Rural Affairs and Environment Committee, 19 Mar 2008
Meeting date: Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Official Report
274KB pdf
Rural Housing Inquiry
Agenda item 2 is the rural housing inquiry. Members have two papers before them. RAE/S3/08/6/7 updates us on the progress on the rural housing inquiry and RAE/S3/08/6/8 is a note on the rural housing service conference, which the committee will remember it generously allowed me to attend as a reporter, in lieu of anyone else being prepared to go to Dunkeld.
We will deal with the rural housing inquiry update first. I understand that many members have indicated that the visits it was suggested might be the most appropriate for them to go on are the ones that they have chosen. Are there any gaps? A few members are still to respond. John Scott has not seen the e-mail. Can the clerk remind me which visit it was suggested he could do? It was most likely the Arran visit on 20 May.
We have chosen three areas: East Lothian, Arran and Kinloch Rannoch. That was done with two things in mind. First, we wanted to get the spread of the sorts of rural areas that have major housing problems for different reasons. East Lothian's problem, paradoxically, is caused by its proximity to Edinburgh and the stresses that that creates. Arran is an island community, with a lot of issues that will relate to all islands. Kinloch Rannoch was the most remote area that we could visit that would suit committee members and would not take two days out of our diaries. That was a difficult decision, but we chose Kinloch Rannoch because it dealt with a couple of issues that we have to address. It would be helpful if any member who has not responded could do so.
Do members have any comments on the list of proposed witnesses to be invited to the initial evidence sessions in April and May? If members have any queries, it would be useful to get two or three names so that we can get the ball rolling. Are members happy with the initial suggestions in paragraph 15?
Are we thinking about inviting the Highland Housing Alliance—it is mentioned in your report on the conference and we heard about it in Aviemore—to give oral evidence? It seems to have a particularly interesting model.
The decision on witnesses that we make today is not final. We are just ensuring that we have people in place for the first meetings. We will make our decisions as we go. Are members happy with the suggestions for the first oral sessions?
Members indicated agreement.
That is all that is necessary on that paper.
We will now consider the rural housing service annual conference paper. It is a detailed paper on the conference, including some of the workshops. I took part in a workshop on planning and housing. I have not written up the note from that workshop, but I will do so. Although it did not turn out to be as much of a discussion as I had hoped, a considerable number of issues were raised. In connection with the flooding inquiry, there is an issue about the extent to which the affordability of housing becomes a question when you consider the many other measures that have to be put in place. When we come to the affordable housing inquiry, we will need to reflect on that.
Many issues were raised including the long-term sustainability of a house and its energy efficiency, both of which add to the cost of a house. In a sense, the discussion formed a substantive part of what we are doing. The workshop was led by an expert from the University of Stirling. He is one of the folk who has been suggested for an early evidence-taking session. We will therefore hear directly from him on a number of the issues that were raised in the workshop.
From the papers, members can see the structure of the conference. Usefully, from our perspective, it was not structured in exactly the same way as we structured our session in Aviemore. I was concerned that we would get a replica of what we did there, but a different thematic route was chosen, which helped. Of course, the downside with conferences is always that one can go only to certain workshops and not to all of them. On the day, one can never get an overview of the entire scope of a conference.
The Carnegie UK Trust representative's contribution was interesting. The trust appears to want to extend its reach and to be more visible in a variety of areas. The presentation included some interesting stuff in which it is involved south of the border, about which I have heard in other places.