Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has provided £1.4 million to the Scottish Refugee Council for the expansion of its Refugee Integration Service including qualified helpline advisers and caseworkers. People arriving from Ukraine will also be able to access help and support on an ongoing basis from local authority resettlement officers, and they will be able to raise accommodation concerns directly to their housing association or local authority provider.

A number of City Region Deals include elements of housing infrastructure that is required to unlock wider housing delivery and regional growth ambitions including a notional £20m joint allocation for Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils. It is the responsibility of Councils to bring forward eligible Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) projects to the Scottish Government for consideration. Progress has been slower than anticipated and to date no eligible HIF projects have been submitted by the Councils as part of the £20m indicative allocation referred to in the 2016 agreement. Given the long-term plans for City Deal delivery in the region, and that HIF is open for new applications, Scottish Government officials will remain engaged with both Councils to support them to apply for HIF support where suitable projects through the City Deal delivery plans are identified.

The Scottish Government has conducted extensive engagement and consultation involving a wide range of public, private and third sector organisations and individuals throughout its preparation of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), including three formal public consultation exercises.

Our Call for Ideas in 2020 attracted over 180 stakeholders to participate at our roadshow workshops, plus around 100 at drop in sessions and over 100 at events hosted by the Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland on our behalf. Separately, we received written responses to the Call for Ideas from nearly 350 consultees. 35 contributors also provided think piece articles, and we held a variety of sessions and meetings with a range of stakeholders including the Scottish Youth Parliament. The Scottish Government’s Position Statement consultation later in 2020 attracted around 250 written responses. We also undertook extensive collaborative work with local authorities to support their preparation of indicative Regional Spatial Strategies, which have formed the basis of the spatial strategy in the draft NPF4.

The recent Draft NPF4 consultation exercise attracted over 750 formal consultation responses, and we also encouraged participation in discussions with a broad range of stakeholders. Our engagement programme included open invitation discussions on policy themes and action areas with around 265 stakeholders participating. We held a roundtable discussion on equalities, and again worked with the Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland to deliver roundtable discussions where 45 people participated. We also worked with PAS who hosted events for community groups (over 50 participants) and with PlayScotland to gather perspectives from children and young people.

All engagement material, including consultation responses, event overviews and analysis of consultation responses in relation to both the Call for Ideas and the Position Statement are available at www.transformingplanning.scot. Materials for the Draft NPF4 consultation will be published in due course.

In 2019 we published our National Planning Framework 3 (NPF3) Monitoring Report which reflected on progress across the 30 key actions and 14 national developments. NPF3 was published in 2014 so was not monitored against the 6 outcomes which were introduced by the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019.

We will work with key stakeholders to ensure monitoring for NPF4 is proportionate and effective.

The Scottish Budget prevented a cliff edge return to full liability on 31 March 2022 for businesses in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors, by continuing relief at 50% for the first three months of 2022-23, capped at £27,500 per ratepayer. This follows 100% relief for retail, hospitality and leisure premises for the past two years without any cap, which has saved Scottish businesses around £1.6 billion. We were the only Government to offer the relief at 100%, uncapped in both 2020-21 and 2021-22, when businesses needed it most. We have no current plans to alter the relief already being delivered for 2022-23.

The Scottish Budget also delivered another below-inflation increase to the poundage, providing the lowest poundage in the UK for the fourth year in a row, and ensuring that over 95% of non-domestic properties continue to be liable for a lower property tax rate than anywhere else in the UK. We have further maintained a competitive package of reliefs worth an estimated £802 million, including the UK’s most generous Small Business Bonus Scheme which takes over 111,000 properties out of rates altogether.

We are currently reviewing the previous work done, including the draft policy development, the results from the formal consultation and the written reports of the round table events, and will look to commence stakeholder engagement after the local government elections.

The Scottish Government collects data relating to individual temporary accommodation placements (associated with homelessness applications) through the HL3 data collection. This includes information on whether or not placements have been in breach of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order (UAO).

Comprehensive HL3 data is available for all local authorities from 1 April 2017. The most recent data available is up to 30 September 2021.

Prior to 5 May 2020, a breach occurred when a household with a pregnant women and/or child was in unsuitable temporary accommodation for more than 7 days. From 5 May 2020, this was extended to all homeless households. Therefore, breaches data pre and post 5 May 2020 are not directly comparable.

Various temporary exceptions were introduced from May to September 2020 to allow local authorities to provide households with accommodation in response to COVID-19. These exceptions were still in place by September 2021. Where an exception applied, a breach did not have to be recorded.

As a result of uncertainty caused by the extension of the legislation falling at the same time as the introduction of the exceptions, there was increased scrutiny of the data. This uncovered inconsistency in the practice of reporting and recording breaches across local authorities, including prior to May 2020. Therefore, data on the number of breaches should be treated with caution.

Following identification of this inconsistent recording practice, the Scottish Government issued clarification to local authorities in January 2022. Clearer, more explicit HL3 guidance with worked examples is also being prepared to minimise different interpretations of the legislation and ensure consistent reporting.

The tables below provide the number of UAO breaches recorded in the HL3 return by local authority and by month from 1 April 2017, when comprehensive coverage began, to 30 September 2021.

Figures have been rounded to the nearest five for disclosure control purposes, with the except i on of zeroes – which are denoted by ‘.’ – and values of 1, 2 and 3 - which are denoted by ‘<4’.

The sum of the monthly totals may not match published quarterly figures due to rounding.

Only local authorities with at least one breach from April 2017 to September 2021 are included in the tables. If a local authority is not included, this is because they have no reported breaches over this period.

Number of temporary accommodation placements that have been in breach of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order, by local authority

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the cost to local authorities for housing homeless households in temporary accommodation. This information would need to be requested from each local authority directly.

Funding for local authorities is provided by way of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, including any funding to combat homelessness, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Scottish Government lawyers provide legal services and advice to the Scottish Government and its agencies only. As such, Ukrainian-speaking lawyers have not been specifically recruited in order to assist the resettlement process.

To support the settlement process of Ukrainian refugees, the Scottish Government has provided £36,000 to JustRight Scotland to provide free, confidential legal advice to Ukrainians and their family members seeking safety in Scotland. We have also provided £7 million to Local Authorities to meet longer term needs. In addition, we have provided £1.4 million to the Scottish Refugee Council for the expansion of its Refugee Integration Service.

Scottish Ministers have established a short-life Food Security and Supply Taskforce, together with industry. The Taskforce met for the first time on 18 March and again on 01 and 20 April. It will monitor, identify and respond to any current and potential disruption to the food and drink supply chain resulting from the impact of the current situation in Ukraine.

It is currently considering a range of issues and proposals submitted to it and will seek to recommend, any short, medium and longer-term actions that can be taken to mitigate impacts, resolve supply issues and strengthen food security and supply in Scotland. The taskforce will report in due course.