- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) budget and (b) outturn has been for the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) in each year since 2016.
Answer
The Scottish Government budget and outturn for the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) in each year since 2016 is in the following table:
| SG Budget First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) | Budget Outturn |
2016-17 | Information not held | 995,376 |
2017-18 | 1,796,000 | 1762411 |
2018-19 | 4,333,000 | 3,147,000 |
2019-20 | 3,494,000 | 4,219,000 |
2020-21 | 3,494,000 | 3,694,000 |
2021-22 | 3,494,000 | 3,848,000 |
These figures are for the Scottish Government budget which part funds the costs of the First Tier Tribunal Housing and Property Chamber.
The First Tier Tribunal is an independent judicial body. As such, information on operational costs are held by the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many contractors have worked and (b) what the expenditure has been on contractors, in its Cladding Remediation Unit in each of the last 12 months.
Answer
(a) there have been a total of 4 contract workers in the past 12 months.
(b) see the following table
Month | Date | Costs (inc VAT) | Number of Contractors |
1 | Jul-21 | £ 6,659.39 | 1 |
2 | Aug-21 | £ 4,324.85 | 1 |
3 | Sep-21 | £ 8,710.49 | 1 |
4 | Oct-21 | £ 1,028.20 | 1 |
5 | Nov-21 | £ - | 0 |
6 | Dec-21 | £ - | 0 |
7 | Jan-22 | £ - | 0 |
8 | Feb-22 | £ - | 0 |
9 | Mar-22 | £ - | 0 |
10 | Apr-22 | £ 16,098.00 | 3 |
11 | May-22 | £ 33,333.96 | 3 |
12 | Jun-22 | £ 23,365.20 | 3 |
| Total | £ 93,520.09 | |
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 80 unique blocks that submitted an expression of interest in the single building assessment it has written to.
Answer
25 of the 29 buildings we have contacted are from the 80 block 2021 Expressions of Interest group. Once we ascertain consent and key details, we will move to the contracting process.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many surveyors and fire engineers it has procured to carry out single building assessments.
Answer
We have contacted 29 buildings so far to offer the direct provision of fire engineers. Once we ascertain consent and details, we will move to the contracting process.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many single building assessments it has offered directly to date.
Answer
We have begun the SBA delivery process for 15 buildings using our grant based approach, with an additional 29 contacted to offer directly commissioned assessments.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to assess the viability of a buy-out scheme for homeowners in high-rise blocks with combustible cladding who are in severe financial hardship.
Answer
There is preliminary work underway to create a feasible Scottish scheme that works for Scottish homeowners and the Scottish tenure system.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what value of Scotland Self-Build Loan Fund loans it has issued in each year of operation, and how many homes have been completed, broken down by local authority.
Answer
The number of Self Build Loan Fund loans and value of these loans issued by year of operation is shown in table 1.
Table 1: Number and Value of Self Build Loan Fund loans by year of operation
Year | Value of loans offered | Number of Loan |
1 | £ 819,500 (to 31-08-2019) | 6 |
2 | £1,202,500 (to 31-08-2020) | 8 |
3 | £2,623,000 (to 31-08-2021) | 17 |
4 | £1,376,600 (to 30-06-2022)* | 9 |
Table 2: Number of loans issued split by local authority
Local Authority Area | No of loans | Value of loans £ |
Aberdeen-shire | 3 | 470,000 |
Argyll & Bute | 2 | 345,000 |
Highland | 14 | 2,230,000 |
Perth & Kinross | 2 | 315,000 |
Shetland | 2 | 233,000 |
South Lanarkshire | 3 | 425,000 |
Western Isles | 7 | 896,100 |
Orkney | 1 | 162,500 |
East Ayrshire | 1 | 150,000 |
North Ayrshire | 1 | 175,000 |
Falkirk | 1 | 175,000 |
Stirling | 2 | 270,000 |
Scottish Borders | 1 | 175,000 |
| 40 | 6,021,600 |
To date, 12 homes have been completed by people in receipt of a Self Build Loan: Argyll & Bute - 2, Orkney - 1, Perth & Kinross - 2, Western Isles - 3, Highland - 1, S Lanarkshire - 1, Aberdeenshire - 2.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has conducted of the successful applicants to the Scotland Self-Build Loan Fund.
Answer
At the end of June 2022, the Self Build Loan Fund administrators, Communities Housing Trust (CHT) had approved 40 loans to successful applicants committing £6.02 million over 13 local authority areas. The average loan offered to borrowers was £150,000.
Of the 40 homes funded through the national Self-Build Loan Fund since 2018, 37 are located in a rural area according to 6-fold urban rural classification. In addition, over one third of all approved loans (14), with committed funding of almost £2.3 million has been made available to people living in the islands. Five of these borrowers have also benefitted from a Croft House Grant.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how its Scotland Self-Build Loan Fund compares with the UK Government's Help to Build scheme.
Answer
Recognising that standard bank lending is often not available to support self-build projects, the Scottish Government acts as lender of last resort through the Self Build Loan Fund, supporting successful applicants to build their own home through short-term funding, normally around one year to 18 months. Up to £175,000 is available to eligible borrowers to assist with construction and professional fees costs resulting from their self-build project. The loan is intended to bridge the gap in construction funding and must be repaid in full once building is complete either from mainstream mortgage finance or from equity from the sale of the home.
The Scottish Government has not prepared a comparison between the Self Build Loan Fund and the UK Government’s Help to Build Scheme, which operates on different terms and administrative arrangements and is a matter for the UK Government.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what work it is doing to enable digital surveys to take place on buildings suspected of having combustible cladding.
Answer
Officials have engaged in conversations with a number of suppliers to look into the utilisation of digital twin surveys to enable assessment and assurance.