Chamber and committees

Thank you.

Good morning to the witnesses. Thanks for joining us this morning. The number of pupils who undertake residential outdoor education is not collected centrally. Are you aware of how many pupils, especially those from the state sector, currently undertake residential outdoor education? Is that predominantly in council areas that still own their own facilities?

Presiding Officer,

“Edinburgh is at the epicentre of the housing and homelessness crisis”.—[Official Report, 23 April 2023; c 29.]

I spoke those words during my time as shadow housing spokesperson for the Conservatives. We know that support services for vulnerable groups are at breaking point, and the number of people who are experiencing homelessness in the capital is at a record level.

When John Swinney became First Minister, he stated that he wanted to be honest about where the Scottish Government was going wrong. In relation to the housing emergency, I think that we can sum that up in two words: rent controls. All parties across the Parliament have welcomed the fact that the Scottish Government has declared a housing emergency, but we must be honest—and the Scottish Government must be honest—that the bill will not solve those problems. The homelessness crisis that people in Scotland face, especially here in the capital, is only getting worse, and they are living with the consequences of decisions that have been taken by SNP and Green ministers.

The prevention duties that ministers have pointed to already exist and are being ignored, so we need to see ministers focus on the homelessness crisis now, which means fixing our broken system. Today, local authority homelessness services across the country are in systemic failure, and that is nowhere more pronounced than it is here in Edinburgh. Around 700 households in Edinburgh are currently facing the prospect of not knowing where they will be living come Christmas day, due to the council’s proposal to end the use of temporary accommodation that is not compliant with houses in multiple occupation requirements. It is an incredibly serious situation and it needs an immediate solution. I hope that—

If I can get some time back.

That is welcome, and I hope that the cabinet secretary will update MSPs from across the parties very soon on that. We know that there is concern about a loss of bed space and the fact that the council is now routinely struggling to find accommodation. That has seen not only other councils across Scotland but councils in England being asked to take individual families during the housing emergency.

There should be no prospect of suspending those protections—they need to remain in place for households, including the 25 families with children that are affected. Instead, I hope that ministers will urgently look at what support they can provide the City of Edinburgh Council. We need to see action, because ministers cannot sit idly by while hundreds of households do not know where they will be come 1 December. If we do not see action from the Government and the council, it will completely undermine any remaining pretence that Scotland is leading the world on housing rights and tackling homelessness, as the cabinet secretary said earlier.

In its briefing, Crisis says that

“The Scottish Government should set out a clear vision of what homelessness prevention will look like in practice”

and put in place measures that will get us there.

Local authorities are at breaking point, and the prevention duties that will be introduced, which we all agree should be put in place, will add to the burden that local authorities face. Therefore, we need ministers to urgently outline to Parliament what will change across all Government portfolios and what fresh leadership will be brought to the housing emergency.

For some time, charities and experts in the homelessness sector have warned ministers that the bill will not fix the housing emergency, but all the energy of the Scottish Government and its officials is going into it. The Scottish Government should pause and redraft the bill as a homelessness emergency bill, so that we can focus on what we agree on and get the emergency action that we need across our country.

We need a bespoke approach for Edinburgh and the crisis that my constituents in the capital face. We are not seeing that, and ministers saying that they are having meetings on meetings on meetings is an example of the failure to address the housing emergency and the homelessness crisis. The Scottish Conservatives call on ministers to redraft the housing bill, because it fails to address the factors that are creating the housing emergency. I support the motion in Meghan Gallacher’s name.

Has the member ever reflected on the fact that, since the introduction of rent controls, Scotland has had one of the worst records on homelessness? We have 10,110 children trapped in temporary accommodation, and 42 children becoming homeless every day. That is a consequence of rent controls.

Will the member take an intervention?

Will the member give way?

Good morning. Thank you for joining us.

What Professor Loynes has just said leads on well to what I want to ask about, which relates to measuring the outcomes. The committee is acutely aware of the poor levels of mental health that are being reported among young people of all backgrounds. The building of resilience in our young people is a key outcome that we would like to see from residential outdoor education. From your experience, what would you like to be measured as part of the outcomes?

Dr Scrutton, you touched on your 2012 research paper on the benefits of outdoor education to pupils from lower socioeconomic groups. In that context, how could we measure the outcomes to demonstrate the value that can be added?

Yes.