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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 16 March 2025
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Displaying 2095 contributions

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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

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

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

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

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

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

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

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

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

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

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

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

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

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

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

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.

10:30  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2024

Willie Coffey

Are we talking about hundreds or thousands of cases per year?

Public Audit Committee

Scottish Government Strategic Commercial Assets Division

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?