Chamber and committees

We recognise the importance of good, safe, secure and warm homes for people’s wellbeing and our vision is that everyone should have a home that meets their needs.

Priority for social housing in Scotland is based on housing need and an assessment of an applicant’s individual circumstances. Scottish housing law requires social landlords to give reasonable preference to specific categories of applicant. This means that anyone including Service leavers, ex-Service personnel, their spouses and partners who find themselves homeless, threatened with homelessness or with a high level of housing need, for example where they are leaving tied accommodation, need family support or have medical needs, will receive priority for social housing.

Following the publication of the Scottish Veterans Commissioners report “Housing: Making a Home in Civilian Society,” we will consider the recommendation to encourage all social landlords to include ex-Service personnel as a priority group in their Allocations policies and will develop an action plan to take this forward.

The Scottish Government provides a wide range of Covid-19 recovery funding support for town centres in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley area.

To support sustained longer term renewal for our towns, villages and cities we have established a Place Based Investment Programme, backed with £325 million capital investment over five years from 2021-22. The allocation for 2021-22 to East Ayrshire Council is £1.31m. The programme will help to link and align place based funding initiatives and progress our ambitions for town centres, community led regeneration and 20 minute neighbourhoods. It builds on the £34 million economic stimulus for regeneration and towns and other funding specifically for town centres, smaller settlements and Business Improvement Districts delivered in 2020-21.

To further support local businesses and promote keeping local spend local we launched the next phase of the Scotland Loves Local (SLL) campaign on 5 July. The £10m SLL Programme includes a new national platform for the SLL loyalty card scheme that will help revitalise town centres and high streets hit by the pandemic.

Since the start of the pandemic, businesses including those in town centres have directly benefitted from £3.6 billion in support. This includes over £13 million, through the Strategic Framework Business Fund and Restart Grant, to businesses in East Ayrshire (as at 25 June 2021) and we continue to work closely with councils to ensure businesses subject to restrictions for a longer period of time remain supported.

Grants of up to £7,500 for retailers and up to £19,500 for hospitality and leisure businesses were paid in April to help businesses, including town centre businesses, re-open. These one-off re-start grants replaced the Strategic Framework Business Fund payments made between November and March and provided more money up front to help with the costs of re-opening. Data on business support funding and other local authority support schemes are available here .

Local authorities were also empowered to support local businesses through the Discretionary Fund, with over £1.7 million awarded to businesses in East Ayrshire from that Fund.

We have extended 100% Non-Domestic Rates relief for all retail, leisure and hospitality premises for all of 2021-22 – this is a more generous package than the equivalent rates reliefs available in other UK nations. This relief benefited over 500 businesses in East Ayrshire saving them over £11 million in 2020-21, according to the latest data available.

As per the answer to your previous question S6W-00644, it is not possible to provide an individual cost breakdown for this single piece of infrastructure built as part of the overall Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) Highlands and Islands contract.

My sympathies are with the family of Emma Caldwell.

The criminal investigation into Emma Caldwell's death is still on-going. Any decision regarding whether it would be appropriate to undertake a judicial inquiry into any aspect of the investigation can only be taken at a point when that investigation has concluded.

The UK Government has proposed creating a separate Warm Home Discount scheme for Scotland that does not take account of current levels of need or the definition of fuel poverty as decided by the Scottish Parliament. We have urged the UK Government to reconsider their proposals on this basis and review their use of levy funding more generally. These proposals will increase charges on everyone's energy bills but this does not reflect every household's ability to pay.

Given that UK Ministers believe that a reformed scheme is needed in England and Wales, Scottish Ministers have proposed a simpler, fairer and more flexible fuel poverty scheme for Scotland. As set out in our draft Heat in Buildings Strategy, we believe that combining the current Energy Company Obligation and Warm Home Discount schemes would provide the flexibility needed to target the different needs of Scottish communities and reflect the will of the Parliament.

The Scotland Act (2016) does not provide powers for Scottish Ministers to simply change these levy funded schemes. In all circumstances the approval of the Secretary of State would be required for any changes to be implemented. Scottish Ministers cannot meaningfully consult about the design of a proposed Scottish scheme or engage with the Parliament on this basis.

We are delighted with the progress on the reopening of the DigitalBoost Fund and will meet the 100 days deadline that we have set. This will be a national fund supporting businesses to increase their digital capacity and capabilities and we would encourage businesses in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley area to apply once it reopens. We will work with our enterprise support partner, Business Gateway, and delivery partners, LESL (Lancashire Enterprise Services Limited), to successfully administer and deliver this fund.

The HMICS Assurance review of Police Scotland demand analysis and management offers a positive outlook on Police Scotland’s efforts to develop its understanding of demand put on its resources. Its recommendations are for the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland to consider.

The HMICS Assurance Review - Policing of COP26, published on 26 June 2021, provides a high level of confidence in the preparation and planning to date for COP26 and I have no doubt this work will continue at pace. The single recommendation in that report and the areas for continued development are for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority to consider and where appropriate, act upon.

The delivery of 801 is planned for the range July 2022 to September 2022 and for 802 delivery is planned for the range April 2023 to July 2023. Following completion of the vessels and successful delivery, CalMac as the operator will require to undertake extensive sea trials and crew and operational service familiarisation before the vessels enter service.

The second milestone of Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH2) will help remove poor energy efficiency as a driver for fuel poverty and contribute to achieving our emissions reductions targets. We need to accelerate our ambitions to decarbonise our buildings and, as set out in the Housing to 2040 Route Map, have already committed to bring forward the review of EESSH2 to 2023.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01036 on
13 July 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx