To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to upgrade older housing stock to make it suitable for modern-day heating systems. (S6O-04504)

The Scottish Government continues to work with key partners, including Historic Environment Scotland, to enable the best solutions to transition Scotland’s traditional buildings to be more energy efficient and to use clean heating systems while being sympathetic to their character and features.

In 2025-26, we are investing more than £300 million in heat and energy efficiency programmes, including for traditional properties. We are considering how we can provide for more bespoke assessment of the technically suitable energy efficiency and clean heating measures that are available for owners of traditional buildings.

The minister will be aware that the level of fuel poverty is highest in rural and island communities, where most of the housing stock is old croft houses. To address that fuel poverty, those houses need to be insulated. It is more expensive to do that in rural and island communities, because materials are more expensive and labour costs are higher, due to a lot of that not being locally available. What is the Scottish Government doing to ensure that rural and island homes are upgraded to cut carbon and tackle fuel poverty?

I concur with what Rhoda Grant says about the particular problem in the Highlands and Islands. I am aware of that from my constituency.

There is a recognition of rurality in the grant and loan scheme. There are also area-based schemes and many other schemes that have made a valuable contribution to addressing fuel poverty in the housing type that Rhoda Grant refers to. I am very acquainted with the situation, because I live in one of those properties.

Upgrading older housing stock will be a critical step in reaching our net zero goals. The barriers to achieving that include not having the skills to renovate and insulate properties and to install modern heating solutions. How is the Scottish Government ensuring that we have the expertise and skills in the workforce to do that?

I agree on the need to ensure that the skills are there, and it is relevant to island constituencies, such as the one that Beatrice Wishart represents, that we ensure that there are opportunities for training and retraining. For instance, we have invested in a mobile centre for heat pump installation training, to ensure that training opportunities are more equally available across Scotland. I visited that van when it was in Shetland, and I know that it has been appreciated by small businesses there. There are probably similar examples that can be replicated across the rest of the country.