Seòmar agus comataidhean

I welcome the new panel.

My questions arise from the evidence that we heard from the last panel and relate directly to local government. One of the panel said that, should MCC appeals be disallowed, we may need to revisit the reliefs and support offered to businesses at the height of the pandemic.

My questions are about the knock-on effect on local government workforce pressures, which we know have been huge over the past couple of years. Would it be an issue if we had to revisit the reliefs and support that we have already given out, and should workload pressures form part of the decision-making process that we are undertaking?

Thank you. I should declare an interest, as I am a serving councillor on East Ayrshire Council and a former member of a valuation joint board.

My first question is for Pete Wildman and Alastair Kirkwood, to get the assessors’ perspective. Would additional resources be required to process the appeals? What impact would there be on other areas of work? We know that other appeals are being dealt with and that there is work on the next revaluation.

I also want to ask Martin Clarkson, David Magor and others who come at this from the property perspective whether workload should be a valid consideration when it comes to deciding whether to allow the appeals that we are talking about.

Thank you. Does Alastair Kirkwood have any further perspective on that point?

I ask Gordon MacRae for his opinion on that, as women will have come to Shelter for advice on homelessness through domestic abuse.

Thank you for the invitation to attend as a representative of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.

I worked closely with some of the witnesses during the pandemic when I was the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities lead spokesperson on housing. I thank them for their hard work.

As I listened to Gordon MacRae and Lorraine McGrath, I was struck by the fact that it was a collective endeavour. My grave concern is that we will start to slip back on that true multi-agency working and the step change that we saw in removing those institutional barriers. I am concerned to have heard Lorraine McGrath say that some bureaucracy is starting to creep back in.

Are we likely to see an increase in homeless presentations with the changes that are coming down the line, such as the end of the furlough scheme and the end of the longer notice periods in the private rented sector? How can we ensure that bureaucracy does not creep back in so that we do not again start to see bad results for people presenting as homeless to councils?

That question is for Maggie Brünjes and Gordon MacRae.

Actually, it is more of a comment just to wind up this section of questions.

I think that we need to put down a marker with regard to the policy implementation gap and fully recognise that situation. After all, as Gordon MacRae and others have said, we have world-leading legislation, rights and responsibilities in Scotland. In that respect, the cross-committee work will be truly important because, thinking of the work of my own Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, I suggest that the housing system as a whole has to come together if we are to have the supply of houses with which to respond to any increase in homelessness or, indeed, the level of homelessness that we have at the moment. That will be fundamental, but I think that national planning framework 4 will be vital, too, so we have to get that right.

I am just putting a marker down with you and the committee, convener, to ensure that we carry out that cross-committee work.

Having worked closely with the Chartered Institute of Housing and Scottish Women’s Aid on their report “Improving housing outcomes for women and children experiencing domestic abuse”, we are now waiting for implementation groups to be created. In light of the gold standard domestic abuse laws that we have, does Scottish Government policy use a sufficiently gendered approach to, and analysis of, homelessness response and prevention? Do we need to revisit some of it?

Deputy First Minister, you will be aware of the recently published international review that was conducted by the local governance review team. Quebec, where I grew up, is the location of one of the case studies. Despite the gradual growth in municipal powers over the past decade, with nearly all local budgets being raised through local taxation, there has not yet been a significant increase in citizen participation. Which countries and examples from the review are getting the relationships and resource allocations between the different spheres of government right?

Has anyone else put an R in the chat box, convener?

As we have just heard from the COSLA president, functional empowerment is a key aspect of the local governance review. Considering that efficient government is within your remit, is it a Scottish Government commitment to have more regional and collaborative approaches to service delivery?