Chamber and committees

My final question goes back to the annual report, which states that of the three directions issued by the Standards Commission for Scotland, two have now expired or have been rescinded, and the remaining direction, which

“relates to reporting on all investigations’ outcomes ... has an expiry date of 31 January 2025.”

How confident are you that that outstanding direction will expire as planned, or do you think that there is a risk that it might not?

That is great. Thank you very much.

We want to ensure that the empty homes service in councils can thrive. Is the minister worried that, if local government is not given a good payment settlement, more services could be disrupted, which could disrupt the number of empty homes that we are trying to bring back into use?

I begin by congratulating Gordon MacDonald on securing this debate on the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership.

There are tens of thousands of abandoned homes across Scotland, and bringing empty homes back into use is essential to tackling our housing emergency. That is why, like all members, I applaud the success of the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership in bringing almost 11,000 long-term empty properties back into use since its establishment in 2010. That is potentially 11,000 families or single persons rehomed, thanks to the hard work and efforts of Shelter Scotland, local authorities and—credit where it is due—the Scottish Government.

Bringing empty homes back into use is not only good for people living in the area; it is good for local economies. In rural communities, it helps to address issues such as depopulation. However, we will not tackle the housing emergency without investment. As I will go on to explain, there are other policies that we need to consider to ensure that we are tackling the housing emergency.

It would be right to point out that the empty homes scheme is not so straightforward, as Gordon MacDonald mentioned in his opening speech. There are local authorities that do not have an EHO in their own services for the public—an officer who would help to bring more empty homes out of the state that they are in and into use. Moray Council, for example, had to take a difficult decision to cut its empty homes service, due to budget pressures. That re-emphasises the need to support local government and ensure that the Government funds local government properly. Otherwise, these vital services will need to be scaled back and we will therefore not tackle the housing emergency.

It will be interesting to note how council budgets this year balance the need to grow the housing supply with juggling the millions of pounds-worth of cuts that could be administered by the Government. That is especially relevant as the Government has introduced its Housing (Scotland) Bill, which will add a £5.5 million burden on to overstretched councils.

The motion perhaps looks at the housing situation in Scotland through rose-tinted glasses. When we scrape beneath the surface and take out all the spin, we find that the Scottish Government’s target of achieving 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 is, at this stage, unachievable at best. At present, only about 22,800 homes have been completed. If we do the maths, we find that, even if the Government manages to speed up house building without driving away investment due to its intention to bring in rent controls, it will not reach its own target until 2035. If we combine that with the recent cuts to the housing budget, it is easy for us to understand why the Scottish Government is struggling to fulfil its own targets.

I am not the only one to have highlighted the issue of unachievable targets in the house-building strategy that is in place. Shelter has commented on the matter, as have other sector bodies.

I again raise the issue of the Housing (Scotland) Bill. Although the bill has “Housing” in its title, it does not build one single home. Instead, the rent controls aspect will drive away investment—roughly £3.2 billion of developer investment so far.

Having declared a housing emergency, the Scottish Government must now back its words with significant actions. Although we of course welcome the success of the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership in managing to bring so many properties back into use, we need to deliver more affordable homes, and we need to tackle the housing and homelessness emergency in Scotland.

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions its ministers have had with their United Kingdom Government counterparts regarding the changes made to agricultural property relief on inheritance tax. (S6O-03970)

Homes for Scotland has warned that the SNP’s proposed changes to housing legislation will increase the cost of a new home by £30,000 through changes to rent controls. Previous changes to the rent cap stalled £3.2 billion-worth of housing development. Reckless rent controls are not just driving away investment; they are harming our economy. With the SNP miles off from meeting its 110,000 affordable homes target, why is the Government failing to tackle the housing emergency, and why is the Parliament considering a housing bill that does not build a single home?

Last night, the Parliament sent a clear message to the Labour Government by backing a Scottish Conservative motion calling for the family farm tax to be scrapped. I congratulate my colleague Tim Eagle on his efforts in that regard.

Rather than having any sympathy with our farmers, especially those who are recovering from cancer, Labour’s response has been to tell farmers to get their affairs in order. With the majority of the Scottish Parliament against the new tax, in his next meeting with his Labour counterparts, will the minister use his authority to demand that the family farm tax simply has to go?

Does the cabinet secretary understand that the policies that her Government is trying to push through the Parliament have stalled roughly £3.2 billion-worth of housing developments in Scotland? How does she reconcile that with the housing emergency that we are trying to tackle?

What we need is mixed-tenure housing to fix the housing emergency that we are currently in, and rent controls will not fix the situation.

Rent controls will result in a shrinkage of available property and a lack of coherence between the supply of and the demand for rental properties. Homes for Scotland has warned that the SNP’s proposed changes to housing legislation will increase the cost of a new home by £30,000 through changes to rent controls. That is an eye-watering amount that will only make it harder for first-time buyers to get on the housing ladder. It makes no sense whatsoever to prevent people—especially young people—from becoming proud home owners.

Regretfully, that will not be the only problem, should the bill continue through stage 1. We have already seen the loss of potential investment in the build-to-rent sector. Hundreds of millions of pounds-worth of potential development has not proceeded due to uncertainty around the Scottish Government’s lack of strategy. The result is that investors will take their money elsewhere, which means less growth in our economy. With the lack of council housing, there is a dependence on the private sector to provide more homes and affordable housing. We simply cannot afford for more private housing providers to leave the market.

I will be fair to the minister. He inherited this disastrous bill and the ideas behind it from a former Green minister. However, he must have known that whatever he would inherit would be economically incoherent.

Despite a year of consultations and significant engagement with the housing industry—particularly the much-referenced housing investment task force—the Government has continued to ignore practical suggestions such as the creation of a balanced framework to protect tenants while offering greater predictability for investors. When we combine that with a lack of common sense and the Government’s obsession with ideologically driven policies, we can see that the bill was always a recipe for disaster.

We have heard a lot of outrage directed at the bill recently from the Greens, no less, who have a question to the First Minister tomorrow on the topic. That is why I cannot understand why they will not support our motion at decision time. Both we and they disagree with the Scottish Government’s approach and how it has taken forward its policy on rent controls, albeit for different reasons. Surely there is common ground to send the Government back to the drawing board to listen to the housing sector and stakeholders and bring back a bill that will not harm the housing sector but will tackle the housing emergency.

The SNP may wish to swing a wrecking ball at the private sector, but in doing so, it is harming our economy and preventing young people from climbing the housing ladder. That is why the bill should be demolished, with rent controls reduced to the pile of rubble that they deserve to be.

I move,

That the Parliament believes that the Scottish Government should redraft the Housing (Scotland) Bill, as it fails to address the key factors that created the housing emergency.

Will the minister take an intervention?