Chamber and committees

I will indeed.

I will try my best, Presiding Officer.

I begin my remarks on a point of consensus. Recently, my colleague Graham Simpson and I met the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government and the minister to discuss the Housing (Scotland) Bill. I found the meeting useful and, although there were clear dividing lines over some areas of the bill, I believe that there are areas on which we can work constructively together, should the bill pass stage 1 today.

One such area is homelessness prevention. As we speak, more than 15,000 children in Scotland are homeless. That figure should shame each and every one of us. Last night, I received a huge volume of emails in my inbox about homelessness services, which are a priority for my constituents and for my party. There is scope for the bill to make vast improvements for anyone who finds themselves without a home or who finds themselves sleeping rough. Scotland is in the grip of a devastating housing emergency, which is destroying lives. My party will commit to working across the parties, where possible, to make much-needed changes to the bill, because we believe that everyone in Scotland deserves the right to a safe home.

However, the bill that is in front of us—the bill that we are being asked to scrutinise—is not a housing bill. What we have been presented with will not, in itself, tackle the housing emergency. The minister has the nerve to say that the bill will ensure that Scots can access an affordable rented home. He refuses to say that the Scottish National Party’s botched rent control policy has driven up rents and priced thousands of Scots out of their homes. That is typical of the SNP—what it says and what it does never match up.

The last time that the SNP introduced rent controls, it was a disaster. More than 21,000 flats and houses disappeared from Scotland’s private rental sector in a single year.

No—I have been kind enough to give the minister one intervention.

Between September 2022 and March 2024, when rent controls were active, private rents increased by 16.5 per cent. That shows that rent controls do not work. It is a failed experiment.

The rent control proposal is causing concern not just in my party but among private home providers in the housing sector. Although some have welcomed the link to inflation for rent caps, that is insufficient on its own and could be a major barrier to investment. The housing industry has repeatedly warned that restrictions amount to price fixing and would limit rental income flexibility, distort the market and reduce the scope to improve and upgrade tired homes. The consequences of that will impact value, viability and delivery and make Scotland an unattractive destination for the substantial capital that is needed to build new high-quality rental housing.

The bill will stifle the ambition to deliver more homes for Scotland. There is also a lack of clarity on build-to-rent exemptions. Investors are in limbo because they do not have certainty from the Government in order to push ahead with multimillion pound investment decisions. Although there have been commitments to holding further consultation processes and engagement sessions with stakeholders, the critical detail of the legislation might not be clear until at least the summer of 2025, which will prolong the uncertainty.

The SNP has not listened to stakeholders. Despite a year of consultations with the industry, including that of the housing investment task force, the SNP has dismissed numerous common-sense suggestions, such as removing rent controls between tenancies. Controls between tenancies will reduce overall rental stock from existing private housing providers, which continue to exit the sector, and that makes tenants more vulnerable in an increasingly constrained market. If the SNP was minded to change its position on that matter, that would provide greater predictability and certainty for investors while protecting tenants, which, in turn, would stimulate housing supply instead of suffocating it, which is what the bill does at present.

For the reasons that I have outlined, the Scottish Conservatives cannot vote for a bill that is a direct attack on the prosperity of our nation. At a time when the SNP should be encouraging economic growth, we have a bill that will harm the industry. A range of large-scale, credible and capable construction companies are folding, and when we lose them, we will lose critical skills that will not be replaced.

The bill was an opportunity to open the door to discussions in order to tackle the big problems in our housing sector, but the SNP has failed in its mission. It has failed to take the housing emergency seriously, and it is dismantling the housing sector brick by brick. My party will not sit back and allow the SNP to take a wrecking ball to an already fragile sector.

In 2008, 9,535 people were living in temporary accommodation. In 2024, 16,330 people are living in temporary accommodation. This Government is presiding over disgraceful waits in temporary housing. One of the most appalling cases involved a child spending more than seven years in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh, with another person spending close to 2,900 days without a permanent home.

The Scottish National Party has been in power for 17 years, yet things go from bad to worse. Does the First Minister believe that a child should spend seven years in temporary accommodation? When will the Government finally get a grip of the situation, which should shame the First Minister and his Government?

More than three UK clubs close every week and there is a danger that all UK nightclubs will close by the end of the decade. During the summer, I met business owner Donald MacLeod at one of my old haunts, the Cathouse rock club, and we spoke about the lack of support that businesses receive to allow our night-time economy to thrive. We mentioned low-emission zones, the lack of public transport, the lack of rates relief for businesses and the decline of towns, high streets and city centres.

The night-time industry is being dismantled brick by brick, so the Government should back the last night out campaign to help support significant nightclubs, such as the Catty. Will the minister save the rave?

Will the member give way on that point?

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to reduce the length of time that children are placed in temporary accommodation. (S6F-03572)

There was a loss in investment. We need to tackle the housing emergency, and to tackle the housing emergency, we need to build more homes. We cannot afford for £3.2 billion of investment to disappear into thin air because of permanent rent controls that are being brought in by the SNP. That is not good policy.

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to the nightclub industry, in light of the Night Time Industries Association’s launch of the last night out campaign. (S6O-04032)

Good morning. We have had a really interesting conversation so far. Jan Savage has just picked up on one of the questions that I was going to ask about the role of commissioners, but if anyone else has anything to add on that, please do so.

One submission that the committee received was about the ombudsman and the public complaints system as a whole. We have heard a lot this morning about issues, concerns, accountability processes and perceptions of the ombudsman and the public complaints system. Looking at the rest of the UK, and indeed across Europe, what do you think is the ideal, best-practice scenario that we could use here in Scotland to improve things with regard to the ombudsman as a whole?

I do not know who would like to kick off with that. I know that it is a huge question.