The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 2095 contributions
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Willie Coffey
Have you gathered any evidence on the use of discretionary delays? Are there very few? What sort of numbers are we talking about in Scotland?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Willie Coffey
On the question of damages for unlawful evictions, there was a temporary measure in place that will be formalised in the bill. What evidence do we have to support formalising that now?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Willie Coffey
My last query is not really about evictions; it is about joint tenancies and the requirement to give two months’ notice to the other tenant. How did we arrive at the figure of two months and is it fair to potential tenants who may wish to come in and join the tenancy?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Willie Coffey
You have talked about the numbers in your case load. I think that you said that you were getting about 20 applications a year in 2019, then 44, then 96, and you are now taking 400 calls per month. Are you anticipating that your case load will go up because of the bill? If you are getting so many inquiries—up to 400—why are you not getting anywhere near that number of applications for adjudication? Are the inquiries being resolved over the phone?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Willie Coffey
Do you think that the bill will make that go even higher, and can you cope with that level of increased case load?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Willie Coffey
That is brilliant—thank you. Turning to evictions, the bill proposes to require the courts and tribunal to consider whether to delay an eviction, but we understand that that discretion is already there. Why does the bill introduce something that can already happen?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Willie Coffey
Is there no provision in the bill to try to address that particular issue? Thousands of people could be due a return on their deposit, but are simply not claiming it.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Willie Coffey
The bill does not propose any changes to the grounds for eviction. During the consultation on the new deal for tenants, we had some views from tenants about whether the grounds for eviction should be reviewed, modified, changed or otherwise, but I think that you have decided to keep them the same.
10:30Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Willie Coffey
Are we talking about hundreds or thousands of cases per year?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 30 May 2024
Willie Coffey
People in Ayrshire, along with people from further afield, want to see more flights operating from Prestwick. I use the airport as regularly as I can—once a year. I support the airport. I always have done and I always will do. People always ask me, “Why aren’t there more flights coming to the airport?” The management team can decide whether to pursue that.
There was also talk about developing the old part of the airport, which I had the pleasure of visiting—it was like walking back into the 1960s. There was a plan to develop that as a big hotel to service the economy and so on, but that never materialised. Is that the kind of thing that has been hampered by simply getting the airport back on to the profitability scale? Looking to the future, could such developments take place with a new buyer? Would the Government have a view on that?