 That concludes the urgent question. The next item of business is a statement by Patrick Harvie on proposed domestic building environmental standard Scotland Bill. The minister will take questions at the end of his statement and so there should be no interventions or interruptions, I call on Patrick Harvie. In what was a lively debate this afternoon, there were a number of calls for more constructive politics in this Parliament, so I'm very much delighted that this short statement will give members the chance to welcome yet another example of this government putting constructive politics into practice. One of the critical areas where Scotland does need to make more progress, both to reduce carbon emissions and to cut the cost of living, is in improving the energy performance of our homes and buildings, cutting their overall energy use and ending our reliance on fossil fuel, which exposes everyone to volatile prices. That's why the bute house agreement and the shared policy programme agreed between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party in August 2021 includes commitments to decarbonise the heat that we use in buildings from 2024 through the new build heat standard, which we consulted on in the years 2021 and 2022. Announcing the latest changes to the energy standards within the building regulations last June, I said that we need to raise standards and deliver the action and innovation that is needed to meet our objectives for a net zero Scotland. The bute house agreement also promises explicit support for passive house and similar standards. Passive house, as many members will know, is an example of a published design and construction standard that's proven to deliver buildings with very good energy and environmental performance. Scotland should have been building highly energy efficient homes for decades. If we had done as some other northern European nations have done, our retrofit challenges now would be far more manageable today. However, we have now made progress and we have good energy standards for new homes, but there's more that can be done and in particular lessons that can be applied from established standards such as passive house. In May last year, Alex Rowley MSP lodged a proposal for a bill to set new environmental design standards for all new build housing to meet a Scottish equivalent to the passive house standard. That proposal is welcome and it's well aligned with the ambition already set out within the bute house agreement. I met Mr Rowley in May and again in November to discuss his proposal. On both occasions it was clear that there's a shared ambition and a recognition of the benefits that can be delivered from further review of our new build energy standards. That means better energy and environmental standards for new homes, but also increased assurance that the design and construction of new buildings delivers the intended performance in practice. We also discussed the Government's wider work on improving standards, including the most recent changes that will apply from next month. On 15 December last year, I wrote to Alex Rowley and to Parliament in response to his final bill proposal and I am pleased to confirm to Parliament that we will be bringing forward changes to building standards that will deliver a further step change in energy performance of new buildings in Scotland. As required under rule 9.14.13 and 13A of standing orders, I can confirm that the Scottish Government will make subordinate legislation within two years to introduce new minimum environmental design standards for all new build housing to meet a Scottish equivalent to the passive house standard in order to improve energy efficiency and thermal performance. Our subordinate legislation will give effect to Mr Rowley's final proposal for a domestic building environmental standard Scotland bill. Committing to a timetable for this further review enables us to set out that ambition in more detail in the spring and to continue to engage with the construction sector building on initial discussions that were started last year. Our initial work will determine how such a standard should be defined and delivered through the building standard system. It will draw from the experience of the Scottish construction sector to set out a challenging standard that is deliverable in practice at a national level. I welcome the initial positive response from house builders to my recent announcement, and they are willing to work with us. We will welcome input from all corners of industry over the coming months to assist in shaping proposals that can then be further developed and put out to consultation next year. I would like to offer my thanks again for the work undertaken by Mr Rowley and his team over the past year, which resulted in his final proposal and a greater awareness of the opportunities that such standards can deliver. I am sure that this will be valuable work helping the development of the review, and I welcome the continued involvement of Mr Rowley and his team in shaping that work. As noted in my letter, I look forward to continuing our programme of action to deliver improved energy and environmental standards across our new building stock, and in particular helping to deliver our vision to make all homes in Scotland warmer, greener and cheaper to run. The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in the statement. I intend to allow around 10 minutes or so for questions. Members who wish to ask a question, please press request-to-speak button now. I call Alex Rowley. I am grateful for the opportunity to respond. I would like to express my gratitude to the Scottish Government for committing to giving effect to my bill through legislation. I welcome the constructive dialogue that I have had with the minister, and I would also want to give my thanks to the non-government bills unit for the support that they have given to my team and I over the past year of the consultation. The Passive House Trust, which has provided invaluable guidance on the technicalities of the proposal, unity consultant for all their work in bringing the proposal together, and all stakeholders who have kindly given us the benefit of their experience. A lot of the support came from the importance of the bill places on the need for verification of meeting the Passive House standards, which are no thermal bridging, superior windows, mechanical ventilation and heat recovery, quality insulation, airtight construction. With that in mind, can the minister confirm that in giving effect to my bill the Scottish Government will not overlook the importance of a robust verification process for all new-build housing when implementing the Scottish equivalent Passive House legislation to ensure that the ambitious standards set are being met, given confidence to new-build house owners across Scotland? I would like to once again thank Alex Rowley. He talks about the constructed dialogue that there has been and I would once again put on record my thanks to him and his colleagues for taking that approach to this issue and also to the stakeholders who have contributed to his work and the consultation that he has taken forward, Passive House Trust and many others. He is right to say that verification and ensuring compliance with any new standards is always an important aspect of improving energy performance through building standards. That has always been the case. As we have seen an incremental improvement in building standards over the years, we have needed to ensure that there is also an improvement in verification and in compliance. We have now a strong approach to a compliance plan approach. As we continue to develop the work in defining the new standard, that will also be accompanied with work to ensure that there is no gap between what we are setting out on paper and what we are able to deliver in practice. That issue of verification is hugely important. Once again, I look forward to continuing to have good dialogue with Alex Rowley and other colleagues across the chamber to ensure that that happens. Alex Rowley. I thank you for the minister for the answer. The verification is the key issue that people continue to stress. The support from the building industry for this bill was very much there, but they talked about the issues facing the industry such as access to required materials, geographical imbalance and the need to ensure that there is a trained and skilled workforce. Does the minister agree that, as well as passing legislation, the Government must ensure a joined up approach to introducing these ambition targets by ensuring that we tackle the difficulties in the Scottish supply chain and engage with the building industry on increasing the number of people gaining the skills within the sector, so that it is a joined up approach that needs to be overseen and driven by government? Minister. That is a hugely important aspect. It is relevant to the whole of my heat and buildings portfolio. The passive house concept and improvements to building standards are one important aspect to delivering in new build, but if we are going to achieve what we need to on the wider heat and buildings side, the supply chain and the skills are absolutely critical. We need to see that as an opportunity, not just a challenge. I believe that there is not just work to be done, but long-term high-quality careers to be had in delivering the transformation in our built environment that we require, whether that is from installation of zero-emission heating systems, retrofit of existing buildings for energy efficiency or indeed improving the way in which we deliver new build housing. The Government's work on the supply chain delivery plan for heat and buildings and other aspects of the work that we are doing to support skills in this area is going to be critical to the issue of passive house equivalent standards, but it is equally critical to the rest of our heat and buildings agenda. In terms of the response that we have had, the minister saw the response, which was absolutely overwhelming. It was a greater response than I had expected. Interestingly, although there was real support for that, people continued to talk about retrofitting and continuing to stress the need for retrofitting in the current house and stock. Does the minister agree that we need to have a review of the progress being made on retrofitting and look at how we can accelerate the efforts in this area to maximise household energy efficiency and tackle fuel poverty? We need to continue what we are doing, which is the ambitious approach to accelerating the retrofit agenda as part of the wider heat and buildings programme. I would reinforce what I said in my opening remarks that the commitment in the bute house agreement in August 2021, which included explicit support for passive house, was part of a much wider set of policy priorities to accelerate Scotland's move towards zero emissions heating, high levels of energy efficiency and the heat and buildings agenda. I think that it has never been clearer than it is over the last year or two that this is not just about carbon emissions, which is critical of the climate emergency. It is also essential that we are going to meet the cost of living challenge and remove people from the vulnerability that are exposed to through high and volatile fossil fuel prices. Passive house and improving the way in which we deliver our new build can also teach us valuable lessons about how we can systematise some of the approaches for retrofit. However, there is a huge amount that we are continuing to do to accelerate work in this whole area, and I am grateful that we have the political support of at least a good number of people across the chamber. I look forward to that continuing. Time is tight. Interest is great if we have short and succinct questions and responses. We will get more members in. I also start by paying tribute to Alex Rowley for his work on this bill and the important work that he has put in to get to this point today. Scottish Government's latest housing statistics have revealed that housing completions across all tenures in Scotland are still way below pre-Covid levels. Therefore, can I ask the minister two points? How is the Scottish Government going to firstly ensure that it is able to meet its housing targets with additional costs that it might present to both private developers and, more importantly, to the social rental sector, given the additional costs that it is facing? Given what we have seen in the construction sector around additional costs, what assessment have ministers taken at this point in time around higher costs per unit that the legislation might also likely include? Of course, the cost of living crisis is also a cost of doing business and a cost of construction crisis. I think that we know that across the peace, not just in Scotland but across Europe, the cost of delivering new buildings of any kind, including housing, has increased dramatically. That has exacerbated in the UK as a result of some of the skills impacts of Brexit. I know that we will continue to debate those issues long and hard, but the emphasis that I would place on seeing this as a long-term direction of travel and the impact of the regulations that we will be consulting on later this year, which the Scottish Government believes will set a long-term direction of travel and give confidence to the industry that Scotland is serious about the heat and buildings transformation and seeing it as an opportunity for investment is the way through this. If we were just trying to muddle through year to year, I think that that would be the wrong way to go. We need to give confidence to the construction sector that Scotland is serious about this highly energy-efficient zero-carbon approach to our buildings, and that is what will drive investment in the skills and capacity. I hope that we will have the support of Conservative colleagues when we come to consult on those regulations as well. I think that the construction industry, unlike maybe 10 or 20 years ago when they were telling us, do not gold plait the building regulations, they say that change is coming. They see that a net zero future is an opportunity for themselves and for their members as well, and we need to work constructively with them. Can the minister set out in some more detail the ways in which giving effect to a passive house equivalent standard in new-build housing will help us with our targets for fuel poverty and the transition towards net zero? The approach to that will involve working in a consultative way to develop and define the passive house standard. We will do that in a way that listens to industry as well as to views from across the chamber. That will ensure not only that we define that standard in the best way, but also, as I said earlier, that we close any gap in compliance and making sure that the intention delivered on paper is achieved in practice. Passive house, as well as other aspects of the heat and buildings agenda, has a huge potential not just to cut emissions, but also to cut people's cost of living. Frankly, there is no path to Scotland achieving our wider climate change targets without success on the heat and buildings agenda. Acknowledged that passive house is an internationally recognised standard, underpinned by 30 years of rigorous scientific development with a robust system of independent certification and track record of delivering ultra-low-energy houses across the world. Therefore, I would be interested to know the reason why the minister is not simply incorporating passive house into building standards, which would have the benefits, at least, of helping in skills development and the professional support that will inevitably be needed. I take the point, but, as Liam McArthur mentions in his question, passive house is essentially owned and defined by an external body. It is not something that the Government itself defines, so it is important for the Scottish Government to be responsible for building standards to set our own definition. Liam McArthur, as well as a number of other members who represent, in particular, remote rural and island communities that face whether it is different climatic conditions or indeed different nature of that, will recognise that there will be aspects of how a new standard needs to be defined that take into account the particular circumstances in Scotland and in particular places in Scotland. Once again, I offer to Liam McArthur and others the opportunity to engage with the Scottish Government over to take that work forward. Thank you. We must conclude that item of business at this point.