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Since its launch in August 2020, the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has committed £15.3 million for the retrofit of 1804 Social Housing properties across Scotland. The fund offers grant support of up to 50% of the total eligible costs of the project, with the average amount of support provided per property being £8,300.

The Scottish Government is introducing the New Build Heat Standard from 2024 in direct response to the recommendation of the Committee on Climate Change on how to meet the net-zero legal obligations legislated for by the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government has previously commissioned research which considered the capital costs associated with delivering zero direct emissions heating (ZDEH) technologies within new homes.

The research found that the installation of ZDEH systems ranged from £2,000 to £5,000 more than compared to a gas boiler counterfactual. However, these costs are highly variable and depend on a range of factors from the choice of system used to the nature of the construction of the individual development. It is also expected that both innovation and economies of scale will reduce the price of ZDEH systems as Scotland and many other countries increase their deployment.

Conversely, in off-gas areas, the capital costs of ZDEH systems were found to be comparable with fossil fuel alternatives (such as oil boilers).

Copies of the research papers are available here:

• Renewable and zero emissions heating systems in affordable housing projects: evaluation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• Costs of zero emissions heating in new buildings (climatexchange.org.uk)

At the introduction of these regulations, a full Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) will be published – and the findings from these research reports and other relevant information will be incorporated into the final BRIA.

The sale price of a new building is a matter that is determined by each individual developer and takes into account a range of variables related to the cost of construction of the building and the local housing market.

Security of electricity supply is a reserved policy area, delivered through UK Government electricity policy, Ofgem as the independent GB energy regulator, and National Grid ESO (the GB Electricity System Operator).

A mixture of renewables, storage and increased interconnection across GB and to the continent – as well as a potential role for carbon capture in some scenarios – can support a secure and decarbonised power sector in Scotland.

Transport Scotland holds information on charge points registered on the ChargePlace Scotland network only and by local authority boundary and not by parliamentary constituency.

Across the local authority boundary areas that this constituency covers there were a total of 28 public charge points commissioned onto the ChargePlace Scotland network between 01 June 2021 and 31 May 2022.

Our approach, which includes our new £60m fund, is designed to attract private investment and create the conditions for the public network to be largely financed and operated by the commercial sector.

While pharmacy closures can occur, this on the whole represents a small proportion of the network and is often limited to a small proportion of the required model hours. The Scottish Government continue to work with all Health Boards and community pharmacies representatives who are responsible for the provision of local pharmaceutical care services to ensure that any challenges faced by community pharmacies in providing the safe and effective dispensing of treatments are discussed with the local Health Board to minimise impact and risk to patients. Health boards can take a range of actions in response to any breach of terms by a pharmacy contractor.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on its final proposals for the New Build Heat Standard. This consultation will inform the final regulations which are expected to be laid during 2023 before coming into force in April 2024. Alongside those regulations we will publish a Business Regulatory Impact Assessment. This will set out estimated costs and benefits of the approach, including emissions reductions.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication Making the Switch, prepared by the Energy Transition Institute at Robert Gordon University, with funding from the Scottish Government through the North East Economic Recovery and Skills Fund . It highlights the potential for the North East to become a net zero energy hub that supports workers in existing oil and gas roles into the renewable and low carbon jobs of the future. In the Goldilocks zone, there is synchronous decline in the traditional oil and gas sector and uptick in renewables and low carbon, with workers able to transfer readily between energy sectors.

The Scottish Government is supporting the development of new skills and jobs in the North East through a number of programmes. These include the Energy Transition Zone skills programme which will accelerate the growth of a globally integrated energy cluster, creating 2,500 FTEs in Aberdeen at its peak and catalysing a further 10,000 energy transition related jobs in the region.

The Global Underwater Hub Skills programme, also funded through the Energy Transition Fund, is focussed on the technical skills, management and leadership capabilities required to meet the local and global demands of the growing underwater sectors and changing business environment. Detailed skills mapping will be carried out to highlight gaps in the current industry skills pool and identify areas of shortfall around future, new and growth areas. Strategies to tackle any gaps will be developed in collaboration with Skills Development Scotland (SDS).

The Scottish Government’s Green Jobs Fund is a five-year, capital fund of up to £100 million, which will support businesses and their supply chains to help them better transition to a low carbon economy. Already, more than 57 projects have been approved for funding, with around 3886 FTE jobs to be created and safeguarded.

The Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan is central to realising our ambition to create a future workforce that can support our transition to a net zero economy. It identifies immediate and long term actions needed to ensure our current and future workforce has the skills to support Scotland’s transition to net zero. The Green Jobs Workforce Academy, established to help workers take a green approach to their career, skills and job search, is accessible to all users, enabling a greater understanding of the relevance of their existing skills and signposting to green job opportunities.

Making the Switch also underlines how important carbon capture and storage will be to future-proofing jobs in the North East and why it is essential for the UK Government to support the Scottish Cluster to progress with urgency.

The Scottish Government is providing support to encourage investment in renewables in the north east through a number of funds and programmes. These include, but are not limited to:

The £75m Energy Transition Fund is investing in projects that aim to accelerate and support the move to renewable energy, protecting existing jobs and create new jobs in the North East, and across Scotland by opening up opportunities through energy transition and harnessing private sector funding. It is currently in delivery with an intended end date of 2025.

The £125m City Region Deal investment runs until 2026 and includes £90m for the Net Zero Technology Centre. The City Region Deal is delivering a number of projects aimed at utilising the resources of the North East to lead the world on the shift to a net zero future in areas such as:

• offshore renewable (wind) energy generation,
• energy storage,
• electricity interconnection,
• hydrogen production and fuel cell deployment,
• gas and hydrogen distribution, and
• carbon capture, utilisation and storage.

The £500 million Just Transition Fund for North East and Moray will deliver over the next 10 years. The fund opened for applications on 31 May 2022. Bids to the first year’s allocation of £20 million are currently being assessed. The Just Transition Fund complements other Scottish Government commitments to the sector in the North East and was announced in recognition of the particular need to diversify the regional economy away from carbon-intensive industries and to capitalise on the opportunities, including jobs and prosperity, that the transition to net zero will bring.

The draft Hydrogen Action Plan committed £100 million hydrogen funding for 2022-2026 through the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF). This is a Scotland-wide fund to support Hydrogen, CCUS and the development of negative emissions technologies. In June 2022, we launched the first tranche of the EETF via the £10 million Hydrogen Innovation Scheme. The remaining £90 million hydrogen investment programme is expected to launch in Autumn 2022 and will focus on supporting rapid renewable hydrogen production from Scotland’s abundant renewable energy resources.

Our Emerging Energy Technologies Fund allocates £80m over the next five years to support the development of CCUS and negative-emissions technologies. We have offered this funding to help the Scottish Cluster carbon capture project accelerate its effort to help Scotland’s just transition to net zero.

The Scottish Government is providing support to encourage investment in renewables in the north east through a number of funds and programmes. These include, but are not limited to, the £500 million Just Transition Fund for North East and Moray which opened on 31 May. Bids to the first year’s allocation of £20 million are currently being assessed. The Just Transition Fund complements other Scottish Government commitments to the sector in the North East – such as our £125m City Region Deal investment, including £90m for the Net Zero Technology Centre and the £75m Energy Transition Fund (ETF).The ETF will protect existing jobs and create new jobs in the North East, and across Scotland by opening up opportunities through energy transition and harnessing private sector funding. As an example, our investment of £26.3m in the Energy Transition Zone is helping to unlock a further £64m in private investment for the first phase. The Net Zero Technology Transition Programme delivered by the Net Zero Technology Centre has also leveraged match funding of £17m from industry for phases 1&2 as a direct result of our £17m investment in the programme.

The draft Hydrogen Action Plan committed £100 million hydrogen funding for 2022-2026 through the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF). This is a Scotland-wide fund to support Hydrogen, CCUS and the development of negative emissions technologies. In June 2022, we launched the first tranche of the EETF via the £10 million Hydrogen Innovation Scheme. The remaining £90 million hydrogen investment programme is expected to launch in Autumn 2022 and will focus on supporting rapid renewable hydrogen production from Scotland’s abundant renewable energy resources.

Scotland’s natural resources, which include strong and consistent wind resource, along with our established expertise in offshore oil and gas, skilled offshore workforce, excellent port structure and strong innovation hub, make Scotland one of the best places in the world to develop offshore wind and reap the supply chain benefits from private sector investment. The recent ScotWind leasing round demonstrates this, by delivering around £700 million in option fee revenues to the public purse, plus the ScotWind projects committed to investment of up to £25 billion across the Scottish supply chain across the 17 Scotwind offshore wind projects as set out in their Supply Chain Development Statements

Scotland’s energy sector is at the forefront of our transformation to becoming a net zero nation. It is a major employer and source of economic output, and our oil and gas infrastructure and highly skilled workforce have long been at the forefront of energy innovation - which is why it is well-placed to embrace the transformation that lies ahead.

We are already investing in the oil and gas sector’s net zero transformation. Our expanded £75 million Energy Transition Fund which is supporting the energy sector to grow and diversify, whilst helping to attract further private investment; and our £500 million Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray will support the North East and Moray to become one of Scotland’s centres of excellence for the transition to a net zero economy . The opportunities of offshore wind are also considerable. Applicants to the recent ScotWind leasing round were required to submit a Supply Chain Development Statement, outlining the supply chain activity they commit to undertaking within Scotland, the UK and overseas. The full Supply Chain Development Statement Outlooks for all successful applicants were published by Crown Estate Scotland in April 2022, and the initial projections show an average spend of £1.5bn in Scotland across each of the 17 ScotWind projects. This week Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind clearing process offered seabed agreements to a further three projects off the east coast of Shetland bringing the total number of ScotWind projects to 20 totaling 27.8GW.

Our £75 million Energy Transition Fund is focused on acceleration the energy sector’s transition to net zero-emissions whilst helping to attract further private investment, £26 million of which has been allocated to develop the Energy Transition Zone (ETZ) in Aberdeen. ETZ is expected to directly support 2,500 green jobs by 2030, alongside a further 10,000 transition-related jobs. Our £500 million Just Transition Fund - which we have called on the UK Government multiple times to match - will also support the north east and Moray become one of Scotland's centres of excellence for the transition to a net economy, with our investment supporting transformation across the region.