The Committee was established in June 2021. It focuses on:
Location: TG.40-CR1 The Burns Room
Agenda:
The Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee usually meets weekly on Tuesdays.
At its meetings on 18 and 25 June 2024, the Committee agreed a programme of future work. The programme is structured around a set of key themes under each element of the Committee’s remit.
At the heart of the Committee’s work on local government is a focus on ensuring that local government can be as effective as possible in delivering for the communities it serves and empowering those communities.
In looking at empowering both local government and in turn communities, the Committee agreed that it would consider the relationship between central and local government, what local government needs to be effective and how culture should change to ensure that power is devolved to appropriate levels to provide for genuine community empowerment.
To give effect to this approach, the Committee agreed to focus its work around the following key themes:
In pursuing these themes, the Committee will continue to undertake work in relation to:
The Committee will focus its pre-budget scrutiny this year on the local government budget and more specifically on issues around the sustainability of local government finances.
The Committee will also continue to closely monitor progress in relation to its previously undertaken work in relation to:
The second element of the Committee’s remit relates to housing matters.
Central to the Committee’s work is a focus on ensuring that Scotland has the number of homes needed to meet current and future need and that house building is taking place in the right places and to the right standards.
The Scottish Government sets out its ambitions for housing in Housing to 2040 and last year the Committee focussed its work on this strategy. Since then, the Scottish Government has declared a housing emergency and with that in mind the Committee’s work will focus on both the adequacy of that strategy and the response to the housing emergency.
The Committee will focus on the following themes:
In pursuing these themes, in the context of Housing to 2040 and the housing emergency the Committee will continue to pursue work in relation to:
Over the course of this year the Committee will also continue to consider the Housing (Scotland) Bill.
The Committee’s focus around planning continues to be on the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), which came into effect in February 2023.
The Committee undertook its first annual review of NPF4 in 2024 to see how it is being translated into local development plans and the extent to which it is achieving its transformational aims.
The Committee will undertake a second review in 2025.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Equal Rights of Appeal in Planning
8 May 2025
Letter from Highland Council, 8 May 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Tracker report letter to Cabinet Secretary
2 May 2025
Letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, 2 May 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax letter to Cabinet Secretary April
29 April 2025
Letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, 29 April 2025
Meeting date: Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Housing (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Interests, Decision on Taking Business in Private, Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Decisions on Taking Business in Private, Building Safety and Maintenance
Meeting date: Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private, Building Safety and Maintenance
Meeting date: Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Interests, Decision on Taking Business in Private, Building Safety and Maintenance, Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private, Petitions, Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Decisions on Taking Business in Private, Council Tax, Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private, Council Tax, Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private, Council Tax
A report on the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee's inquiry into the housing emergency in Scotland.
A report by the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on a Legislative Consent Memorandum (LCM) on the Renters' Rights Bill.
Report tracking the work of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 2023-24
This report covers the work of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee during the third year of the session, considering the progress made in relation to its work from last year and its plans to progress this work further.
To consider and report on matters relating to local government and planning falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, matters relating to housing and tenants’ rights within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, and matters relating to local government boundaries, local governance review and democratic renewal.
Full details of committee membership, including substitute and previous members