Chamber and committees

If I can get the time back, I will.

I, too, welcome James Dornan back to the Parliament. Those of us who serve on the Social Justice and Social Security Committee get to see him every week on the television, but I welcome him back to the Parliament in person.

Over the past few hours, we have heard a new word in politics: “de-endorsement”, which can be applied to many SNP members’ decisions about the party’s leadership. Today, I welcome the acting finance secretary’s de-endorsement of many parts of his budget. I welcome the fact that he has listened to the many concerns that were raised and has changed some spending commitments in the budget.

In recent weeks, I have met councillors across Scotland from all parties and have listened to their concerns. I thank all those who work in local government across our country, because they have gone the extra mile during the pandemic to support all our communities, but they still feel that they have not been given the support that they need to carry on and to recover from the pandemic.

For many in local government, it feels like the challenges and pressures on local services have not passed and are very real today, and that those services have not recovered. After 15 years of the SNP Government underfunding local government in Scotland, there are increasing concerns over long-term financial sustainability and the problems that councils across the country face.

Put simply, for council leaders who I have spoken to across Scotland, there is nothing more that they can cut, beyond core services, to balance their budgets. They will welcome the additional £100 million. Many will start balancing that with the funding floor, which will probably result in the finance secretary giving with one hand and taking away with the other.

Despite that additional money, councils will be setting their budgets in the coming weeks and will still have to make significant cuts to services. In Clackmannanshire, councillors are considering reducing home to school transport and the amount of money that is spent on the delivery of secondary school subjects. In Kenny Gibson’s area of North Ayrshire, the Arran outdoor education centre could be shut to save cash. Beyond education, leisure services will face cuts in many areas. Inverclyde Council is looking to close Greenock sports centre and Port Glasgow swimming pool. In my region, West Lothian Council has suggested cuts for library services, including in West Calder. In West Dunbartonshire, the council is thinking about reducing opening hours for recycling centres.

Many charities are worried about the loss of grant funding from local authorities. That is concerning many people in our third sector, who feel that they could be the last in line to receive vital funding for the services that they deliver. Like most councils, Aberdeen City Council and West Dunbartonshire Council are considering increasing many charges. East Ayrshire Council is now looking at a 4 per cent increase in rent charges for temporary accommodation. In East Renfrewshire, there is already a £40 charge on top of council tax for households who want additional garden waste removed, and that will go up to £60.

The finance secretary talked about a better deal and working with councils and council leaders. We really need to move towards that. In the most recent budget round, councils have looked in many imaginative ways at changing their funding and at how they can reprofile council debt, especially around public-private partnership schemes. I do not see anything else that they can do in future for which they will not need Scottish Government support to balance budgets.

I take the member’s point that there are a number of competing factors, but I will not apologise for pointing out that we are in a housing crisis and that we have the highest number of children and pregnant women living in temporary accommodation. Here in the capital, we are seeing levels of homelessness that we have never experienced before, and the response from the SNP-Green Government is to cut 16 per cent from the housing budget and to underfund the City of Edinburgh Council and our health board.

On delivering outcomes, ministers really need to consider what they are not doing for Edinburgh. I make no apologies for raising that in Parliament today, because decisions that are taken to cut affordable housing supply programmes at the very time that we are seeing those increases will come back to haunt the Government. I think that, in the autumn, we will see a housing crisis in Scotland and the potential collapse of the housing market here in Edinburgh, and SNP and Green members will be held responsible for that.

It is critical that we now move towards ways in which local authorities can meet the cuts and consider what impact that will have on our communities. We will be hearing about that in the coming days. However, it is clear that this SNP-Green budget is a pay more, get less budget, which is not something that we can endorse. As my colleague Liz Smith says, after 15 years of SNP government, it is clear that ministers have no fresh ideas to help grow the Scottish economy and that, ultimately, Scottish taxpayers are paying the price for that failure to stimulate our economy.

Like me, Pam Duncan-Glancy represents a city that has experienced some of the highest increases in homelessness in recent months. What impact will the budget have on that?

Will Pam Duncan-Glancy give way?

Good morning to the panel, and thank you for joining us today.

I will start with a question on temporary exemptions. Rob Dickson, do you think that the system that governs temporary exemptions from the licensing regime for major events is working as expected? I believe that the City of Edinburgh Council wanted to create such a scheme for the festival. Where are we today with the legislation? How do you think it is working?

Thank you. We have already touched on planning permissions around existing homes and short-term lets outwith control areas. In your opinion, given where we are with the new regulations, is there a way of resolving the matter by tweaking the system that has been put in place to make the policy work?

I do not want us to focus only on Edinburgh, but I will, as an Edinburgh MSP. There is obviously a major events issue that the legislation has come up against, which is our festival. Are there ways of developing specific exemptions, such as the ones that you have submitted to the committee, to provide for that as well as for the health and safety element, which is what the Scottish Government originally said the legislation was about?

Does Gary Somers want to add anything, or do you have the same rationale?

Thanks for that clarification. I want to move on to floor plans. I have become our committee’s floor-plan man on this piece of work. One of the key concerns that has been expressed to us is that some local authorities require applications to be supported by detailed floor plans. With regard to simplicity, the legislation has perhaps been misinterpreted. What is your understanding? For example, is a simple hand-drawn plan of a property, rather than a full architect’s drawing, acceptable? I will bring Gary Somers and Gillian McNaught back in on that.

That is helpful, thank you.

Gary Somers, do you have anything to add? We have been asking individual councils for their view, to find out why some applicants are told that they need an architect’s drawing.