Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you, everybody. We have reached the end of our time. I hope that you were able to convey to us everything that you wanted to convey.

I suspend the meeting for five minutes to allow for a change of witnesses.

Thanks for that.

I will go into some detail about the rent freeze. One concern that came up with the earlier panel was the fact that rents can increase between tenancies. The bill does not affect rent increases between tenancies. I would be interested to hear your thinking about that. How do we protect tenants who might need to move between tenancies? That might affect students, but it applies to other situations too.

We agreed at the start of the meeting to take the final two items on our agenda in private. As we have no more public business today, I close the public part of the meeting.

John Kerr and John Blackwood want to come in and then we will need to move on.

Thanks for that. It is very interesting to hear about those consultation responses. When you have been at this committee before, you have talked about the three issues of building new supply, better fitting, and keeping the rents affordable. Given that challenge, I am interested in hearing from you about any new proposals that you would like to see being introduced or about ones that you are introducing yourself to tackle this situation.

Good morning, and welcome to the 24th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. Members should note that the convener of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, Elena Whitham MSP, is joining us for both of our substantive evidence sessions in this meeting. I welcome her to the meeting.

I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

We have received apologies from Annie Wells.

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

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 2 is evidence taking on emergency legislation on a rent freeze and evictions moratorium.

We have two panels this morning, with some of the first panel participating remotely. Joining us in the room are Caroline Cawley, member, and Emma Saunders, national organiser, Living Rent; Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns, Propertymark; and Rhiannon Sims, senior policy officer, Crisis. Joining us online are John Blackwood, chief executive, Scottish Association of Landlords; Aaron Hill, director of policy and membership, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations; and John Kerr, vice chair, Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers. I welcome everyone to the meeting. I should say that once we have concluded taking evidence from this panel, we will hear from Patrick Harvie, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights.

Before we move to questions from the committee, I want to make it clear that the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill was published only last night. As Parliament has agreed to all three stages of the bill being taken before Thursday, there is no formal role for this committee in its scrutiny. However, the committee previously agreed that it would be helpful to explore issues arising from the bill with stakeholders and the minister to help inform scrutiny of the bill in the chamber over the coming days. Given the timings, there is no expectation that witnesses will be fully up to speed with the specific content of the bill.

To ensure that everyone understands the process, I should say that members will have an allocated amount of time for their questions. We try to direct questions to witnesses, and we do not necessarily expect everyone to answer every single question. If you wish to respond to a question that has been directed to someone else, please indicate as much to me or to Euan Donald, the clerk, or, if you are on BlueJeans, put an R in the chat function.

We move to questions. The current cost crisis has required the Scottish Government to take legislative action to protect tenants, but do you think that it is a proportionate response that balances the rights of tenants and landlords? I will begin with Aaron Hill.

I really appreciate that you are doing that work. It sounds like net zero is an inherent part of the mix, which is great.

You will be aware of the £5 million islands bond fund, which the Scottish Government has decided not to progress. We have already chatted about the cluttered landscape of funding, but I am interested in hearing what you think would be the best way to repurpose that money.