The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thank you for that. I will bring in Iain Morris.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
Can we get Chris Goodier’s audio on? He is waiting for his mic to go on.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
Stephen Booth wanted to come in on the previous question, Marie, so I will bring him in before people answer your next one.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
Do you not want to cover anything about risk?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thanks very much, cabinet secretary. It is good to hear that we will get more details of the picture beyond the learning estate, which you said will be available in October.
As you are aware, a number of things came up with the previous panel. I am interested to hear your response to a few things that were mentioned. We heard from West Lothian Council that it has calculated that it will cost about £2,500 per square metre to take remedial actions, and I hope that I am right to say that it said those actions would come to a total cost of £53 million. During this morning’s conversation, the fact that the 16 identified local authorities have not set aside funds to cover those costs was discussed, so there is a question about where the funds for that would come from. Could the Scottish Government provide support for that?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
We heard from Ailsa Macfarlane that Denmark does it. Does anywhere else do it?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
On our second and final panel this morning, we are joined in the room by Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice; and by Sam Anson, the deputy director of workforce, infrastructure and digital, and Stephen Garvin, head of building standards—both from the Scottish Government. I welcome our witnesses to the meeting. We were due to be joined by representatives from COSLA this morning, but it was not able to field anyone because of illness.
I invite Ms Somerville to make a short opening statement.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thanks very much. We turn to questions from members. Usually, a member will direct their question to somebody in the room or online, initially. If you want to respond to a question or to something that someone else has said, those in the room should indicate that to me and those online should type R in the chat function. There is no need for those of you in the room or online to manually turn your microphone on and off; that will be done automatically.
This round-table session is intended to be a free-flowing conversation rather than a question and answer session. There are quite a lot of us, so do not feel that you have to respond to every question, but come in and add points as and when you feel that it is important that something be brought to light.
I will begin by asking a fairly general question, which I will direct to Chris Goodier to start the conversation. Given that the concerns about RAAC’s limited lifespan and the potential for catastrophic failure have been known about since the mid-1980s, why has it taken until now for significant action to be taken? Has remedial action been going on away from the media spotlight?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
I bring in Mark Griffin, who is joining us online.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 3 October 2023
Ariane Burgess
Another aspect that was raised with us was that the cost of some repairs might be so high that, under a best-value assessment, a council might decide that it is not worth replacing a roof because a new building could be built for that amount. What are your thoughts on that?
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