Chamber and committees

Decisions on the future arrangements for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax will be taken in the context of the Scottish Budget.

The Scottish Government operated a boiler scrappage scheme from May 2010 to March 2013. Details of the number of boilers replaced through this and other historic schemes funded by the Scottish Government are published on the Energy Saving Trust website .

Since 2013 the Scottish Government has provided help with the cost of replacement heating systems as part of our wider energy efficiency schemes. These include Area Based Schemes launched in 2013 and Warmer Homes Scotland which replaced the previous Energy Assistance Scheme in September 2015.

The Home Energy Scotland Loan and Cashback scheme was launched in 2016. Since December 2022, the Scottish Government only provides support towards the costs of replacement heating systems with low or zero direct emissions through the new Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme.

Table 1. Households receiving support with a replacement heating system through the Home Energy Scotland Loan and Cashback Scheme (now HES Grant and Loan)

The Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise worked intensively with CodeClan to explore every possible option to secure a sustainable future, including commissioning the support of private sector consultants and considering options involving other public sector entities. In this case, the financial liabilities carried by the business were substantial, making those options unviable.

Codebase, the operator of Scotland's Techscaler network, has acquired CodeClan’s training materials and other assets. The Scottish Government has agreed to provide financial support to Codebase for the explicit purpose of allowing students who have paid for courses to complete their studies.

A proportion of land value uplift is already “captured” through national and local taxation. Additionally, existing planning mechanisms such as section 75 planning obligations can be used to secure contributions to, or provision of, infrastructure and affordable housing. Independent research published in July 2021 estimated that in 2019-20 alone, almost £0.5bn was agreed through planning obligations in Scotland – more than half of which was for affordable housing. The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 contains powers for an infrastructure levy which would provide local authorities with a new mechanism, alongside planning obligations, for seeking financial contributions from developers. The Scottish Government remains committed to implementing the levy during this Parliament.

All local authorities will consider and assess how much of their 2023-24 resource planning assumptions (RPAs) they target towards property acquisitions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20573 on 5 September 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20573 on 5 September 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Edinburgh festivals are an essential part of Scotland’s yearly calendar and we are confident that the powers granted to the City of Edinburgh Council, and all of the local authorities, to deliver short term let schemes are appropriate to reflect local circumstances, whilst guaranteeing a level of good quality standards that will bring assurance to guests and visitors staying in Scotland. As the policy is set and delivered by the council, no central assessment has been made on impact to the festivals. To date, no short term let licence applications have been refused in Edinburgh. Those hosts that have been operating since before October 2022 are eligible for transitional arrangements and, as long as they make a licence application before the deadline of 1 October 2023, can continue to accept bookings and receive guests after October 2023 until their application is determined.

Local authorities have powers to set their own licensing fees on a cost recovery basis. The Scottish Government does not hold information on how much has been raised from short-term let application fees in each local authority area.

The following table provides a breakdown of the licence application fee structures set by each local authority area.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02253 on 2 September 2021. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of complaints of antisocial behaviour in short-term let properties, but Police Scotland continue to publish general recorded crime data by offence. This should be interpreted with some caution as it is drawn from a live operational database, and not produced as Official Statistics: Crime data - Police Scotland

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government works in conjunction with justice system agencies in monitoring the effectiveness of legislation on an on-going basis. There are no plans for a formal review of the criminal law on stalking at this time.