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Local authorities already have a very important role, particularly through things such as the area-based schemes. You point to an equally important issue, but I will finish my point about local authorities—or, rather, local companies. People are very keen to be able to go back to a local point of contact if things need fixed, and that probably brings us into some of the criticism of the way in which eco-schemes have been operated in the past. Those eco-schemes are not Scottish Government schemes—they were funded at a UK level through industry. You might be alluding to the significant criticism of some of the companies that were involved in installations under that scheme. However, it is important that we maintain public confidence and make it clear to the public that the Scottish Government-funded schemes are not the eco-schemes and that some of the well-publicised problems that were associated with those schemes are not the Scottish Government’s area of activity.

I will bring in officials to try to give a comprehensive list, but there are many other types of technology, such as ground-source heat pumps—although they will not be suitable for every single house. Some people are in a position to have solar or small-scale wind energy. There will not be one single solution, because heat pumps will not be suitable for every house. I mentioned, too, that if gas and electricity prices were rebalanced in the future, we would be able to electrify houses in all sorts of other ways that are perhaps not cost-effective at the moment.

I will bring in others, as I have no doubt forgotten some forms of heating.

Will the shift have an impact on our goals for 2045? The answer is no. We want to do this in a way that is achievable and to have meaningful figures, but that does not take away from our ambitions for 2045. The green heat finance task force is considering how to foster a greater flow of private finance, which would help to achieve that aim.

We have set ourselves targets for 2027, 2030 and 2035. The statutory targets provide a signal to assist the private sector and provide greater certainty for investors. We are committed to working with and encouraging projects of that kind. We offer grant support for the construction of new zero direct emission heat networks, and we are providing funding and advice during pre-capital stages of development for a pipeline of projects. That pipeline is important so that the sector has greater certainty and has the signals that it needs to invest in the future.

As you say, the circumstances in some communities lend themselves more to heat networks than to other solutions. In large parts of my constituency, many houses are half a mile or more away from others. The circumstances of such areas do not lend themselves to some solutions, although plenty of other sustainable forms of heating would meet their requirements. There might be areas that we can concentrate on. We look to other countries—everyone looks to the example of Copenhagen, where a huge proportion of the population in that urban area is looking at heat networks. I have met a number of the companies that are involved and have offered encouragement and as much certainty as we can provide about investment in heat networks in the future.

We are taking a great number of combined measures to try to bring down emissions from buildings. We are conscious that, as a country, 20 per cent of our carbon emissions come from our buildings, and we will have to address that fact if we are to reach the ambitious targets that we all have for 2045.

There are individual schemes, which I am sure the committee will want to ask about. For instance, there is our heat in buildings programme and our budget for that, and we also have the area-based schemes for improving the energy efficiency of people’s houses and, we hope, reducing emissions. We must do all that work hand in hand with an effort to ensure that anything that we do in that sphere does not have the unintended consequence of putting people into poverty.

Those are a few of the things that we are doing. Perhaps the officials might want to add something to that list.

Yes, it is certainly welcome. From memory, the figure that has been quoted is 6 per cent of installations, and, yes—it would apply across the UK.

The Government has funded the service for more than 15 years, and the Energy Saving Trust administers the Home Energy Scotland advice service on our behalf. Demand for the service has been high, although it has decreased from the 138,000 households that the service supported in 2022-23. As a Government, we are committed to ensuring that the funding is applied to ensure that the advice service exists in the future, and the Scottish Government regularly reviews the grant to ensure that that happens.

I reiterate that both the difficulty of working during Covid and the cost of materials in its wake were deterrents to many contractors.

I should be clear that, although we are awaiting important information from the UK Government, which we are having good conversations with, I am not suggesting that the timing of our decisions about the bill is based on any of that information.

UK Government decisions are nonetheless relevant. As you are aware, there is an on-going conversation about electricity pricing, the relative price of electricity and gas, the review of electricity market arrangements and the reform of many parts of the network. The decisions that the UK Government takes will clearly interact with our own legislation.

I will bring in others to talk about some of the conversations that we are having.