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We still have that target, but, as the Deputy First Minister said when she appeared before the committee, it is at risk. We have arranged a review to ensure that that is looked at. The review is not a review of the target, but of how we can deliver it. It goes much wider than capital budget challenges—although we have those challenges—and considers the impacts on workforce, construction inflation and increased mortgage costs. The review will look at deliverability.

A great deal of work is going on to ensure that we are looking at more innovative finance measures and at boosting investment from the private sector, for example. We want to do everything that we can to bring in further investment not just from the Scottish Government but from elsewhere. There is a continued focus on deliverability to ensure that we are doing everything that we can with the budgets that we are given.

With the greatest respect, Mr Balfour, if the UK Government is slashing the level of financial transactions that we have—which has been one of the key ways in which we have been able to deliver affordable housing—and we are also seeing a real-terms capital budget decrease of 10 per cent over five years, where will that money come from?

If the member is disappointed by the figures for housing, I suggest that there is a genuine challenge when the capital expenditure budget from the UK Government is falling off a cliff. Difficult decisions have had to be made, and the Deputy First Minister has said that affordable housing will be prioritised in the budget should further capital money be found or made available to the Scottish Government. However, with a decreasing budget, increasing construction inflation and the workforce challenges caused by Brexit, there will inevitably be implications for the number of capital programmes that the Scottish Government can undertake.

As we have gone through the budget, we have looked at a number of aspects in terms of their impact on different groups. For example, in its entirety, the cutting of the financial transactions of the Scottish Government by 58 per cent just for next year inevitably has an impact on how much we can do. We look at the topic in the round. It is not about just equality impact assessments; it is about our wider budget and the decisions that are made across different portfolios.

I appreciate that the JRF and others have given their critiques, but our budget decisions are based on fiscal sustainability, legal requirements, contractual obligations and previous commitments, as well as a range of social, economic, political and environmental issues. Those factors sit alongside aspects that involve equality impact assessments. I am happy to provide the committee with information on the analysis that we do to ensure that we deliver the budget in the best possible way.

There is always analysis of impacts on budgets.

We are making good progress on that. Clearly, it is still a bit of a moving feast, given that we are still in the financial year 2023-24, but I have a high degree of confidence that that £60 million will be spent on acquisitions.

I am happy to provide the committee with further detail at the end of the financial year about how the acquisitions plan is going, but that is not an area of concern for us at the moment. I can assure you that the money for the national acquisitions plan is being spent as it was directed to be spent.

We absolutely will involve stakeholders in that work. The Government will undertake a review, but it will be done in partnership with stakeholders.

There is much concern about how the Home Office’s streamlined asylum process is pushing people into destitution and rough sleeping. That is greatly concerning for Glasgow.

We have long called for the Home Office to improve the speed and quality of asylum decisions, but the challenge here is the recent change of pace and the lack of support and co-ordination to accompany that. The Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees wrote to the UK Government in October to request funding to support local authorities to manage that pressure. The reply received from the UK Government confirmed that it will not provide additional funding to support local authorities impacted by the increase in asylum support cessations. That is exceptionally disappointing, given that we still firmly believe that the UK Government must recognise the impact of the streamlined asylum process, and other policy decisions, on local authorities.

Shifting the burden on to local authorities and putting newly recognised refugees at the risk of destitution is an unacceptable consequence of the change in Home Office policy, and we will continue working with local authorities to put pressure on the UK Government to recognise the implications of its policies and to fairly support local authorities during the transition process.

We continue to recognise the important work that is being undertaken to support Ukrainian refugees, and the Scottish Government remains committed to working with our local authorities on that. In 2023-24, we invested £3.2 million in local authority resettlement teams, building on the investment that we made in 2022-23. Funding of £30 million has been made available to local authorities in 2023-24 to support Ukrainians into longer-term housing and to prevent homelessness.

Funding also comes from the UK Government. We continue to press the UK Government to ensure that any funding decisions that it makes also mean a fair settlement for Scottish local authorities. We are concerned about some of the recent announcements from the UK Government on supporting our local authorities, and we continue to work with our Welsh counterparts to encourage a fairer settlement.

We will continue to support local authorities next year. There is a difference in the budget for that, because the number of Ukrainians in welcome accommodation has been decreasing and will continue to decrease as we move people out of welcome accommodation and into more settled accommodation. The budget and its profile will change over time as the number of Ukrainians in welcome accommodation changes.

For the sake of brevity, I will say that there is continuing revenue and capital support for local authorities to help Ukrainian refugees. I am happy to provide in writing both that information and information about some of the challenges caused by the decreasing level of support from the UK Government for our local authority partners.

For the sake of time, I will move on to the third sector. The First Minister reiterated our commitment to fairer funding at the Gathering last year, and we are determined to pursue those commitments during the budget process. We are still going through that process, but we remain committed to the aspects that the First Minister discussed at the Gathering, which include further work on multiyear grant awards.

We need to communicate to third sector organisations their levels of grant funding as soon as is practically possible, and before the end of March. We are working on the commitments that the First Minister made as the budget process continues.

We will certainly be able to provide the committee with information on how we have made progress on that, yes.