ENTREPRENEUR Lord Willie Haughey has called on the UK Government to class “the whole of Scotland” as an enterprise/investment zone to boost the nation’s journey to net zero.

Lord Haughey was reacting to last week’s announcement that utility giant SSE will invest £100 million in what would be Britain’s biggest pumped hydro storage scheme in 40 years and suggested more innovative projects such as this one were needed.

The project at Coire Glas in the Highlands would be the first pumped hydro storage scheme to be built in the UK in 40 years.

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It would also more than double Britain’s total current electricity storage capacity – providing back-up to an increasingly renewables-led system and bolstering energy security.

SSE hopes to make a final investment decision on Coire Glas in 2024, subject to positive development progress and the prevailing policy environment, and to fully construct and commission the pumped storage scheme by 2031.

Describing the project as good news, Lord Haughey said: “We are absolutely determined that Scotland should be at the forefront of new initiatives that are going to help with climate change – but we need to step up our game.”

Adding that Scotland had to ensure that it was pushing the “right” projects, he said: “Why could the UK Government not allow the whole of Scotland to be an enterprise zone to a look at the ways and means … new R&D into how we could get to net zero in everything we do, maybe by 2050.”

In his Spring Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the creation of 12 new investment zones to “drive business investment and level up” the country with at least one of them in Scotland.