Chamber and committees

After the meeting, if any of you would like to let us know about any practical suggestions that you have, please do.

Local place plans are important for community involvement in supporting town centre regeneration. What do you provide now and what more could you provide to communities? You are experts in terms of your profession, but the communities are experts in their local place. How do you make the most of that and give them the skills that they need to realise their own expertise about their own communities?

Do you have anything on that question, Steve Rogers?

Will Ofgem be ambitious and fast enough to deliver what you need?

That is very well put.

David Rodger, from your perspective, how do you see the relationship between the public sector and the private sector playing out with regard to leveraging the necessary support and finance to deliver net zero?

There is criticism that your plans will disadvantage Scotland yet again. Do you have any views on that?

Stephanie Anderson, what stage are you at in planning and upgrading the distribution network? What role has Ofgem played in approving and regulating your business plan? What are the challenges, and what would ensure that you can provide the capacity and network capability that we require in advance of need?

The theme of de-risking is coming across loud and clear throughout our inquiry.

I will move on to the issue of leveraging support and private finance. Morag Watson, with your overview, you might be able to comment on how well you think the public sector currently leverages in support and finance from the private sector to deliver net zero. What are the barriers to that, and how can those be overcome? Do we need to use existing vehicles to bring that finance together and de-risk the investment? In the light of some of the comments that we have just heard, are city region deals or other mechanisms needed, not only to de-risk the process but to generate the huge amount of finance that is required? It is clear that the public sector alone cannot deliver that.

David, what are the implications for communities, local authorities and public agencies of improving distribution networks? What needs to happen not only to minimise risk and disruption but to keep up the pace and ambition that we have heard about?

I have heard the basic criticism that your organisation might not have enough wayleave officers to deal with the planning process. How are you gearing up to deliver this?

On a positive note, the LHEES became a statutory requirement at the weekend, under a statutory instrument that the committee passed. That is a good news item.

The challenges that our distribution network operations face are less positive, and I am concerned about the preparation for those. A significant increase in electricity will be required for renewable heat and electric vehicle charging. If there are challenges now for grid connections and capacity, what on earth does that mean for the scale that we will need in the future? What is preventing the advance preparation of networks, and how does it get fixed? I ask Randolph Brazier to reply first.