Chamber and committees

We are not dragging our feet. We are delivering bridging payments while those issues are resolved in order to get the money into people’s hands. Surely the member recognises that important aspect of the Scottish Government’s delivery?

Does the member think that the cut to universal credit will help those people who are in fuel poverty in those communities? Will it help or hinder those people that she was talking about to have £20 a week taken off them?

Will the member give way?

As I said, the Government has significantly invested in affordable housing, delivering 4,800 homes between 2016-17 and 2019-20 as part of the £3.4 billion affordable housing supply programme, and we have committed to the 10 per cent of 110,000 homes target. We are also committed to developing our remote, rural and islands action plan. Councils are being given significant additional powers to manage particular challenges in communities, such as short-term lets—we will lay legislation for a licensing scheme in November. We are also giving local authorities the power to deal with second homes, if they see that as a problem in their area.

Child poverty is a national mission, which is shown through the almost £1 billion of targeted investment that we provided last year. Our Scottish child payment has already reached 108,000 children. Combined with our bridging payments, it will provide more than £130 million directly to families this year. However, we will go further and double the Scottish child payment to £20 a week as soon as we can put the budgetary provisions in place. That complements wider action across Government, from the 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare to the expansion of free school meals and an increase in the school clothing grant. Those are all examples of positive steps that the Government is taking to tackle child poverty.

I can write to the member with more details, but I would point out that First Port Scotland delivers Scotland’s national social enterprise start-up incubator on behalf of the Scottish Government via the social entrepreneurs fund. It helps not just to start social enterprises but to develop and grow their ideas, and more information about that is available on the website.

We are looking to continue to fund social enterprises so that they continue to deliver. Beyond the funding package that was delivered during the Covid period, we are continuing to fund social enterprises, and there is an additional £1.5 million to build on the successful programme of support offered through the adapt and thrive programme, which helps community organisations that want to diversify their income. I am happy to write to the member with a bit more detail, particularly on his point about growing social enterprises.

Richard Leonard will, I hope, be aware that the “Housing to 2040” strategy talks about many of those issues. Housing is not just about bricks and mortar—it is a core anti-poverty measure, and I very much understand that.

I was asked something along the same lines as Richard Leonard’s question when I attended the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee this week. I said that I would reflect on whether, in addition to the myriad pieces of information that are provided on progress towards the affordable housing targets—there are a lot of statistics, data and reporting—further reports would be of benefit. I do not think that anyone can say that an ambitious target of 110,000 affordable homes, a total investment package of £18 billion and the creation of 15,000 jobs each year is anything other than to be welcomed.

Between 2016-17 and 2019-20, the Scottish Government invested more than £400 million through the affordable housing supply programme, including the rural and islands housing funds, in rural and island communities, and delivered more than 4,800 affordable homes in that time. The rural and islands housing funds are described in the Scottish Land Commission’s report on “The Role of Land in Enabling New Housing Supply in Rural Scotland” as “game changers” for community-led housing development.

We have committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which 10 per cent will be in our remote, rural and island communities, backed by at least £45 million.

Our licensing scheme will ensure that all short-term lets across Scotland comply with basic safety standards, in order to protect guests and neighbours. Local authorities will have the discretion to add further licence conditions in order to address any local concerns such as littering or the overcrowding of properties. The licensing scheme will provide local authorities with data on the number, type and location of short-term lets in their areas. They can also, of course, designate short-term let control areas if they wish to do so, in order to address pressures that are created by secondary short-term letting. Within a control area, planning permission would always be required to let out a whole home for short-term lets. Finally, the provisions will allow local authorities to manage high concentrations of secondary letting where those affect the availability of residential accommodation or the character of a neighbourhood.

I very much appreciate that issue, and the remote, rural and island housing plan will absolutely look at the needs of island communities. It can also look at how we use island bonds as part of the response to that.

Just this morning, I met with the leader of Shetland Islands Council. We talked about many issues, and the issue that the member raised was one of those that we explored. We will have further discussions about it as we take matters forward.