Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thanks for that question, Willie. You have picked up on something that I was beginning to think about, which goes wider than the charter. There is certainly an opportunity with the Government looking at building 110,000 new houses, 70 per cent of which will be social housing. There is the parallel process that should influence that through the national planning framework, and we are talking about 20-minute neighbourhoods. It seems to me that social housing has an opportunity to influence, affect and shape those 20-minute neighbourhoods if we are talking about building that amount of housing. It is good to hear that you recognise that, although I understand that we are trying here to create a document that is accessible for tenants’ direct needs. At the moment, it is a matter of having homes where tenants feel safe and where they can get their immediate needs met.

Under item 4, the committee will consider a legislative consent memorandum on the United Kingdom Building Safety Bill. Members have received copies of the LCM along with a letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee’s report on the LCM was circulated to members as a late paper on Friday.

The Scottish Government considers it appropriate for the Parliament to consent to the LCM, and the cabinet secretary’s letter states that stakeholders are also supportive of a UK-wide approach. We therefore agreed in a previous meeting that there would be very limited value in taking evidence on the LCM, but we are still required to report our views to the Parliament on whether we recommend that it should be approved. Do members have any comments on the LCM and on whether we are content to recommend its approval?

Everyone is content. The clerks will arrange for a short report that sets out our recommendation to the Parliament to be published in the coming days.

At the start of the meeting, we agreed to take item 5 in private. As we have no more public business today, I close the public part of the meeting.

Willie Coffey joins us on BlueJeans.

We have come to the end our questions. I thank the minister and his officials for their evidence. I look forward to seeing you again next week, when we will consider the motion on the social housing charter.

Item 3 is consideration of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 (Remuneration) Amendment Regulations 2022. As that is a negative instrument, there is no requirement for the committee to make any recommendations on it.

As no member wishes to comment on the instrument, does the committee agree that it does not wish to make any recommendations in relation to it?

Members indicated agreement.

Good morning, and welcome to the seventh meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I remind everyone to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

Agenda item 1 is a decision on whether to take item 5, which is consideration of the evidence that we have taken on the Scottish social housing charter, in private. Do we agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Under item 2, we will take evidence on the Scottish social housing charter from the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights. Mr Harvie is joined by the Scottish Government officials Michael Boal, from social housing charter and regulation, and Anne Cook, who is head of social housing services. I welcome Mr Harvie and his officials.

The committee has received copies of the updated charter with changes from the previous iteration in 2017 shown in red. A Scottish Government briefing, a letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, and written submissions from Living Rent and the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers were also included in the meeting pack.

Members should note that we will be invited to consider the Scottish Government’s motion on the charter at next week’s meeting, which Mr Harvie will also attend. I intend to allow up to around 90 minutes for this session. Before I open to questions from the committee, I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

Thank you for those responses. I move to questions from Mark Griffin.

For the awareness of all, the committee will have the SHR in soon, on 22 March.

It is coming through clearly that a number of pieces of work around housing are being progressed over this parliamentary session. The charter is one piece, the new deal for tenants is another and there are lots of others. All those bits will, I hope, work together to make housing better for people in general.

I will bring in Miles Briggs with some questions.