Chamber and committees

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I also thank those members who supported the motion so that the debate could take place.

The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, which was created in 2010 and is funded by the Scottish Government and hosted by Shelter Scotland, exists to encourage Scotland’s approximately 46,000 privately owned long-term empty homes back into use as affordable homes. Since 2010, the partnership has facilitated collaborative work between Shelter Scotland, local authorities and the Scottish Government to tackle the blight of long-term empty homes in our towns and cities and in rural Scotland.

The Indigo House audit report for the Scottish Government, “Bringing empty homes back into use: an audit of privately owned empty homes in Scotland”, found that refurbished empty homes can be brought back into use at a

“lower cost than new build and can provide positive economic and social impacts. In rural areas empty homes strategies can help revive and sustain fragile communities, particularly where second homes contribute to housing pressure, and in urban areas, city and town centre regeneration can help reverse area decline.”

To date, the partnership has seen 10,889 homes brought back into use, mainly as affordable housing, and 2023-24 saw the highest annual number of properties brought back into use, at 1,875.

The empty homes audit report found that the most effective way of bringing properties back into use is through the employment of an empty homes officer to “prioritise empty homes action”. It also found that an authority’s empty homes officer is a

“critical resource in supporting owners with information and advice”

and influencing them to bring homes back into use.

However, of the 32 local authorities in Scotland, only 28 have at least one empty homes officer or the equivalent. The remaining four councils have no one in that position, although they have more than 2,200 long-term empty homes.

Those authorities should reconsider, particularly in the light of the auditor’s value-for-money assessment, which found that, during the period under review, empty homes were brought back into use for the equivalent of £2,260 per home. The Scottish Government provided 38 per cent of the funding to councils, while other parties provided the balance.

Across Scotland, housing emergencies have been declared in a number of council areas, including Argyll and Bute, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Fife, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian, Scottish Borders, South Lanarkshire, Angus, Dumfries and Galloway and Aberdeen. The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership’s annual report for 2023-24 highlighted that those councils had more than 12,000 homes lying empty for more than a year.

Why are so many private homes lying empty? Many owners lack the resources to afford the cost of repairs, especially if they have inherited a property. They might consider that, because of local housing market conditions, making that investment might not be financially prudent, or they might have problems finding the tradesmen and services required to complete renovations.

Owners might have personal reasons for not wanting to sell, through emotional attachment to a family home, long-term hospitalisation, imprisonment or mental health issues. There might be difficulty in locating or engaging with owners of derelict or empty properties, especially when the owner is not resident in Scotland.

The audit report found that local empty homes officers, or EHOs, are a

“critical resource in bringing empty homes back into use,”

and that

“there is a direct correlation between the amount of EHO resource and the amount of empty homes brought back into use.”

It continued:

“A successful EHO acts as a trusted adviser, co-ordinator and sign posts owners to other interventions. Their success in getting empty homes back into use is mainly due to the provision of information, advice and influencing empty home owners.”

The report also said:

“it is clear that most EHO resources are stretched, and if more of this resource was available and targeted at the areas with the highest incidence of empty homes, then more could be achieved.”

As a representative of the capital, I should highlight the fact that there are 7,200 privately owned empty properties in Edinburgh; there are a further 1,700 second homes; and there are around 8,400 properties being used for short-term lets to tourists. At the same time, we have 5,000 families living in temporary accommodation.

The Scottish Government has provided 131,000 social and affordable homes since 2007—the highest number per head of population in the United Kingdom—with a further 110,000 affordable homes to be built by 2032. However, the quickest and most cost-effective way of putting a permanent roof over those families’ heads is by bringing more properties back into use, which is affordable.

One way to assist that would be for the Labour Government to reduce VAT on the costs of property repairs and maintenance. Currently, there is 20 per cent VAT on repairs and maintenance work on a property, although if renovation or alteration work is being done on empty premises, that is reduced to 5 per cent, but only if the property has not been lived in for at least two years immediately preceding the start of the work. Why should property lie empty and further deteriorate before work can begin, possibly at a higher cost because it needs more work, given that it has lain empty for two years? A reduction to 5 per cent VAT for such work on all empty homes by the Labour Government would help financially and bring those homes back into use sooner. That step would be particularly helpful now, as inflation in construction materials has risen by approximately 15 per cent to 20 per cent since 2020 and is forecast to increase by a further 15 per cent in the next five years.

The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership has successfully brought almost 11,000 homes back into use, with a further 1,000 expected this year.

I welcome the fact that a number of councils are expanding their empty homes service, with the appointment of additional officers funded by the council tax surcharge on long-term empty and second homes. I encourage those few councils that do not have an empty homes officer in place to appoint one as a matter of urgency.

I would encourage owners of empty homes—regardless of the reason for those homes being empty—to arrange to meet their local officer and discuss how they can provide a family home in their area. The list of contact email addresses and telephone numbers can be found on the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership website.

My concern is about significant issues—that is what it says in the 2020 act. What are you doing to publicise problems that are significant, either because of the safety of the product or because there is a substantial impact on the public because of a particular item? There does not seem to be anything.

You are saying that it is your responsibility to raise awareness of the database. I had a look at it, and it is probably the worst website I have ever seen in my life. It is a list of descriptions, with hyperlinks to click on that take you to a long list of attributes to that item. Then, at the very bottom, you click on another link and you eventually see a photograph that is about the size of a postage stamp. It is not user friendly.

There does not seem to be anything proactive about making alerts to the public. I know that you guys are not front facing in dealing with individual consumers, but you put out two alerts on your Twitter account in the past 48 hours. One, for bikes with a high risk of injury, has had 140 views, and the other, for a vacuum cleaner with a fire risk, has had 152 views. Do you think that that level of hits is acceptable? What will you do to address that, bearing in mind that we are a population of 5.5 million and that the website that you are pointing everybody to is not user friendly?

You do not have to set up a separate database. What I am getting at is how you should publicise something significant. I am not talking about every single item. If you want to be linked to that website, that is fine, but how do you deal with the significant issues outwith that? You also have a responsibility to ensure that the website remains up to date. The information on the website relates to the recall of goods register, and there are opportunities to highlight and register wider pieces of Consumer Scotland work where relevant. That is the responsibility that you have, but that work does not seem to be happening.

How does the public find out?

Thanks very much.

Good morning to the witnesses. I want to ask you about the recall of goods and product safety. Under the 2020 act, you have

“a duty to establish, or secure the establishment and operation of, a publicly available database of recalls of goods in Scotland, where either there is a significant risk to individuals or the scale of recall is significant.”

That is from your annual report. Can you give us an update on where we are with that?

That happens only if the customer has registered the product. If customers do not register their product, which is the case with most people, they will never find out unless somebody rolls out some kind of publicity regarding the issue.

When the Housing (Scotland) Bill was introduced, I was a member of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. We took evidence on parts 1 to 4 of the bill, with only the section on rent controls creating much discussion.

It is important to understand the current housing situation across Scotland and all the key factors that are impacting on the Edinburgh housing situation, especially in relation to the 5,000 families who are currently homeless.

In 2022-23, the total supply of new housing reached the highest annual level since the financial crash of 2008-09. There are now 624,000 social homes in Scotland, which, at 23 per cent of all homes, is the highest proportion in the UK. A National Records of Scotland report that was published in June highlights that, across Scotland, there are 2.7 million homes and 2.5 million households. To be clear, that means that 186,000 homes are lying empty. Since 2007, the Scottish Government has supported the building of 133,000 affordable and social homes. Across all tenures and sectors, 293,000 homes have been built, which is a 12 per cent increase compared with a population increase of only 7 per cent.

I will set out the key factors that are impacting on the Edinburgh emergency housing situation, despite 33,500 homes being built in the city across all sectors since 2007. The capital’s population has increased by 15 per cent since 2007, while short-term let businesses have removed more than 8,000 properties to serve the ever-growing tourist market. The previous Tory Government policies pushed up construction inflation and reduced workforces through Brexit, forcing house building to construct less for more. The cost of living crisis pushed more families out of home ownership due to high mortgage rates, adding to the 7,000 private homes lying empty in the city. In the past year, there has been a 14 per cent increase in the rents for two-bedroom properties in the private rented sector, taking monthly payments to £1,000, compared with £400 for social rent. The situation is also not helped by the previous Conservative Government’s freezing of local housing allowance rates for a number of years, and they look likely to be frozen again by Labour next year.

The number of students is yet another factor, and that number has increased in recent years. Students now make up 20 per cent of the Edinburgh population, and there are now 50 per cent more students than school pupils in the city. Although there has been some building of purpose-built student accommodation in the city, it is only enough to guarantee a student’s first-year accommodation place, in most cases. After that, they join the general population looking for a home.

To tackle those increasing demands on the social rented sector, the City of Edinburgh Council has a stock of 20,000 homes, with a further 20,000 homes in the housing association sector. However, the council, which is a Labour-Conservative administration, has 1,200 empty council homes. The average time that a void council home is not available for rent in Edinburgh is 555 days, and the associated loss of rent is estimated at £1.7 million over a nine-month period.

Edinburgh is a challenging case in relation to housing, due to the many moving factors that impact on the availability of homes.

In addition to record house building, the Scottish Government has put in place policies that address some of the issues that I have raised, including funding the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, the second home double council tax charge, short-term letting licences and rent control areas.

We need to get the balance right in the bill between protecting tenants in private lets and encouraging developers to build homes in the private rented sector.

I also welcome the commitment to build a further 110,000 affordable social rented homes.