Seòmar agus comataidhean

We will move on to partnership working, community engagement and infrastructure. I will bring in Willie Coffey initially with a few questions.

Great. We now move on to our next theme, which is data and monitoring. I will bring in Alexander Stewart for that.

Okay. This is not necessarily a question but a comment to tie together a couple of things that have come up in the behavioural change piece that you just talked about and what the cabinet secretary said about the need for trusted partners and trusted sources of information.

When COSLA, SOLACE, SCIS and others gave evidence to the committee, I was heartened by the amount that they were leaning in and wanting to get on with it. I wonder whether more could be done by national Government to support the telegraphing—getting it out to people—that our public services are doing the work and they understand that we have to take action on climate change.

Those services are already putting work in place but, somehow, that is not necessarily filtering through to people on the ground—to constituents. I was just really struck by how ready the services are—they are beyond ready; they are already doing it. They are or need to become trusted people who could telegraph the need for behaviour change, modal shift and so on.

Thanks very much.

I will pick up on a quick supplementary question that I meant to ask earlier. You mentioned climate action hubs. How much support do those get—how much checking in and bringing them all together? How many do we actually have across Scotland, and how much support do they get? You have identified them as an important place for people to come to for an understanding of what is going on and how they can participate and contribute. How much are they supported?

I have certainly attended hubs in my local authority area. They are very vibrant and active in doing great work.

That brings us to the end of our discussion and our questions. I very much appreciate your joining us this morning. It has been very helpful and insightful, and I look forward to seeing how we have influenced the final plan through our sessions.

I will briefly suspend the meeting to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

11:03

Meeting suspended.

11:11

On resuming—

It is good to hear that you are aware of the issues of SMEs in construction. During a session that we had on rural issues, some years ago now, we learned that after 2008 the bottom fell out of that sector. It is good that you are nurturing it.

Staying on the same theme, I will bring in Evelyn Tweed.

Mark Griffin had an interest in financial transactions, but that discussion appears to have unearthed what he was interested in.

I have a question about rural housing and the community-led aspect of that. It is great to hear that you are delivering more than the 10 per cent target for rural and island Scotland. Members of the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee all talk about the fact that, even though 17 per cent of Scotland’s population is rural, only 10 per cent of the housing budget is allocated to rural areas. It is great that you are operating on the basis of at least 10 per cent of the target number of homes being provided in rural Scotland.

You said that the rural and islands housing fund and the rural affordable homes for key workers fund are demand-led schemes. We have had the initiative to support community housing enablers such as the Communities Housing Trust and South of Scotland Community Housing, which have been tremendously important in creating a pipeline of demand. Are you aware of that? What are you planning to do to support them to keep going with that work?

I am aware that, certainly in the Highlands and Islands, other people are showing up in the housing landscape who have the potential to play an enabling role. They have an incredible amount of knowledge, which they can use to support communities to develop one or two houses or flats that will keep those communities alive.

We are going to change themes. I will bring in Willie Coffey on energy efficiency and decarbonisation.

I do not know whether you have given us that sequencing. It would be helpful to see what you are working to, if that is possible.

There are seven sectors in the plan, but there is not a dedicated sector for local authorities, because there is a thread of expectation running throughout. Annex 3 assumes that there will be extensive local authority delivery, but my sense from our evidence sessions is that the roles are not clearly defined in that space.

When we had that evidence session with the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers, COSLA, the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service and a couple of others, I was very moved by the fact that they really wanted to get on with it and were ready for it. That was fantastic. It is important to do whatever we can at the national level to support that and to remove blocks and barriers.

As you have said, local authorities are different. They will start from different places on what they need to address. I am interested to hear how confident you are that all local authorities are in a position to drive the level of progress that the plan depends on. What will the Government do in situations where councillors are struggling to keep up the pace?