Chamber and committees

Local Government, Housing and Planning - Priorities for Session 6 - 30 July 2021

Letter from Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy to the Convener - 30 July 2021

Dear Ariane

Thank you for your letters of 23 and 24 June 2021 to each of us, in which you requested details about a number of issues that are of particular interest to the Committee. You also invited the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy  and the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government to give evidence to the Committee on 31 August and 7 September respectively.  We are pleased to accept those invitations.

We address each of the issues you raised below. 

Local governance review and Local Democracy Bill

The Local Governance Review represents an opportunity to tackle inequalities in power, which is an important part of making progress across many facets of the National Performance Framework.  The Deputy First Minister will bring the review to a conclusion over the course of this parliament. This will involve first considering the progress made so far, before working with COSLA to agree next steps. Any changes to how Scotland is governed must create the best possible conditions to build back from COVID and improves lives. The Deputy First Minister will be pleased to provide committee with an update on plans for the review when providing evidence on priorities. 

Funding formula for local government

The needs-based funding formula used to distribute the annual local government finance settlement is kept under constant review by the joint Settlement and Distribution Group.  This is an officers group consisting of Scottish Government and COSLA officials together with local authority Directors of Finance.  This Group makes recommendations on any proposed changes to the funding formula for approval by Scottish Government Ministers and COSLA’ s political Leaders.  The existing funding formula uses a variety of needs-based indicators including population, rurality and deprivation.  The Scottish Government is prepared to consider any changes that would improve the existing funding formula but any such changes should be directed through COSLA in the first instance to ensure buy-in from all of Scotland’s local authorities.

Recovery from COVID19 (including Local Government recovery)

The First Minister also asked the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery to lead the cross-government and cross-Parliament work necessary to guide the country through the pandemic and into a recovery that takes us closer to the kind of Scotland we all want to see.  A serious recovery needs a quick response from government, which is why we published the key health, social and economic actions we will take within the first 100 days of this government. As of 22 July, we have delivered 32 of these commitments and a number will be delivered in partnership with local government including free music tuition and school clothing grants.

The Deputy First Minister has met Councillor Evison and will meet again with COSLA leaders in August to reflect on the recovery activity well under way across local government and to seek their further input to the development of the Covid Recovery Strategy for Scotland, which we intend to publish after the Programme for Government.

Building on and bringing together the recovery plans developed by individual local authorities, and working closely with COSLA will ensure that the COVID Recovery Strategy for Scotland identifies the right actions and priorities at local and national level. We are committed to working in tandem with our local authority partners to ensure a swift recovery from this pandemic.

Housing

You specifically requested information relating to:

• Immediate priorities for implementation of Housing to 2040
• Regulation of short-term lets
• Affordable housing, including supply
• Implementation of a new system for tracking private rents and the use of data arising from this system
• Operation of and access to the First-tier Tribunal (Housing and Property) Chamber
• Review of the Property Factors Code of Conduct

Following publication of Housing to 2040 in March we are now moving forward with the actions and commitments set out in the strategy. Immediate priorities include the continuation of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme; development of a new Rented Sector Strategy (a 100 day commitment); continuing to work towards ending homelessness; introducing legislation to strengthen people’s housing rights; and, taking action to ensure the housing market operates more fairly across Scotland, including work to regulate short-term lets and provide support for local authorities to make best use of existing properties. We also intend to consult on a new tenure-neutral housing standard in 2021, and we will begin work on a supply chain development action plan to build the local supply chains needed to decarbonise Scotland’s homes and benefit our economy.

A governance process and monitoring framework plan for Housing to 2040 is under consideration and will be established later this year following discussions with key stakeholders.

As indicated in the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government’s letter to the Committee on 21 June, we are aiming to lay legislation in September to establish a short-term lets licensing scheme across Scotland. We published the Licensing Order and Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) in draft in June, for a final round of consultation to help us get this important legislation absolutely right. We also published draft guidance on the licensing scheme and planning control areas for hosts and operators, and local authorities. Local authorities will have until 1 October 2022 to establish a licensing scheme in their area, and existing hosts will have until 1 April 2023 to apply for a licence. All short-term lets will require to be licensed by 1 April 2024.

Scotland has led the way in the delivery of affordable housing across the UK - with over 102,000 affordable homes delivered since 2007 - and is committed to continuing to support the future delivery of more affordable homes.  The latest Scottish Government Quarterly Affordable Housing Supply statistics show that between April 2016 and March 2021 we delivered 41,353 affordable homes, over 28,000 of which were for social rent.

Housing to 2040 includes an ambition to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by 2032, with at least 70% of these for social rent, once the previous 50,000 affordable homes target has been delivered. We will deliver 50,000 of these homes by 2026-27 and a further 50,000 homes by the end of 2031-32. We will publish a draft of a new rented sector strategy by the end of this year, for consultation early in 2022.  This will build on the significant reforms through the Private Residential Tenancies (PRTS), which introduced a range of comprehensive rights and protections for tenants. The new strategy will seek to improve accessibility, affordability and standards across the whole rented sector.  We will also have undertaken an analysis of what is required to collect robust data on the Scottish Private Rented Sector by the end of 2021 as set out in Housing to 2040.

The Code of Conduct for Property Factors sets out minimum standards of practice and encourages transparency, while ensuring that homeowners know what to expect from their property factors.   A revised Code of Conduct for Property Factors was approved by resolution of the Scottish Parliament in March 2021.  This clarified and strengthened the  Code of Conduct and brought it up to date, ensuring that all registered property factors operate consistently and to the appropriate standards, while also giving homeowners confidence in what their factor is offering them.  The revised Code will come into force on 16 August 2021.  It is our intention to review the existing legislation to identify areas for consideration to strengthen, improve and support the improved operation of the regulatory regime for property factors.   We hope to undertake this work in the latter half of this year with the intention of including any proposed changes in a suitable legislative vehicle thereafter. 

Building regulation and fire safety

The Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety set up following the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 has considered a range of building safety issues, which has resulted in significant changes to fire safety standards and procedural guidance in 2019 and 2021, new guidance for owners and managers of high rise buildings and extended requirements for smoke and heat alarms in all homes.  We are also publicly consulting on further fire safety standards changes for cladding materials and systems to ensure the safety of people in and around Scotland’s buildings.  The consultation will be open until 8 October.    Improvements to compliance and enforcement are also being progressed by the Building Standards Futures Board across a number of workstreams.

Following the publication of the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 1 report the Scottish Government reviewed the recommendations made which were, rightly, directed at the fire safety arrangements in England.  The specific responses and actions for Scotland reflect and build on the fire safety regime and practice in Scotland, in a proportionate way.  The second phase of the Inquiry continues to provide damning evidence as to the conduct and performance of many of those involved in Grenfell’s refurbishment.  For that reason the UK Government’s Building Safety Bill and its powers in relation to construction product safety are particularly important.  As such we are actively monitoring the ongoing Grenfell Inquiry and progress of the Building Safety Bill.  We will not hesitate to take action necessary to ensure the safety of people in their homes.

Planning:

You specifically requested information relating to:

• Details of the timing for publication of the National Planning Framework 4
• Implementation of policies and proposals in the recent Climate Change Plan update such as 20 minute neighbourhoods
• Support for communities to produce Local Place Plans
• Delivering the Infrastructure First approach to planning, including plans for the Infrastructure Levy
• Investment in local authority planning services, including a review of planning fees

We are progressing the reform of Scotland’s planning system, comprising legislative reforms including the implementation of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 and a review of permitted development rights, the preparation of Scotland’s fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) and a programme of digital transformation of planning services that will improve access to planning and the use of reliable data in decision-making.

We have publicly committed to a consultative draft of NPF4 in autumn 2021 and expect to publish and lay that draft in Parliament for scrutiny by November.  The Planning Act allows for parliamentary scrutiny for up to 120 sitting days.  In line with statutory requirements we will consult publicly on the content while Parliament considers the draft, and will support that with extensive stakeholder engagement.  If the Committee considers appropriate, we would welcome an early opportunity for officials to informally brief the committee on the scope of the draft NPF4 and the preparation process, ahead of the draft being formally laid in the autumn.

The Scottish Government’s NPF4 Position Statement (November 2020) confirmed that the long-term strategy will be driven by  the overarching goal of addressing climate change, with an urgent and radical shift in our spatial plan and policies, building on the Climate Change Plan and taking forward advice provided by the UK Climate Change Committee.  NPF4 will also set out how 20 Minute Neighbourhoods will be an integral part of updated planning policy on place.  To support delivery of 20 Minute Neighbourhoods we are now rolling out our five year £325m Place Based Investment programme which will deliver tangible change on the ground to ensure communities have the local infrastructure to work, shop, learn, keep active and socialise.

We have consulted on proposals for secondary legislation to support the delivery of Local Place Plans (LPPs). Many communities have taken the opportunity to develop community led plans in advance of LPP provisions coming into force at the end of the year. These have been self-supported, or in some cases through public sector initiatives. We are developing a ‘How to’ Guide which will provide practical support to communities wishing to develop their own Local Place Plans, which will support the legislation and associated guidance. We have also supported the development of Placebuilder, a consultation/engagement platform designed for community led planning through the CivTech accelerator programme. A range of funding support could be accessed and used to support communities who wish to produce local place plans.

We are embedding an infrastructure first approach to national planning policy in the draft NPF4.  Through our planning reform programme we have been clear that before taking forward new developer contribution mechanisms such as the 2019 Planning Act’s powers for an Infrastructure Levy, we would first review the effectiveness of existing approaches. That review is ongoing and as a first step, we published research Planning - the value, incidence and impact of developer contributions to establish a fuller evidence base to inform the review and the development of a wider programme. 

We are aware that authorities across the country are under financial pressure and planning departments have felt the effects of this with reductions in budgets and ultimately staff numbers. Recognising this, we sought to increase the funding available to authorities through the 2017 increase to planning fees. More recently, we consulted from December 2019 to February 2020 on revising the planning performance and fee regimes. While we paused this workstream last year due to the covid 19 pandemic, we are now recommencing that work.  We have published the analysis of the consultation responses and will be working with stakeholders to finalise our proposed changes to planning fees through regulations and to implement the relevant provisions of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019.

Community empowerment

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 has enabled communities to have more control over the decisions that affect them to develop their own economies, wellbeing and environments.  Since asset transfer came into force over four years ago there has been a significant increase in community ownership of land and  buildings across Scotland. We also introduced Participation Requests legislation enabling communities to be more actively involved in decisions about public sector outcomes.  We welcomed the last parliamentary committee’s (Local Government and Communities) report Community Empowerment: Taking Stock of Participation Requests and Asset Transfers Four Years On February 2021.  As outlined in the Scottish Government’s response to the recommendations, we will continue to work with our public sector partners and communities on the issues raised.

Community empowerment comes in many forms and our programme of support for participatory budgeting (PB) is giving communities a strong voice to make decisions on how public money is spent locally.  This support is continuing at pace and we will work with the National PB Strategic Group who have developed a framework where PB is part of the core infrastructure of a constantly renewing democratic and community life across Scotland.

Community wealth

Community Wealth Building is a practical, place-focused model that can play a central role in growing Scotland’s wellbeing economy. Work to date has evolved through collaboration between the Scottish Government, local authorities and others to spend more in their local communities and economies through, for example, increased local procurement, local recruitment, training, and greater use of SME and inclusive business models. 

We intend to introduce Community Wealth Building legislation during the current session to encourage the model’s wider adoption across Scotland. Part of this will be removal of any impediments experienced by local authorities and other local ‘anchor’ organisations seeking to advance a wellbeing economy. Prior to introducing legislation, we plan to do as much as possible to encourage change in practice using extant statutory frameworks and building capacity to deliver, both within the Scottish Government and externally.

The work of Boundaries Scotland

Between 28 May and 10 June 2021, Boundaries Scotland submitted its final proposals for the electoral arrangements in six council areas containing inhabited islands as required under the Islands (Scotland) Act. Scottish Ministers now have a legal duty to lay regulations giving effect to the proposals as soon as is practicably possible. Those regulations are due to be laid in the Parliament under affirmative procedure in late August 2021.  Under current legislation, the next deadline is to review the remaining 26 council areas by December 2028.

Boundaries Scotland are also responsible for reviewing Scottish Parliament constituency and region boundaries which are governed by the Scotland Act 1998, as amended. The next review of the constituencies and regions for the Scottish Parliament must be complete by May 2026.

We hope the Committee will find all of this information helpful and look forward to answering any further points when giving evidence.

JOHN SWINNEY
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery

SHONA ROBISON
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government

KATE FORBES
Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy