The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
The Official Report search offers lots of different ways to find the information you’re looking for. The search is used as a professional tool by researchers and third-party organisations. It is also used by members of the public who may have less parliamentary awareness. This means it needs to provide the ability to run complex searches, and the ability to browse reports or perform a simple keyword search.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
Depending on the kind of search you want to do, one of these views will be the best option. The default view is to show the report for each meeting of Parliament or a committee. For a simple keyword search, the results will be shown by item of business.
When you choose to search by a particular MSP, the results returned will show each spoken contribution in Parliament or a committee, ordered by date with the most recent contributions first. This will usually return a lot of results, but you can refine your search by keyword, date and/or by meeting (committee or Chamber business).
We’ve chosen to display the entirety of each MSP’s contribution in the search results. This is intended to reduce the number of times that users need to click into an actual report to get the information that they’re looking for, but in some cases it can lead to very short contributions (“Yes.”) or very long ones (Ministerial statements, for example.) We’ll keep this under review and get feedback from users on whether this approach best meets their needs.
There are two types of keyword search:
If you select an MSP’s name from the dropdown menu, and add a phrase in quotation marks to the keyword field, then the search will return only examples of when the MSP said those exact words. You can further refine this search by adding a date range or selecting a particular committee or Meeting of the Parliament.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
There are two ways of searching by date.
You can either use the Start date and End date options to run a search across a particular date range. For example, you may know that a particular subject was discussed at some point in the last few weeks and choose a date range to reflect that.
Alternatively, you can use one of the pre-defined date ranges under “Select a time period”. These are:
If you search by an individual session, the list of MSPs and committees will automatically update to show only the MSPs and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of MSPs and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of MSPs and committees will update to show the information that was current at that time.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 1359 contributions
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
The action plan has to address all those issues. The key stakeholders have been clear and have been informing the development of the plan by raising the issues that you have just articulated and others and setting out what needs to be done. It is about trying to reduce as much as possible the timelines that I talked about earlier when it comes to getting projects from inception through to having spades in the ground, and it is about the capacity to provide support for local communities—and the myriad other issues that we know the plan needs to resolve.
Having said that, it is reassuring that we are seeing more affordable homes coming through in rural and island communities. The 25 per cent increase that was delivered in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21 is cause for optimism that things are improving, although that comes with all the caveats about peaks and troughs. The plan will absolutely help to keep the momentum going. It is important that we listen to organisations such as Community Land Scotland and make sure that the plan addresses the issues that they raise.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
Given the backdrop of all the pressures that we heard about from labour costs and supply costs, I am quite comfortable with the figures. For a while, when I saw Brexit, Covid and global factors all pressing on costs for projects, I worried about whether projects would continue to come in under benchmark, to be honest. That half are still under benchmark—although there is a bit of geographical variation in the figures—is perhaps a better position than I might have envisaged, given all the pressures. We need to keep an eye on things, but that is not a bad position to be in at this moment. What is crucial is that we still have the flow of projects to keep momentum going on the programme.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
As you said, the issue was quite contentious—local authorities strongly said one thing and RSLs strongly said another thing. The revised benchmarks struck the right balance, because they represented a significant closing of the gap between the council and RSL baseline benchmarks. As you pointed out, the differential exists because of the difference between the borrowing opportunities that are still open to councils and those for RSLs when delivering the programme, which it would be wrong not to recognise.
That is where we landed, on getting the balance. We acknowledged that there was an argument for closing the gap but said that there should still be a differential, given the borrowing position. Given the continued pressures on the social rented sector and RSLs, that was probably the right decision, but we will keep that under review and continue to listen to all representations. I am comfortable with where we are.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
Whether it is capital moneys or resource moneys, the Scottish budget is constantly under pressure—and increasingly so. However, the affordable housing supply programme is a key priority for capital spend for the Scottish Government, so I am therefore confident about its position in any capital spending review.
That said, we have to be innovative and look at other ways of growing the pot. I have just rehearsed some of that. We need to get the biggest bang for the bucks. The pressures that we have talked about over the past hour or so can all reduce the value of what we get for that £3.6 billion, of what is raised by RSLs and of local authority contributions. It all shrinks as costs go up, so we have to be front-footed and look at what other finance we might be able to lever in to take account of that. We can perhaps use some of the innovative thinking to deal with the troughs.
I am happy to keep the committee updated on the work of the finance group, as we go forward.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
We are trying to get the right expertise round the table to look at what else we might do in that space.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
As I have said, it is borne out of the strategic housing plans from local authorities and consultations with local authorities and registered social landlords. The target must be ambitious and it must be deliverable. There is no point in our plucking a target out of thin air that is not deliverable. We have had calls to go further, but whatever we do must be deliverable. The 110,000 target, of which 10 per cent will be rural housing, is stretching, not least in the current climate of cost pressures.
It is important that we have a stretching target. Our target is fit for purpose, but we must keep it under review. The midpoint will be important in assessing the progress towards the target.
I should also say that the target is not one that will be met by breaking it down into individual years, with the same number of homes being delivered each year. The challenges and the costs will change so the target will be met in peaks and troughs as we moved towards 2032. The midpoint is important in letting us see what progress is being made and whether there need to be changes at that point.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
It was important for fairness that the approach should apply to both the private and social rented sectors, because it will set the framework for anything that happens after March. We are looking at six months in this context, but we are putting in the levers for what might happen beyond those six months.
It is important that the social rented sector looks at what it can do to support tenants—as it has already done and will continue to do. Every time that I have had a meeting with the social rented sector, whether that was with individual RSLs or the SFHA, I have been struck by people’s absolute determination to support their tenants. They do that by minimising rent increases, making sure that tenants are aware of and supported through any rent arrears that they have, and avoiding eviction, which is very much a last resort. The social rented sector is doing all that and will continue to do it, and that is important.
10:00Of course, Government has taken other action to support the sector and tenants directly through increased support through discretionary housing payments and the ability to consider not just rent arrears but support for energy costs through that mechanism. There is also the tenant grant fund, which we are pivoting towards dealing with the cost of living, and we will keep that under review in the emergency budget review. We are considering how we can support tenants to avoid rent arrears and to tackle rent arrears when they arise. That is not the only action that we are taking—there are many other supports as well.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
Brexit, alongside a number of other issues, is having an impact. It has had a direct impact on labour supply and on materials at a time when such issues are being exacerbated, as we are aware, by global supply issues, such as the war in Ukraine, and Covid. All of those things have created a very difficult environment.
09:45We have been working with the construction sector. Ivan McKee has been leading work around support for the construction sector. Those factors are global factors and it is very difficult for the Scottish Government to resolve them ourselves, but we can look at, for example, the development of local supply chains. We can consider the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises in Scotland in how we create more local supply chains. That will not happen overnight, but it is important that we look to do that in order to have more stability in the system. If we can get that stability and resilience in those local supply chains, the system will not be as buffeted in the future. That comes back to looking at local timber supplies, off-site construction—all the things that can perhaps help us to be less reliant on global factors.
It is a really challenging time for the construction sector. Having said that, projects are still coming in. On the costs of those projects, around half are coming in under benchmark and half are coming in over benchmark. The good news is that projects are still coming in and they are still being approved. That means that we are still getting shovels in the ground, to help towards that affordable housing supply programme target.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
I will bring Alastair Dee back in.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 27 September 2022
Shona Robison
Covid had a big impact, in that it paused construction. We have also talked about issues including Brexit. Those things led to a drop in building, then there was an increase, again. There are peaks and troughs. As we go forward to 2032, external factors will continue to have an impact. The announcements last Friday, the shock to the markets, the increase in interest rates and so on will have other impacts, but we will not see the figures on that for another year.
The peaks and troughs are why I talked about the midpoint of the review to 2032, to take stock of where we have got to and of whether there is a need to back-end any catch-up that might be required, should we have such impacts.
I have forgotten the other bit of your question.