Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26: progress report - 2021 to 2022

Foreword

Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport

Our five-year Infrastructure Investment Plan published in February 2021, set out a clear vision for Scotland's future infrastructure in order to support and enable an inclusive net zero emissions economy. Underpinning this vision were three themes relating to enabling net zero emissions and environmental sustainability; driving inclusive economic growth; and building resilient and sustainable places.

The Plan was published last year alongside our Capital Spending Review and the recent targeted review of the Capital Spending Review and the 2022 Medium Term Financial Strategy, both demonstrate that we are on target to successfully deliver against our National Infrastructure Mission with £34 billion of investment over the 5-year spending review period.

This first annual progress report of our five-year Plan outlines the progress made in relation to the Plan's three themes during the last year as well as key delivery achievements and activity planned for the coming year.

Highlights within the last year include the Scottish Network becoming the largest Electric Vehicle charging network in the world following the award of the Charge Place Scotland network operator contract and the launch of the first phase of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund and subsequent awards of £62 million which leveraged in £59 million of private investment to support 276 new battery-electric buses and charging infrastructure for those and other vehicles.

We launched the Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Fund which offers capital grant funding support to enable the delivery of decarbonisation projects across the public sector, we committed £180 million capital funding for the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF) as part of the Climate Change Plan up to 2026 and the £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund was launched to improve local authority recycling infrastructure with to date, over £20.3 million awarded to 13 local authorities to increase the quantity and quality of recycling, marking the beginning of one of the biggest investments in recycling in Scotland in a generation.

We established a new Scottish Government Peatland Programme to upscale the rate of peatland restoration, updated flood risk management plans for Scotland were approved by Scottish Ministers as was the Forestry and Land Scotland Acquisition Strategy. Scottish Water delivered projects that reduced energy consumption and increased renewable energy generation including the installation of the first battery storage facility in Perth, which will cut the carbon footprint of the city's treatment works by around 160 tonnes of CO2e per year.

The contract for the Stornoway deep water terminal was awarded, connections became live in all contract areas of the R100 programme, contracts were signed on two major port projects at Uig, Skye and Lochmaddy, South Uist. The second section of the A9 Dualling between Luncarty and Pass of Birnam was completed along with the opening of the A77 Maybole Bypass, and City Region and Growth Deals continued to fund a diverse range of successful projects with several notable developments in the past year.

Local authorities received £38 million in 2021-22 through the Place-Based Investment Programme and we moved forward with the actions and commitments set out in our Housing to 2040 vision published last year. The National Treatment Centres programme is driving the single biggest increase in planned care capacity ever created in NHS Scotland and the investment was increased to more than £600 million within the last year and the network of centres expanded to ten.

During the first year of our Plan, our major project reporting shows that infrastructure projects worth £232.2 million completed construction and opened to the public. Major projects which commenced construction in 2021-22 included the Barrhead Rail Enhancement which will decarbonise the corridors and provide improved access to rail network, the Levenmouth Rail Link which will re-open the disused rail line between Thornton junction and Leven in Fife and the North East Hub in Parkhead, Glasgow which will be Scotland's first net zero carbon health and social care facility.

Our project reporting also shows that infrastructure projects totalling almost £1.8 billion are currently in construction or are estimated to commence construction during 2022-23 such as the A9 Dualling Tomatin to Moy, East Kilbride Rail Enhancement, Dunfermline Learning Campus and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Biomes projects.

These plans will however continue to be subject to adjustment in light of the continued impact on the labour supply by the COVID-19 pandemic, issues around supply chains, the availability of construction materials, cost inflation and the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine.

I am pleased to say that continued progress has been made against the recommendations made by the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland in its Key Findings reports. These includethe launch of our new Place website as part of the partnership behind the Place standard tool and publication of our first Heat in Buildings Strategy to accelerate the development and implementation of incentives, support mechanisms and standards for energy efficient, net zero carbon buildings across Scotland. Work is ongoing across government to progress with the further implementation of these recommendations.

We look forward to continuing to work with all our stakeholders to ensure that collectively we maximise the benefits of infrastructure investment for the people of Scotland.