

I want buses to play an important part in the public transport offer in urban and rural areas, but I recognise the challenges in that respect. As I have said, though, there are now regulatory provisions that will allow local authorities to start looking at the models that might work best for them in delivering bus services in their area and which will be more reflective of what the local community is looking for as well as the council’s expectations for those communities. We still have some work to complete on the statutory guidance that will go alongside that, but we hope to do that this year.

Potentially. I would just point out that what works in Edinburgh will not necessarily work in west Stirlingshire, and a community bus model for somewhere like west Stirlingshire might look very different from what you might want to provide in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen or Dundee. However, the community bus fund could support some of the work on that.

Anne Martin might want to say a bit more about the operation of the community bus fund but I have to say that I do not want it to be used for only this purpose and no other purpose beyond this particular model. There will be different models, and different approaches will work in different areas.

Are you referring to the idea of community asset transfer from local authorities to communities and how that fits into the circular economy process and how we make sure that investments made in asset transfers are consistent with the circular economy approach?

I cannot profess to be an expert on EPCs from a technical point of view. I know that we require them for a range of matters. For example, for social housing landlords, letting properties and at the time of sale of properties, EPCs must be completed. I am afraid that I will have to take some technical advice on whether they are the most effective technical way to provide that assessment to an individual household. I am not particularly versed in that.

We have seen recovery in real patronage, although not to the levels that we want. That has been affected by industrial action. I do not know whether Anne Martin can say a bit more about the process of the fair fares review. I am not entirely sure exactly what has happened to that petition but drawing it up into the fair fares review would seem to be the most appropriate way to deal with it. Anne Martin may be able to say a bit more about how we take forward the fair fares review and what its timescale is.

I can take it away because it is set much more on the planning side as well. In NPF4 you will see a much clearer focus on helping to support leading on net zero objectives and the guidance that will be issued to local authorities for that. You have to be careful that asset transfer in local authorities is not simply a local authority getting rid of a problem facility on to the local community. I am clear that the local experience should be that local authorities transferring assets do so in good order and do not leave communities with difficulties in upgrading them to improve insulating, heating and so on. We have to think about how that would all fit in to make sure that we are making these buildings sustainable going forward.

On your wider point, I am more than happy for us to take that away to see whether we can get more details for you from a planning point of view, if that would be helpful.

I will have to get that information from the planning minister or from those who are dealing with planning directly. The use of brownfield sites and how that is planned within NPF4 does not sit in my policy remit. It is not within my portfolio. I do not want to start saying what the Government’s position is on a policy area that another minister is dealing with, if you do not mind.

I will have a go at that. About 60 per cent of the actions that have to be taken to achieve net zero involve some form of behaviour change. If you are looking to achieve that scale and level of behaviour change, you have to take communities with you. You have to do it in partnership. There will be some local authorities that are better at that than others. I see that; I also witness that at a local level. A big part of it is very often down to the skills and the ability of officers in a local authority to develop those partnerships. I think that collaboration with local communities is extremely important.

How a local authority chooses to go about doing that is dependent on its circumstances. The way in which you might want to do it in a very urban area might be different from the way in which you want to do it in a particularly rural local authority area. They should be looking to try to help to engage with local communities around their climate change plans, the targets that they are setting and the process for implementation of policy. It should all be part of the engagement programme with local communities to make sure that they are facilitating the opportunity for local communities to feed into that through area committees, community councils or other engagement mechanisms that they have. Local authorities can use all those different structures, but engagement has to be meaningful and it has to allow communities to feel that they are part of the journey and that they are affecting the plans and the way in which they are being taken forward locally.

I will deal with some of the inflationary pressures and Ben Macpherson can pick up on the wider public sector finance situation and funding for pay increases.

There is no doubt that the increasing inflationary pressures that are being experienced by local authorities will have an impact. It is difficult to quantify exactly to what extent those pressures will have an impact, but the cost base for carrying out capital works has increased because of both material and labour cost increases. That will clearly put pressures on local authority budgets, as it will for the Scottish Government and other parts of the public sector. There is no doubt in my mind that inflationary pressures will have an impact, but it is difficult at this stage to quantify that impact.

It is also worth keeping it in mind that some of the pay challenges that local government has faced have resulted in additional funding being provided to local government to try to help to meet and offset some of the additional costs associated with the pay awards. That was as part of our on-going engagement with COSLA to try to help to resolve the pay disputes that were taking place. Ben Macpherson may want to say a bit more about local government financing.

If someone is having insulation installed in their property now, then yes, it will. People who are already getting insulation or are planning to put in insulation or other energy efficiency measures later this year will, of course, get the benefit of that.

You suggested that we will not meet a target for the end of this year. What target are you referring to? I am not clear about what target you mean.