Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, and welcome to the 21st meeting in 2024 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I welcome Emma Roddick to her first meeting of the committee. Emma joins us remotely today.

I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are on silent.

The first item on our agenda is an invitation to Emma Roddick to declare any relevant interests.

Thank you very much for that. I will now bring in Willie Coffey with questions on joint tenancies.

Thank you for that overview. I will go to James Calder and then Gerry Tierney, who is online, as online witnesses often get forgotten about. I will then come back to Jon Turner and Kate Thompson.

James, what is your organisation’s sense of the bill’s approach?

I have a supplementary question. You said that a bit more time needs to be taken to look at the equalities impact. What do you think that the Government needs to do in that area?

I will keep going, but I might come back to Lucy Hughes. Gerry Tierney, do you want to give us a sense of the extent to which the bill delivers the aims of providing a safe, secure and affordable place? As the issue of equalities has come up and that is the focus of this evidence session, please bring those points in as well.

The final theme is mobile homes. I will direct my question to James Calder and Kate Thompson, because they mentioned mobile home provisions in their written responses. The bill proposes to change the method by which mobile home pitch fees are presumed to be increased from being based on the retail prices index to being based on the consumer prices index. Why do you support that proposal?

Is that everything, Emma?

Great—thanks. I also thank you for enabling the appearance of a pet at our meeting. I notice that you have one behind you.

Thanks very much for that. James, do you have anything to add?

Thanks for that. Craig McGuffie, you have indicated that you want to come in.