Chamber and committees

In its written evidence, COSLA calls for a mechanism to be developed

“by which we can better manage the multiple decarbonisation challenges that we face, and their impact on the economy and society.”

We all know that that needs to happen; we want to know what you think that would look like in practice.

Should councils be leaders in adopting a place-based approach to tackle net zero or should they be interested only in public services and public sector responsibilities?

Is COSLA involved in Minister Harvie’s green finance task force on housing?

David Hammond, will you address the same question and whether you think that council officials have the skills required to embark on those joint ventures or to use different finance mechanisms? What is needed to share that skills base across local authorities?

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the 24th meeting in 2022 of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee.

I welcome to the meeting Edward Mountain, who is joining us for the first time as a committee member. He replaces Dean Lockhart. On behalf of all members of the committee, I once again thank Dean for his contribution to the committee’s work this session. I have, as discussed at our previous meeting, written to Dean on the committee’s behalf.

As Edward Mountain is joining us for the first time, agenda item 1 is a declaration of interests. I invite Mr Mountain to declare any relevant interests.

Thank you very much, Edward.

Is that something that you see being addressed by a framework between national and local government?

Is that the way to ensure that finance expertise could be shared? Clearly, small local authorities might not have it yet.

Councillor Macgregor, do you have any views on that in relation to housing and—if we are taking a place-based approach—private housing and transport, which could involve buses as well as electric vehicle charging and so on? If we are going to do this at scale, have you already embarked on a discussion with the Scottish Government on that? How do we get those big mechanisms available for finance at scale? Is that a definite must for the future?

We are interested in how we leverage in more private finance or support from private business to address that place-based solution for net zero. Silke Isbrand, can you address that issue? We have heard that some councils, such as Glasgow City Council, are already doing a great deal of that. What are the barriers and opportunities for all councils to be able to leverage in private investment? How do we manage that in such a way that councils are not carrying all the risks? That is a concern that we have heard about.