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Following our declaration of a national housing emergency in May last year, we set out a response plan to focus in the short term on housing supply. This includes delivering more high quality, permanent homes - growing the economy and supporting affordable housing as a vital public service through increased private and public sector investment across all housing tenures.

The 2025-26 budget allocation of £768m represents an increase of over £200m when compared to the original 2024-25 published budget of £556m. This investment will help tackle the housing emergency while contributing towards our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.

Alongside our Housing Emergency response work, the Housing Investment Taskforce will identify actions that will unlock both existing and new commitments to investment in housing – across all tenures – by bringing together key interests of investors and investees.

There are strong legislative protections that protect tenants living in the private rented sector, including the right to seek an independent adjudication of a rent increase.

It is critical that tenants are aware of their rights. We have therefore launched another wave of our Renters Rights Campaign to support private tenants understand their housing rights and exercise them.

The Scottish Government does not routinely disclose the content or source of any legal advice it has received on any topic or whether it has received any legal advice.

The Scottish Government does not routinely disclose the content or source of any legal advice it has received on any topic or whether it has received any legal advice.

The Scottish Government has engaged with individual tenants and representative tenant bodies and more information can be found in the Housing Policy Memorandum and Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) .

Since introduction of the Bill, the Scottish Government continues to engage with tenants and their representatives.

Scotland already has the strongest protections for tenants in the UK. The rent adjudication process is in place to protect tenants from above market rent increases and it is one of a number if protections tenants have in place. An appeal can be made to the First Tier Tribunal if a landlord or tenant is not happy with a rent adjudication decision.

Raising awareness of the strong existing rights tenants have is critical. That is why we have launched a further Renters’ Rights Campaign. This will support tenants understand their rights, how to use them and where to seek further advice and support.

Crown Estate Scotland estimate £186 million will be paid by the developers for the 50-year lease for the Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm site. This figure is based on Minimum output and tenant projections for production over the 50 year period, based on 2025 RPI.

While Scottish Government officials regularly engage with Crown Estate Scotland, which administers seabed leasing for offshore wind and sets the terms of those leases, employment conditions in the supply chain for the Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm have not been discussed specifically.

Although employment law is reserved, we will continue to use the levers at our disposal to promote fair work practices across the labour market in Scotland.

Employment and industrial relations legislation is reserved to the UK Parliament. While this remains the case, the Scottish Government will continue to use our Fair Work policy to drive up labour market standards for workers across the Scottish labour market.

Ministers are clear that the best way to protect Scotland’s workers is by devolving employment law. However, Ministers welcome the UK Government’s Employment Rights Bill and continue to work with them to ensure it has a positive impact across Scotland.

There have been no discussions with the UK Government specifically regarding trade union recognition or the application of the national minimum wage in the maritime supply chain for the Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm.

Through the Scottish Government’s Fair Work policy, all employers across Scotland, which would include those involved in the Offshore Wind sector, are encouraged to adopt Fair Work principles. The Fair Work Action Plan asks employers right across Scotland to play their part, while setting out what support is available to help them realise the benefits of fair, diverse, and inclusive workplace practices.

Scotland’s offshore wind sector is expected to generate significant employment opportunities. Based on evidence available across a number of individual studies, the Scottish Government’s Offshore Wind Focus paper estimates the Offshore Wind sector in Scotland could support as many as 10,400 to 54,000 jobs. We do not hold specific figures on the number of shore-side and seafaring jobs in Scotland that will be supported by the construction of the Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting the growth of Scotland’s offshore wind sector, investing up to £500 million over five years to support market certainty, and help create a highly productive, competitive offshore wind economy with thousands of new jobs.