Contribution to just transition
SSEN Transmission is committed to putting just transition principles into practice as we deliver the critical infrastructure needed to meet net zero. Our Housing Strategy exemplifies how we align delivery with the Scottish Government’s National Just Transition Outcomes, including:
- Jobs and Fair Work: By supporting housing provision, we enable sustained local employment, ensuring workers can live affordably within communities.
- Communities and Places: Our investment directly strengthens local resilience and supports rural and island community sustainability.
- Skills and Education: Our decision to grow our operations in Aberdeen is an example of our commitment to enabling a fair workforce transition – utilising North East energy sector skills for net zero infrastructure.
- Environment and Biodiversity: Through our Biodiversity Net Gain commitments, we deliver measurable positive outcomes for nature alongside transmission projects.
Contribution to regional heritage
The north of Scotland has a proud legacy as an energy heartland – from SSE’s hydro-electric schemes in the Highlands to the oil and gas sector centred around the North East. Our Housing Strategy builds on this legacy by addressing one of the biggest barriers to delivering the next chapter of Scotland’s energy story: the need for affordable, accessible accommodation in the rural and island communities hosting nationally significant transmission infrastructure.
Benefit to local area
Many of the areas where we are delivering our Pathway to 2030 investment programme have historically supported large-scale energy projects but have not always retained lasting benefits. By proactively enabling up to 1,000 new homes, we aim to ensure that local people and communities share in the opportunities created by the transition to net zero. The Housing Strategy therefore represents a practical response to the region’s industrial heritage – maintaining its role at the forefront of Scotland’s energy system while tackling structural challenges like depopulation and housing scarcity that threaten community resilience.
Our programme delivers significant direct investment, local supply chain spend, community benefit funds and enduring social value through new housing stock. This holistic approach shows how infrastructure delivery can support communities, nature and the economy in parallel – demonstrating the just transition in action.
Lessons learned
A key lesson learned from our work to date is the clear value of early and meaningful engagement with local communities, local authorities and housing partners to identify solutions that deliver long-term benefits alongside our infrastructure investment. Our Housing Strategy has demonstrated that proactive collaboration, rather than reactive mitigation, is critical to securing community support and unlocking opportunities that can deliver lasting value well beyond the construction phase.
To progress delivery we have had to focus our engagement on Local Authority and Delivery partners, to develop a deliverable pipeline of new homes that align with our Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) delivery programme. In practice, this means working closely with councils and housing associations at the earliest possible stage to identify areas of greatest need, suitable sites and delivery models that can align with local development plans and national policy objectives. This approach has already helped to strengthen relationships and demonstrate our commitment to leaving a positive legacy for the communities that host our infrastructure.
As we move into delivery, there will be further engagement with local communities, particularly in relation to the exit strategy for these homes, and the future supply of new affordable housing in their area. Local Authorities are a key partner, with strategic responsibility for housing supply, and good working relationships have been essential to the development of a delivery model.
We have also learned that clear and credible commitments, such as our ambition to enable the delivery of up to 1,000 new homes, build trust and provide a tangible example of how major transmission investment can contribute to wider community priorities. Housing remains one of the most significant challenges facing many rural and island communities across the north of Scotland, and our experience so far shows that we have an important role to play in helping to address this as part of a just and fair transition.
Delivering new housing at the scale and pace required is not without challenge. Rural housing delivery is often constrained by the availability of land, local planning processes and construction supply chain capacity. These challenges are compounded by wider market conditions, which can add further pressure to already stretched communities and local authorities. Addressing these issues requires strong and sustained partnership working and a clear alignment of regulated network investment with broader place-based policy objectives.
More broadly, our Housing Strategy sits alongside our wider efforts to maximise local economic benefit from our Pathway to 2030 investment programme. This includes our ongoing commitment to use local contractors and supply chains wherever feasible and to support skills transfer from Scotland’s established oil and gas sector into the delivery of renewable energy infrastructure. Our decision to expand our presence in Aberdeen, for example, reflects our recognition of the region’s world-class energy expertise and the opportunity to secure highly skilled jobs and economic value for the long term.
Taken together, our experience so far highlights the importance of designing major infrastructure programmes in a way that actively contributes to the communities they serve. By working collaboratively, thinking creatively and embedding community benefit at the heart of our approach, we believe our Housing Strategy can provide a practical example of how transmission investment can help deliver a just transition in practice.
Challenges
A core constraint in delivering the Housing Strategy is the availability of suitable land and housing stock in remote and island communities where demand often far outstrips supply. This is compounded by factors such as limited local construction capacity, skills availability, and planning processes that can extend timelines and add cost pressures. These challenges are not unique to our business but reflect wider issues faced by rural communities across the north of Scotland, as identified in our stakeholder engagement during the development of our Business Plan.
Another key factor is that the delivery of housing lies outside our core regulated transmission activities. This means our ability to directly fund or build housing is limited, requiring strong collaboration with local authorities, housing associations and delivery partners to align with national and local policy objectives and planning frameworks. Navigating this landscape demands partnership working and a shared understanding of the wider socio-economic benefits that grid investment can unlock when supported by the right enabling infrastructure.
Finally, the scale and pace of our Pathway to 2030 programme places unprecedented demands on supply chains, workforce capacity and consenting processes. These pressures reinforce the need for innovative approaches like our Housing Strategy to ensure that local communities can share in the opportunities created, while minimising unintended impacts such as housing market pressure or labour displacement.
Replication and scaling
The approach we have taken through our Housing Strategy demonstrates that with the right partnerships, major infrastructure developers can help tackle wider community challenges that go beyond their core regulated responsibilities. While the specific housing need is shaped by the unique characteristics of the north of Scotland, the principles of early engagement, collaborative working and delivering a clear local legacy are transferable to other large-scale infrastructure programmes across the UK.
By sharing what we have learned with government, regulators and industry peers, we hope to establish a benchmark for how major grid upgrades can contribute to wider place-based outcomes and a just transition. The challenges we face in delivering housing solutions highlight the importance of alignment across policy, regulation and delivery partners to unlock maximum benefit. Looking ahead, we will continue to work with our stakeholders to ensure that the lessons from our experience can inform future planning and consenting approaches and help make the case for integrated investment in both critical energy infrastructure and the social infrastructure that communities need to thrive.
Working conditions and fair work practices
Featured organisations and initiatives were asked to supply the following information regarding working conditions:
- Alignment with Scottish Government Fair Work First criteria
- If they have gone beyond Fair Work First by incorporating broader values on fair work
- For larger organisations, whether a union recognition agreement is in place.
This did not apply to co-operatives structures and membership-based initiatives, though all projects and initiatives were given room to provide any detail on fair work practices deemed relevant.
The following information was provided:
SSEN Transmission, as part of the SSE plc group, adheres to leading workplace standards that ensure secure employment conditions and fair pay for both direct employees and those working through our supply chain.
Since 2013, SSE plc has been an accredited Living Wage Employer, ensuring all directly employed staff receive at least the Real Living Wage across the UK. In 2014, SSE introduced clauses within service and works contracts to extend this commitment into the supply chain, with continued rollout into offshore and vessel-based contracts by 2017.
Building on this, SSE (and SSEN as a part of the group) achieved accreditation as a Living Hours Employer in 2021. This accreditation guarantees workers both wages above the Real Living Wage and a minimum of four weeks’ notice for shifts, alongside a guaranteed minimum of 16 contracted hours per week – delivered unless an alternative is requested by the worker.
In SSE plc’s own words: this approach demonstrates leadership by embedding “good employment practices” at the heart of its transition strategy, ensuring stable working hours and fair remuneration are not only available to SSE’s direct workforce but also those working regularly on SSE and SSEN sites.
SSEN Transmission’s Sustainable People Strategy further reinforces this approach, with a clear focus on growing a healthy, skilled, inclusive, and empowered workforce. It commits to significantly increasing workforce numbers to deliver our Pathway to 2030 plan – with an emphasis on employee safety, wellbeing, diversity, and capability development.
