Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is aware of the former railway route to Greenock Princes Pier. However, in the absence of any clearly expressed demand for this link from freight customers, the Scottish Government has no current plans to assess the feasibility of reopening the Greenock and Ayrshire Railway to the former Greenock Princes Pier railway station as a direct rail freight link to Greenock Ocean Terminal.

The East Kilbride project is delivering an electrified railway to provide more reliable and emission free services, and also a number of significant station improvements.

ScotRail keeps services under continual review to ensure the service levels reflect the changing passenger requirements, which is an operational matter for ScotRail. The member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.

Funding to support place-based regeneration programmes has been set at £45.8m for 2024-25 of which £23m is required to meet contractual commitments for Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) and the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) projects.

Ministers are considering implications of the budget and options for the distribution of the remaining capital budget allocation. As such, the planned investment panel and subsequent funding decisions on Round 11 Stage 2 of the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund are currently on hold and we will clarify how the regeneration capital budget will be allocated in due course.

The Strategic Investment Model (SIM), an initiative devised to respond to the recommendations within the Strategic Investment Assessment, is a novel industry-led approach which is delivering for the offshore wind sector in Scotland.

The SIM is helping the government, our agencies and the sector to identify key, shared priorities with an initial focus on investment in ports and harbours infrastructure improvements, manufacturing and fabrication. There is a strong pipeline of port infrastructure and supply chain projects now emerging through the SIM process.

On February 20 the SIM published details of 32 of the 38 projects that have successfully completed stage one of the process and have a completed project prospectus. 6 SIM projects have requested confidentiality. Strategic Investment Model Stage 2 projects announced | HIE (offshorewindscotland.org.uk)

An initial first three projects have been selected by the SIM to move into Stage 2 involving facilitated meetings between offshore wind developers and project proponents.

Currently, the 38 SIM projects have a combined total Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of around £6.5BN.

Some project information is still commercially confidential. Therefore, the release of any further information will be undertaken by the SIM group.

The Strategic Investment Model (SIM), an initiative devised to respond to the recommendations within the Strategic Investment Assessment, is a novel industry-led approach which is delivering for the offshore wind sector in Scotland.

The SIM is helping the Government, our agencies and the sector to identify key, shared priorities with an initial focus on investment in ports and harbours infrastructure improvements, manufacturing and fabrication. There is a strong pipeline of port infrastructure and supply chain projects now emerging through the SIM process.

On February 20 the SIM published details of 32 of the 38 projects that have successfully completed stage one of the process and have a completed project prospectus. 6 SIM projects have requested confidentiality. Strategic Investment Model Stage 2 projects announced | HIE (offshorewindscotland.org.uk)

An initial first three projects have been selected by the SIM to move into Stage 2 involving facilitated meetings between offshore wind developers and project proponents.

Currently, the 38 SIM projects have a combined total Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of around £6.5BN.

Some project information is still commercially confidential. Therefore, the release of any further information will be undertaken by the SIM group. For more information, please contact Maf Smith, Lumen Energy & Environment, at [email protected].

The Strategic Investment Model (SIM), an initiative devised to respond to the recommendations within the Strategic Investment Assessment, is a novel industry-led approach which is delivering for the offshore wind sector in Scotland.

The SIM is helping the Government, our agencies and the sector to identify key, shared priorities with an initial focus on investment in ports and harbours infrastructure improvements, manufacturing and fabrication. There is a strong pipeline of port infrastructure and supply chain projects now emerging through the SIM process.

On February 20 the SIM published Strategic I nvestment Model Stage 2 projects announced | HIE (offshorewindscotland.org.uk) of 32 of the 38 projects that have successfully completed stage one of the process and have a completed project prospectus. 6 SIM projects have requested confidentiality.

An initial first three projects have been selected by the SIM to move into Stage 2 involving facilitated meetings between offshore wind developers and project proponents.

Currently, the 38 SIM projects have a combined total Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of around £6.5BN.

Some project information is still commercially confidential. Therefore, the release of any further information will be undertaken by the SIM group. For more information, please contact Maf Smith, Lumen Energy & Environment, at [email protected].

The Scottish Government welcomes the report from the Chartered Institute of Buildings (CIOB) into social housing retrofit. Its findings and recommendations will help inform our thinking on how we continue to support the sector to help achieve our climate targets. Both the report and our current consultation on proposals for a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard will provide valuable feedback and insight on how the social housing sector can continue to build upon its progress on energy efficiency.

The Green Heat Finance Taskforce is also exploring ways to encourage a greater flow of private finance to help support the transition to clean heat, and its part 2 report this year will include consideration of financing options to enable social housing retrofit. All these sources of information will inform future decisions around funding support for energy efficiency and clean heat upgrades in social housing.

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund (the Fund) has already undergone a review to ensure it is providing the best support to social landlords in the transition to net zero. As part of this, the Fund’s support for “Fabric First” only projects has been extended until March 2026 in response to calls from the sector. The Fund welcomes consortium bids from multiple housing associations and local authorities to help deliver retrofit on a larger scale.

The Fund can be used alongside Area Based Schemes to carry out whole retrofit of a multi-tenure block if the properties fit the criteria of both Schemes. There is also financial support for owner occupiers through Warmer Homes Scotland and the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme which can reduce the costs of taking part in whole building works.

As the member is aware The Access for All scheme is a UK Government scheme and as such is managed by the UK Department for Transport (DfT).

It is anticipated the Department for Transport will announce which stations will be prioritised for funding through the Access for All Scheme in the course of this year.

According to OECD data, the UK’s tax revenue, as a share of GDP, was 35.3% in 2022, the latest year for which internationally comparable data is available. This is broadly in line with the OECD average of 34.0%.

No directly comparable estimate is available for Scotland. However, the latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) report suggests that Scotland’s tax to GDP ratio was similar to the UK’s in 2022-23, and so would also be broadly in line with the OECD average.

In the devolved context such measures need to be interpreted with caution as some taxes remain reserved.