Chamber and committees

Minister, we are well aware of the organisations and structures that have issues with the scheme. One of the biggest is the Scottish Bed and Breakfast Association, which said that the scheme was

“by far the worst example of policy implementation”

that it has ever encountered. It saw it as “fragmented”, “inconsistent”, “arbitrary”, “onerous” and “costly”. Those are some of the areas that it has concerns about.

You talked about health and safety. Organisations such as the SBBA are compliant with health and safety rules already, with reference to inspection and enforcement. How do you respond to the SBBA’s analysis, which is relatively scathing about how the scheme has impacted its sector?

We have touched on councillor-on-councillor complaints, and we know that they represent about 17 per cent of the total. The committee has been looking at barriers to elected office and we have heard that female councillors face much more hostility and toxicity in the council environment. It would be good to get a flavour of whether female councillors are submitting more complaints than male councillors. Have you seen such a trend? Do you want to express your views on that?

Good morning, sir. It is good to see you again.

I am delighted to see strong financial management being talked about in relation to the organisation, but within that, there are cost implications and increases. We are now looking at £1.5 million of expenditure in 2023-24, compared with £1.04 million in the past. That is quite a significant increase of more than 50 per cent over the year. We know that your workload has increased and that you are required to get rid of the backlog, as we have discussed at other committees that I have sat on, but can you explain the reasons behind the rise in costs and provide assurances that the increase, once again, represents value for money to the taxpayer?

You have touched on the finances that you hope will be provided in the upcoming budget. How should the Scottish Government use the additional funding that it will receive as a result of the UK budget? How could that funding tackle the housing emergency that we face?

We have touched on voids and the potential to bring properties back into use. Some local authorities are working well on that, but in others it is a bit more of a struggle. We also know that there has been a 17 per cent decrease in all-sector house building, and our witness earlier this morning touched on infrastructure and the impact that that can have on how we manage things in communities.

How do you see the sector managing all of that—the voids, the decrease in house building and the way that we are progressing on infrastructure—to alleviate the problems? We have heard about where the finances come from and where they should go to bring certainty back to the sector. However, if that certainty is not created, the emergency will continue into the future.

Good morning. You have already given us a very good appraisal of the system that we are in and indicated some of the changes that should or could have been made in the past to create a good foundation for a sustainable and effective housing system. I thank you for that so far. How effective are the actions of local authorities and the Scottish Government in working towards achieving a system that is progressive in the long term?

As you have identified, councils and local authorities want to promote and expand, but there are some—seven this year, I think—that have not built any houses at all because they do not have the capacity or ability to do that. We need to try to support that and create what is required for the future. You have identified areas that may be looked at to try to amalgamate, change and support one another to make that happen. Like you, I think that that is the right way to manoeuvre it and get it to the right place, but it is funding that always seems to be the problem, in that we do not have enough or the construction costs have changed or the dimensions of what can be achieved are not progressive. How would you try to affect some of that?

Professor Gibb, do you have anything to add?

In our discussion with the previous panel, we touched on some of the medium and long-term issues to do with the housing system and how it is managed. A number of actions in the Scottish Government’s housing to 2040 strategy are about ensuring that the housing market operates fairly and provides affordable housing options and choices in all communities. It is a huge ask of councils to manage and implement some of those actions.

Do you think that any progress has been made on that aim? What else needs to be done to ensure that progress can be made? As councils, what role do you have in supporting that action? Do you think that that is not achievable as part of your role as councils? Perhaps we can start with Derek McGowan, then move round.

That is excellent.