New Edinburgh Northern MSP makes maiden speech on energy

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Edinburgh Northern Sanne Dijkstra-Downie has today used her maiden speech in the Scottish Parliament to highlight the diverse concerns around energy in her constituency, including home insulation, rising bills and protecting funding for colleges to secure the skills needed for good, green jobs.

Sanne has lived in Edinburgh Northern for over 20 years with her husband and children.

She had previously worked as a fundraiser for charities that provide educational opportunities and helped establish an ocean protection initiative.

She has a strong record of community action, speaking out to secure better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure and more protection for Wardie Bay.

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Sanne Dijkstra-Downie MSP said:

“It is a profound honour to stand here as the MSP for the new constituency of Edinburgh Northern.

“I’d like to pay tribute to my three predecessors - Angus Robertson, Alex Cole-Hamilton and Ben Macpherson, who I congratulate on his ministerial position. I’m conscious of my responsibility to build on their good work and am grateful to them for their words of support and guidance.

“Edinburgh Northern is a compact constituency. As you would expect from somebody with a Dutch background, I can cycle from one corner to another in 27 minutes – and I often do.

“My route takes me along a network of beautifully rewilded former railway network, and the Roseburn Path stacks up against any cycling route in the country.

“Within such a tight geography, the constituency is made up of many different communities - each with a distinct character, history, and identity. There’s the centuries-old coastal community of Newhaven village, with the best fish and chips in the city, just minutes away from brand-new developments on the Granton Waterfront.

“There’s the vibrant high streets of Stockbridge and Davidson’s Mains, residential communities such as Trinity, Powderhall, Bonnington, Granton, Pilton, Muirhouse, Drylaw, Silverknowes, Craigleith, Blackhall – each with a deep sense of their own identity, their own much loved green and blue spaces - and dedicated local organisations that enhance the lives of the people living there.

“It is where I have built a life, raised a family and found a community.

“And one thing that unites all of these communities is the energy that powers its peoples’ lives. So, permit me to forget about Scotland’s energy for a minute – what does energy mean for the people of North Edinburgh?

“As a councillor and a candidate I have spoken to thousands of people across the constituency over the past four years, and it’s a lot of things.

“Energy is, on any chilly day, making decisions about whether to buy food or heat your cold, drafty home. You keep your windows firmly shut to waste no heat but then end up with mould on your walls. The mould makes your children sick and their persistent cough means they miss school. That is energy.

“Energy might mean that you worry about your family’s bills rising sharply because of conflicts far from our shores but with impacts felt in our homes. It might mean putting off important financial decisions or foregoing things in your life that you value and enjoy. Or it might be your business that is struggling to keep up with rising production costs.

“It might be a young person who wants to go to Edinburgh College to become a heat pump installer, but can’t get a place to study, because there is not enough money in further education to meet the demand for places.

“Energy is also the Granton Waterfront heat network plans - falling apart at the eleventh hour because the cost of electricity is so high that it is difficult to make the numbers stack up.

“But energy is also the P7s in Wardie and Blackhall primary schools who spoke to me about how they would design the city of the future. Some of their ideas were a little outlandish (I remember they had a real thing about living underground!) but their love for the environment and their enthusiasm for innovative clean energy gave me immense hope for the future.

“Energy is also working together as neighbours to produce your own renewable energy. There are groups like the Dudleys Eco-Community who are collectively navigating the planning system to add solar panels and heat pumps to homes within a conservation area - because they want to play their part in reducing our carbon emissions.

“All of these things are what energy means to the people of Edinburgh Northern – as their MSP, it is my responsibility and my privilege to help find ways to address the issues that they face.

“This is why the Liberal Democrats want to insulate cold homes with an emergency home insulation programme and help the most vulnerable households with their fuel bills.

“It’s why we want to see an expansion of renewable energy to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and reform community benefits as my colleague Liam McArthur has highlighted - so that communities truly benefit from projects on their doorstep.

“It is why we want to protect funding for colleges, as we did in the last Scottish Budget, to make sure that young people can gain the skills they need to get good green jobs, and that our society needs for a just transition to an economy that does not rely on fossil fuels.

“It’s why we want the UK Government to follow through on a full decoupling of electricity prices from the expensive and volatile gas prices so that heat pumps, heat networks and other electrified heating and transport options are feasible and affordable.

“And it’s why we want to remove barriers from microgeneration and community energy projects so that more renewable energy is generated near to where it is used.

“I will work with this government with passion and yes, with positive energy, to use the powers already within our possession to deliver for the people of Edinburgh Northern.”