Chamber and committees

The minister will know that, since his appointment, I have been trying to work constructively with him. However, I have to say that, after eight years as an MSP serving in this Parliament, I have never heard a more out-of-touch statement being delivered by a Government minister.

The minister stated that

“we have seen progress in reducing homelessness in some areas”

Progress? After 17 years of this Scottish National Party Government, 15,000 children are homeless in Scotland today, and homelessness has reached its worst levels since records began. The statement was, simply, complacent.

The minister singularly failed to mention the one negative policy intervention that housing associations, home builders and investors have told him and, I know, all the cabinet about—the Scottish National Party-Green rent controls policy. That policy has resulted in the total collapse in construction of mid-market rent homes, and in housing associations not building new homes and having to rewrite their whole investment plans—not to mention investors seeing Scotland as being closed for business.

The Scottish Property Federation estimates that £700 million in residential investment has been paused or lost due to the rent controls policy. Property developer Chris Stewart has said that Scottish Government ministers are responsible for a loss of more than £3 billion of investment, mainly in the build-to-rent sector, through the imposition of rent controls.

We need change and action. I therefore ask the minister whether he will take forward two changes. Will he agree to review national planning framework 4, which is now slowing down investment? Every house builder is saying that they cannot get access to land and are moving out of Scotland. Many Scottish home builders are now building more homes in England.

We also need the minister and the Government to accept that rent controls have failed Scotland and are failing renters. Will the minister make sure that the Housing (Scotland) Bill addresses that and, if need be, that rent controls are removed?

I thank the cabinet secretary for the advance sight of his statement and for the time that he gave to staff, patients and elected members on a visit to the eye pavilion this morning.

As the cabinet secretary heard directly from clinicians then, the closure of the hospital and the significant disruption to the service have the potential to cause harm to patients in Lothian. We are at this point because of a failure to deliver a new eye hospital for Lothian over the past decade. There has been a failure of leadership by Scottish National Party ministers to plan for and deliver the growing health services that we need in Lothian.

The cabinet secretary will be aware that there is real concern among patients and staff that this might be just the start of a much longer period of closure of the hospital. We will not know that until work starts to be undertaken. It is now critical, therefore, that we see a commitment from SNP ministers to fast-track the funding and construction of a new replacement eye hospital.

I have two questions for the cabinet secretary. First, will he give a commitment that the Scottish Government will help to cover the significant costs that NHS Lothian will face when the services are redistributed across the NHS estate? Secondly, after today’s visit, does he fully accept that we need a new eye hospital to be built in Lothian?

Good morning, and thanks for joining us. I have a couple of questions. The first relates to restricted capital resources and how you believe councils should prioritise their capital spending. Do you have any examples of good practice and how they are engaging with communities around that?

Thank you for that.

Evidence from the Scottish household survey shows that public satisfaction with local government services has reduced in recent years. Is that experience mirrored in England? What would have to change in order to reverse that trend? We have touched on the idea of people being more engaged in decision making. Local government is facing a number of pressures and satisfaction seems to be declining.

There is a lot to think about there. Thank you.

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

I want to touch on the Verity house agreement. What is your understanding of developments towards the fiscal framework and the monitoring and accountability framework that were included in the agreement?

In the Accounts Commission’s submission, you state that councils

“urgently need to transform how they deliver services to become financially sustainable.”

You have touched on the potential for savings and efficiencies of a once-for-Scotland approach around information technology—I think that NHS Scotland, for example, has been moving towards that—and around procurement. What would you like to see included in the forthcoming budget to take that work forward and to look towards how councils can collectively work together to become more financially sustainable? There is potential in some of the work, for example of my council in the city region area, to implement the sharing of resources and expertise, especially in planning and things like that.

On that point, have you done any work to map where councils have looked to change services—for example, putting bin services out to tender—and efficiencies that that has delivered for councils and where other councils have taken a political decision not to do that, so that we see services being delivered in different ways at different costs in all 32 councils?

You touched on RAAC. I wanted to raise that issue with you both in relation to future challenges. We have already had a pretty bleak conversation about the pressures that local government faces, but where do you think councils are in assessing the situation in relation to RAAC? On Friday, I met people in West Lothian who are affected by RAAC, and I do not think that the council necessarily has a figure for the situation. There is now mixed tenure in many of the developments that we are referring to. Do you have any idea what the exposure to risk now looks like for councils in relation to the housing stock in England, and of any figures that exist for Scotland?

You touched on social care pressures, which is an area that I am interested in pursuing, especially what that looks like north and south of the border.

We have seen pretty major reforms in local government over the past decade to try to address that pressure—for example, the integration of health and social care in Scotland. Currently, the Scottish Government is taking forward the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill.

When you speak to councillors and council officials, you hear that the pressure is not easing but growing. For most councils, including my own here in Edinburgh, half of that budget is for adult social care, from day 1, and the pressure is consistently growing and outstripping demand.

How optimistic are you that the situation will improve, and not just create something that councils cannot resolve? Some of the policy changes that we have seen have not, in fact, helped to deliver any real reform that has necessarily improved the situation.