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My colleague Miles Briggs also rightly highlighted the proposal to increase the minimum protected balance, and we have also heard calls for earnings arrestments to be more flexible and better co-ordinated. For example, no effort is made to assess an individual’s circumstances prior to earnings arrestment or to find out whether, for example, they have children. Will further reforms of the earnings arrestment process feature as a core part of this consultation?

We know that earnings arrestments are closely related to council tax debt, and I understand the difficulties associated with creditors knowing everything about an individual’s circumstances. If local authorities were to continue to outsource to debt collection agencies—and given that authorities know more about an individual’s details—would it make sense to put more of an onus on them to provide those details to a debt collection agency so that these arrangements could be worked out? Given your earlier comment that things work better when there is co-operation between councils and the debt collection agency, would it be better to put more of an onus on the local authority?

In relation to private debt, should lending companies, and specifically those that target people on low incomes, have a legal obligation to ensure that anyone they provide a loan to is, in the first place, in both a mentally fit state and a financial position from which it is likely that they will be able to repay any loan that is provided to them?

Absolutely. We have heard throughout the inquiry that public debt seems to be more of a problem and I know that we will come on to that later. We have rightly focused on that a lot in this inquiry, but there are some little things about the private side that I still have problems with. For example, we have talked before about some of the companies that are popping up that allow people to buy things and spread the payment over three amounts. People who are getting those loans are incurring minimum payment charges on them and are already in a great deal of debt as it is, so there is something to be done there. Somewhere along the line, the checks are not there.

Thank you for your comments, Mr Dennis. Convener, my questions on this theme are finished.

Good morning, minister. I am looking for clarification on where we are with the discussions that either you or your officials have had with your UK Government counterparts to resolve the concerns that we have highlighted in relation to the LCM. How far along are we? Has there been any progress?

Good morning. I thank the witnesses for their contributions so far. On the theme of rent arrears, the importance of early intervention has been highlighted throughout the inquiry. We have already discussed that this morning. How effective have the pre-action requirements that are in place to protect social and private tenants been in avoiding eviction action whenever possible?

In the evidence that you provided, you say that the average cost of an eviction of a family is £24,000 and that

“the total cost of social sector evictions in Scotland for the year 2019-20 was £27.8m.”

Given the financial cost to local authorities and the emotional stress that an eviction can cause a person or a family, eviction does not seem the best way to deal with rent arrears, especially given that somebody will go back into homeless accommodation and will then have to get rehoused—it is a horrible cycle.

What other options do councils have to deal with rent arrears? You have touched on this, but could any further improvements be made to the processes and procedures around the collection of rent arrears in general?

I will focus on international examples, some of which have already been touched on. Cabinet secretary, you referred earlier to Canada and Norway, which are dominated by hydroelectric plants and have the lowest electricity prices in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Other countries, such as Switzerland, Austria and Sweden, also rely on hydro, and consumers pay less in those countries. We have seen Governments across Europe roll out more generous packages of support for households.

We can see limitations through privatisation in network costs and the ability to cap prices. You have also touched on the public energy agency company. As you have already laid out, many of the levers are still reserved to the UK Government, but what lessons do you feel can be learnt from looking at other countries’ energy policies and how they compare with the UK’s response so far?

My question follows on from the previous responses. My colleague Fiona Hyslop touched on the written evidence from Historic Environment Scotland, which raises concerns about how NPF4’s new focus on sustainable development and the climate and nature emergencies

“relates to subsequent policies and whether any relative weighting applies”.

Should policies to address the climate and nature emergencies take precedence over other planning policies? I believe that Roger Curtis stated earlier that there has been some success with listed buildings. How could we best strike a balance between preserving historic urban environments and future proofing them for climate change? I will go to Roger Curtis, naturally, for that.

Absolutely. I will pass back to the convener.