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My other question is around planning. A question came up in the previous panel around the fact that developers might get planning permission but do not move forward with housing development. It might have been Ken Gibb who responded that some kind of proportional property tax for land with planning permission would be good for moving such housing development forward. Do you face that kind of issue in your areas? One of the threads that came through in the earlier session was that planning was a problem, but maybe there is an aspect of planning where permission has been granted but housing development is not moving forward. What is it like in your areas?

That is great. I think that we will have some questions later about defining the housing emergency, so I will let colleagues come in on that.

Christian Hilber noted the percentage of the population in Scotland that is not in permanent housing, with reference to the Financial Times report, and used the word “shocking”. That is one aspect. Does Ken Gibb or Chris Birt have anything to add on how Scotland’s position compares with that of the rest of the UK?

That is a really great point. Those things are not silly—they are the things that we need to understand. Sometimes why things are not happening is a bit of mystery. That is certainly a very good point.

Willie Coffey, I hope that your toes do not feel too stepped on. I will bring you in on these questions and you can ask them of other witnesses.

In the spring of 2024, we had a useful session on rural housing—folks watching online can refer to that. Chris Birt’s point about SME builders was raised in that session. We heard that, after the financial crash of 2008, SME construction companies that were responsible for building a lot of rural housing found that the bottom fell out of the market. I cannot remember the exact words that were used earlier, but I think that Ken Gibb talked about the land supply issue as being something that could incentivise SMEs to come forward and get established in those areas. There has also been discussion around issues such as ways of thinking about building at scale, because there are two-house developments dotted around the north-west coast of Sutherland, and there can be action to collectively buy the materials for all of them, which keeps those costs down. There are some good solutions out there, and we definitely need to persist with them.

That brings us to the end of our questions—except for one that I have just been reminded of.

The Scottish Government has a proposal for a new national outcome on housing—there has not previously been one on housing in the national performance framework. The outcome would be:

“We live in safe, high-quality and affordable homes that meet our needs”.

I am interested in our witnesses’ views on that proposed new outcome. Could it help the Scottish Government to guide its policies to address the housing emergency?

Does anyone else want to share any thoughts? You do not have to.

It is helpful to understand that it is a nuanced approach, depending on the circumstances.

Stephen, what is going on in North Lanarkshire?

That is very helpful. Thank you.

Thanks very much for those responses. You touched on some of the areas that I want to talk about and on the work that you are doing. Stephen Llewellyn, you say that you are maybe teetering on the edge of declaring an emergency, so perhaps this question is more for Blair Millar and Edward Thomas. Do you want to say any more about any work that you have been doing that has prevented the need to declare a housing emergency? Edward, how is it going in Moray?

Just to clarify, that is a forum that a tradesperson who goes into a house and sees something could—

Thank you. I am a bit curious about “appropriateness”. Stephen Llewellyn, can you unpack that a bit so that the committee can understand it?