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We monitor that regularly. That is really important, because we cannot just move the problem from one place to another—that would be pointless.

I am responding to that, in terms of what we need to do, and as part of my observations. There is the impact of Brexit and construction inflation. Anecdotally, construction inflation was around 20 to 25 per cent. Nobody estimated that, and we did not have it at the time that the target was set. The cost of living crisis hit us in that regard, too.

We set a target, but things change and there are external pressures—nobody can deny that that is the case. As I have said, there was construction inflation, and we had to increase our benchmarks. Ultimately, the funding that we have to produce as many homes as possible was impacted on. If construction inflation goes up by 20 to 25 per cent, that has an impact on what we can deliver. We set targets, but there are external matters, too. Obviously, in the review, we are discussing what impact they had.

It is a nuanced approach, but we all have to take into consideration what has happened in the past years with construction inflation and the impact of Brexit. The impact of Brexit has been devastating. One of the key things in the construction trade, for example, was the shortage of labour, which was caused by construction workers having to leave. If you speak to any construction company, they will tell you that that is the case. That had an impact on delivery. It was not just about the cost of construction materials going up; labour costs went up, too, because of the impact of Brexit, which we could not have forecast at the time when the target was set.

There have been external matters, and we need to take those into consideration. What did they do? What can we do going forward? How can we maximise funding? That is why I set up the housing investment task force, which looks at how we get investment into Scotland. I would love to be able to go out and borrow on the markets for housing, but we cannot do that, because we do not have that ability. The housing investment task force was set up to consider what we do to maximise investment into Scotland.

Financial transactions are an important aspect in getting another £400 million, and we are looking at mid-market rent, charitable donations and so on. That is all in the review that is happening now.

Again, it comes back to previous promises in that regard that were made by that Government before it got into power. There needs to be a continuing discussion across Parliament on the issue, because the bedroom tax is unfair. It impacts on our ability to reduce homelessness quickly. There have been broader discussions between the Government and UK Government colleagues on the matter, and it could possibly be indicated as part of the spending review, but we will have to wait to see what comes out of that.

At this stage, the indications do not look good for the spending review. The UK Government has indicated that it is looking to make more spending cuts, which will put pressure on the Scottish Government and what it is expected to do. The spending review will, I hope, highlight opportunities to work more closely with the UK Government on reducing homelessness as soon as possible.

We will reach out and see whether there is any specific work that we can do with the council on that.

Yes, I think that it will be.

You will be aware that there are currently land reform discussions in the context of the bill that is going through the Parliament. That is important for how we maximise delivery across Scotland. The Homes England approach has been discussed previously. Our work on regional prioritisation is incredibly important. We have done work through the Edinburgh city region deal—we have talked about how we deliver for the strategic sites, which has included looking at infrastructure, how we deliver the finance and so on. A report has been produced on that. Engaging on a regional basis is important, and we can look to deliver more in that regard. Again, I come back to the housing challenge in the Highlands and the freeport opportunities—how do we maximise those opportunities? A regional approach is very much the best way to take that forward.

With regard to the broader discussions that Meghan Gallacher talked about, those are the sort of things that need to be discussed by the board, because the discussions need to include stakeholders—it is not just for the Government to decide how inclusive we are and how we take forward that particular point. Stakeholders would feed into that wider process, as well.

Each local authority will have empty homes, some of which will be voids, and they are part of the empty homes figures.

There are a couple of ways of thinking about that. A key focus is looking at the issue on a regional basis. That is really important. The focus on the five local authorities—Glasgow City Council, the City of Edinburgh Council, South Lanarkshire Council, Fife Council and West Lothian Council—is based on the evidence that we have. Those local authorities account for roughly 70 to 75 per cent of people, particularly children, in temporary accommodation. It is key that we think about the biggest impact that we can make in a short period.

The focus is on working with those five local authorities. Officials meet them weekly, and sometimes even daily, to talk about specific issues. That is key. Shelter raised the point about having a targeted approach, and it works very closely with local authorities on that basis.

Urgency is shown by working with those five local authorities. That does not discount the other local authorities, but there is clear evidence that those are the five local authorities that we need to focus on to try to bring down the figures.

I come back to my point about the quickest action that we can take to get properties back into use. That can be done through work on voids, acquisitions and empty homes. In Edinburgh, for example, we highlighted the work that was needed to reduce the number of voids. The council has managed to reduce that number by 500 over a short period, and it is looking to get it down to 650. A little more work is still needed, but it is making really good progress.

We are showing urgency by thinking about how we can make the biggest impact in the shortest period of time. That involved working with Shelter on the targeted approach that it wanted us to take.

In Glasgow, for example, the council is doing very well in reducing the number of empty homes. How do we learn lessons from that? It is important that we learn lessons from each local authority. How do we learn how Glasgow has reduced the number of empty homes? It has reduced the number by 50 per cent in a few years. What has it been doing? It has focused a lot of its efforts on compulsory purchases. How do we learn from what has happened with empty homes in Glasgow?

Our work is very much about how we can make the biggest impact most quickly. As I said, I meet Shelter to discuss such actions, and it was represented on the board last week.

Beyond that, we need to continue to build more houses at a quicker pace through the work on, for example, stalled sites and planning.

That was one of the key things that we discussed with stakeholders last week. You will be aware that, when the housing emergency was declared, there was a range of asks from a coalition of stakeholders that came forward. The issue was discussed last week and it will be discussed at another board meeting in—I think—March. There will be further discussion on that.

There is also how local authorities and other stakeholders see that question, and what our key performance indicators are. Work is on-going. We obviously want to get out of the housing emergency as soon as we possibly can, and discussions are on-going about what KPIs we need to have to make sure that we are moving out of the housing emergency.

That kind of approach has been mentioned by not only the Communities Housing Trust, but by Shetland Islands Council and Orkney Islands Council. I discussed it with Ronnie MacRae at the time. As you said, convener, he has now moved on from CHT.

The CHT was going to do a little bit more work on that and come back to us. I am happy to pick up on it. Lauren McNamara will come back on any discussions that have been held. Although there have been discussions, the Communities Housing Trust has not progressed the idea because, as you know, construction costs in rural communities can be up to 30 to 40 per cent more than they are in central Scotland. Work has been done and there is a cost pressures group where the Government can talk about that. You will know that construction inflation was really high 18 months ago, and that has not helped. We looked at the benchmarking and the idea is still under discussion. We can come back to the committee with more details.