Chamber and committees

During August 2013, a total of 75,662 households on housing benefit were affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy in Scotland. Of these, 3,939 were households where the main claimant was aged under 25 years.

Note: As housing benefit can be claimed by a household as well as an individual, age of claimant refers to the age of an individual claimant or, if claiming as a couple, the eldest age within that couple.

Source: Stat-Xplore, Department for Work and Pensions

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

The Scottish Government provides a range of incentives to improve the energy efficiency of homes. In April 2013 we launched our Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS) which provides £74 million in 2013/14 to tackle fuel poverty, reduce carbon emissions and support jobs. HEEPS supports the installation of energy efficiency measures in Scottish households and includes funding the Home Energy Scotland helpline which provides people with free impartial advice on the best steps they can take to improve the energy efficiency of their home and incentives available.

The Green Homes Cashback Scheme has also been running since 1 November 2012 and offers cashback vouchers to householders across all tenures of up to £1200 if they install an energy efficiency improvement that has been recommended on their Green Deal assessment. Since 2012 we have issued 17,449 individual cashback vouchers.

Section 65 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 placed a duty on local authorities to introduce discount schemes for council tax, offering a minimum in-year reduction of £50 where householders undertake efficiency improvements to their home.

With the full powers of independence, this government would design a new means of funding and delivering energy efficiency improvements to Scottish homes that are fairer and better suited to our needs.

Scottish Ministers set out their position in March 2011 that they would not regulate for minimum standards of energy efficiency in private sector housing before 2015, and would look to regulate at the point of sale or rental.

As part of the implementation of the Sustainable Housing Strategy, published in June 2013, Scottish Ministers have set up a working group to develop proposals for draft regulations for public consultation which would set minimum standards for private sector housing. The working group, which includes representatives from consumer, environmental, local authority and private rented sector interests, will be considering issues such as the point at which standards would apply, and how any regulation would fit with incentives.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 sets out those groups of people that social landlords, including local authority landlords, must give reasonable preference when allocating their housing. This includes those who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.

Local authorities are responsible for having allocations policies that comply with the Act. The priority they give to looked after children applying for social housing will be based on their assessment of each young person’s particular housing needs.

Through the Housing Support duty and regulations, all local authorities are required to assess and provide housing support for certain homeless applicants to whom they have a duty to secure settled accommodation.

Care leavers should be supported to make a successful transition to independent living when they are ready to do so and provisions in the Children and Young People Bill are aimed at improving outcomes in this regard.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 gives local authorities powers to act where landlords permit multiple occupancy by three or more persons from three or more families. In such cases of homes in multiple occupation (HMOs), local authorities are responsible for licensing and inspecting the homes under the licensing regime and for applying appropriate conditions to an HMO licence to ensure that the property is suitable for the number and type of persons intending to occupy it. Unless the HMO is exempt, it is a criminal offence for the owner of an HMO to operate without a licence, or to breach any HMO licence condition.

Local authorities are responsible for managing issues of overcrowding in the private rented sector. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 gives local authorities powers to licence Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMO). Local authorities are responsible for licensing and inspecting the homes under the licensing regime and for applying appropriate conditions to an HMO licence to ensure that the property is suitable for the number and type of persons intending to occupy it. Unless the HMO is exempt, it is a criminal offence for the owner of an HMO to operate without a licence, or to breach any HMO licence condition.

The Scottish Government intends to bring forward provisions at Stage 2 of the Housing Bill 2013 for additional discretionary powers for local authorities. Under these provisions, a local authority would be required to apply to the Scottish Ministers for an enhanced enforcement area designation. This would provide additional enforcement powers for a specified geographic area characterised by poor private rented housing conditions. It is intended that these additional powers would be for a specified time, and would include powers of entry to, and inspection of, private rented properties for the purposes of checking that statutory housing standards are being met.

The Scottish Government has committed to provide investment of £200 million per annum to improve the energy efficiency of housing, tackle fuel poverty and reduce emissions through the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS), which in 2013-14 combines £74 million Scottish Government funding with an estimated £120 million energy company funding through the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO). Once final spend for the first year is known (after September 2014), and taking account of UK Government’s recently announced plans following their review of social and environmental programmes, we will publish a detailed breakdown of funding provided by energy companies and Scottish Government. We intend to publish these statistics annually.

The Scottish Government published its second Report on Proposals and Policies (RPP2), Low Carbon Scotland, meeting the emissions reduction targets 2013-2027, in June 2013. The report provides the current estimated costs for full delivery of the measures to address climate change emissions contained within it and describes a number of policies which engage private investment and partnership across a range of areas. The financial costs of the measures set out in RPP2 will fall across government, business and consumers. The appropriate balance of spend between the public and private sector will be determined by how much public money is needed to support delivery and encourage private investment in the measures. The next Report on Proposals and Policies (RPP3) will cover the emissions targets for 2028-2032 and is planned for publication in 2016. The report will contain an assessment of the progress towards implementing the measures set out in the second RPP.

It is not possible to determine the total number of adults with epispadias in Scotland from centrally held statistics.

There were 11 adults admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of epispadias in NHS Scotland in the five years from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2013. Figures cannot be provided by NHS board due to the small number of patients involved.

The condition is managed as part of the UK Bladder Exstrophy service. Locally identified cases are sent to a designated receiving centre in England, for surgery: these are in Manchester or Great Ormond Street London. This is a shared care model, with on-going support services for people with this condition a local issue in each case.