Seòmar agus comataidhean

It is very helpful to hear that those groups are almost involved in co-designing policy. Does the group that meets quarterly have a name?

It is nice to hear a Scots word like “clart”.

I thank the witnesses for coming this morning. It is great to hear that Scotland has TB-free status. Clearly, you are working to protect cattle farmers with this Scottish statutory instrument. It was also good to hear that you are focusing on the biosecurity aspect and that we are getting away from the single-disease approach and working on the whole system.

One of the reasons why we asked to have this evidence session was the engagement process. In your previous answers, you touched on the fact that NFUS was one of the respondents to the consultation and that it represents 60 per cent of the cattle keepers and 90 per cent of the cattle in Scotland. So, even though the number of responses was low, the respondents represent a great deal of the people who work with cattle. We would like to hear a little more about the engagement process and how you will keep that relationship going afterwards.

Okay. Great.

I am going to stick with that area of discussion. Helen, you said that 75 per cent of housing stock meets the Scottish housing quality standard. We understand that some landlords’ stock is consistently below average and we would be interested to hear what action you would take on that.

It is also very good to hear that you are proactively getting out and talking to all local authorities and really understanding that housing issues are different in different parts of Scotland, because of climate, geography and countless other things. Having you in this role is a tremendous thing.

Good morning, and welcome to the 14th meeting in 2023 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.

We have received apologies from Mark Griffin for today’s meeting. I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off.

The first item on our agenda is a decision on whether to take item 3 in private. Are members agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

The next item is to take evidence on damp and mould in social and private rented housing from two panels of witnesses. On panel 1, we are joined by Rosemary Agnew, who is the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman; Callum Chomczuk, who is the national director of the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland; Nicola Harcus, who is the assistant director of regulation for the Scottish Housing Regulator; and Helen Shaw, who is the director of regulation for the SHR. I welcome our witnesses to the meeting.

I will begin. This question is for everybody, but witnesses do not need to respond to everything, and we have some questions that relate to your specific areas of work. I am interested to get your sense of the scale of the problem of dampness and mould in rented housing. For example, is it more prevalent in a particular house type or geographical area? Could data on that issue be improved? I will start with Callum Chomczuk.

You mentioned the Scottish housing quality standard and the Scottish social housing charter. I would be interested to know whether you are considering any more specific monitoring of the prevalence of damp and mould in social housing. Do you think that we should be doing that?

That was a spontaneous question that arose from what Callum said earlier. Would anyone else like to comment? You are welcome to do so, but you do not have to.

As no one has anything to add, I thank our witnesses. It has been really helpful to hear your evidence and to get your perspective, given your expertise in the area.

I will suspend the meeting briefly to allow a changeover of witnesses.

I can imagine that, in your new role, you are trying to get that understanding of what is really going on and to take that nuanced approach.

The committee has heard that the cost of living crisis can cause or exacerbate dampness problems, because tenants cannot always afford to put their heating on. The SFHA welcomed the fuel insecurity fund, but suggested that it could be moved on to a long-term footing to help social landlords to plan. What more can the Scottish Government do to help tenants with the cost of living crisis and their energy costs?