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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 26 April 2025
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Displaying 5056 contributions

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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

The committee previously agreed to take the next three items in private, so as that was the final public item on our agenda, I close the public part of the meeting.

12:16 Meeting continued in private until 13:00.  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Decision on Taking Business in Private

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

Good morning, and welcome to the seventh meeting in 2024 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are on silent and that notifications are switched off. Stephanie Callaghan MSP will be joining the meeting online.

Agenda item 1 is to decide whether to take items 4 and 5 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing to 2040

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

It is good to have you here. I apologise, I have missed Stephanie Callaghan. I will have to work hard to remember that she is there.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing to 2040

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

I want to go into that a little bit more. In last week’s meeting, we heard that the vision is good but the issue is that there was not a plan for delivering it. I would be concerned about going back to the starting point and creating yet another vision and another plan. Can you say more about where you think we need to begin, and whether there is something useful in the vision that we could act on?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing to 2040

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

Will you say a little more about the opportunities that you mentioned? You said that there was an opportunity to do a lot more and do it quicker if we join the dots. Will you be more specific about the dots that need to be joined? You mentioned policy, but what about what happens on the ground?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing to 2040

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

There is the 26 per cent cut, which is a problem. Obviously, it is important that more money goes into the housing budget to be able to do some of this work. What would you say has to be done, given that housing takes time to build? We have heard from Chris Stewart about the struggle to attract people into the sector to build or retrofit houses. What do you think should be the priority? What do we need to change policy wise? Is it the type of housing that we build? We are still trying to have affordable accessible housing with all kinds of features, but if we are in a homelessness emergency and need to get people housed, what do we need to prioritise?

10:15  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing to 2040

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

I call Pam Gosal to add her question to the conversation. I will then bring in Gordon MacRae, Rhiannon Sims and anyone else either to pick it up or to go back to other points, so that we have a bit of what I would call conversation weave.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing to 2040

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

Thanks for that. It is really important to go into that detail.

I want to pull the discussion back into more of a general space. Do you think that the Scottish Government is adequately balancing the need to address the short-term housing problems with longer-term policy aims? We have begun to touch on that question; indeed, we have already heard that that might not be the case. Somebody—Chris Birt, I think—talked about priorities, but where in the mix do the priorities need to change?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing to 2040

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

What would that look like?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing to 2040

Meeting date: 27 February 2024

Ariane Burgess

David Melhuish, you wanted to come in a while ago, as did Chris Birt and Emma Jackson. You might have forgotten the points that you wanted to make, but please come back in and scoop up anything else that has been added to the conversation.