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The Scottish Government aims to support the creation of Green Skills Academies and will be working and consulting with relevant stakeholders, including those from the business community, colleges, universities and local authorities, in due course to take forward the development of the skills hubs and academies for the energy and low-carbon industry.

The Scottish Government does not provide any direct financial support to the International Technology and Renewable Energy Zone. The zone does however receive financial support from Scottish Enterprise.

The question of when the zone will be fully operational is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise, which is leading the project.

I will ask Scottish Enterprise’s Chief Executive to write to you with that information.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-01735 on 11 August 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at .

The National Housing Trust initiative (NHT) differs from the traditional grant funding approach in that the purchase of homes will be jointly funded by participating councils and developers, with the Scottish Government providing guarantees to councils to ensure they are able to repay any money they borrow to fund the scheme. As such, there is no Scottish Government money allocated to the NHT to build affordable homes in the same sense as monies would be allocated under grant-based schemes.

Homes built through the National Housing Trust initiative (NHT) will be available for rent below the levels of housing benefit limits which makes them accessible to households on lower incomes. The homes will form part of the overall programme of affordable housing supply receiving financial support from the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Futures Trust is seeking to procure almost 700 affordable homes through the first phase of the National Housing Trust initiative, with contracts already finalised for 296 of these units across three council areas. In view of the substantial interest from local authorities, housing associations, and private house builders in extending and expanding the NHT approach through improved and new versions of the NHT model, the Scottish Government is considering the options for procuring more new homes through further NHT phases in 2011-12 and beyond, taking account of the views of stakeholders, and will provide further information on its plans shortly.

We aim to deliver 30,000 affordable homes – an average of 6,000 per year over the next five years. We plan to build 5,000 new council houses during this parliament, but have not set an overall target for council/housing association homes for social rent.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. Scottish Enterprise leads on this program providing staff, marketing and other support.

I will ask Scottish Enterprise’s Chief Executive to write to you with the information.

The Scottish Government is currently considering how best to introduce enterprise zones in Scotland, including exploring the creation of one or more low carbon enterprise zones, so as to maximise their possible economic impact.

The Scottish Government is currently considering how best to introduce enterprise zones in Scotland, including exploring the creation of one or more low carbon enterprise zones, so as to maximise their economic impact. These considerations include the criteria against which to assess that impact. We expect to make decisions about the introduction of enterprise zones towards the autumn.