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Thank you for that. Some of the concerns that have been raised about the bill—for example, around mid-market rent—are very important, and we should already be looking at reforming things in the bill as it stands.

We have touched on rent pressure zones, but I have a couple of questions about rent control areas. What would be the timescale and the process for developing any regulations in that respect? Also, under the rent control area provisions in the bill, what would happen in that gap after the designation of a rent control area ended? From what you have said, my understanding is that there could be multiple designations within a council area, and there is a potential risk of landlords increasing rents, especially for new lets. Indeed, we saw that happen with new lets under the emergency regulations, with the market moving; in Edinburgh, for example, we have seen very different levels of rent for the same type of flat. Globally, we have seen unintended consequences where rent controls have been used, with rents for the same property doubling.

Since the bill was published, the Scottish Government has declared a housing emergency in response to lots of councils, some of which have seen the largest rent increases, declaring their own housing emergencies. Indeed, my own council here in Edinburgh has been one of them. What response have you had to the bill since then?

I note, too, that the homelessness duties that you touched on already exist, as far as I can see, but they are being swept up in the bill. One of those duties is to ensure that children and families are not in temporary accommodation for more than a week, but in Edinburgh, some have been in such accommodation for two years. What real impact do you think this bill will have? I am concerned that this is a case of politicians talking about bringing in a bill that affects local authorities, when those authorities do not have any capacity—and, in fact, could lose it. How can we achieve the delivery of the outcomes and ensure that things do not get worse as a result of this bill? We must be very mindful of that.

A lot of the rented market in Scotland is made up of individual additional properties that people own. They are not big landlords. There is data available now showing that a lot of them are moving out of being landlords because they are expecting some of these changes. With the Housing (Scotland) Bill bringing another set of regulations and duties that they must follow, do you have any data or information from people contacting you that suggests that those landlords, who may have inherited a property that they rent out, are likely to sell up and leave the market? In Edinburgh, there is a buoyant housing market, so property can be sold quite easily. There is evidence of that taking place, but the national data set does not seem to be available to allow us to look at that. What are your views on that and the information that you are gathering from people contacting you?

Finally—we have discussed this previously—will you update the committee on COSLA’s barriers to elected office special interest group and when it will report?

Is it?

Finally, I have spoken to Conservative councillors across Scotland, some of whom have stood down and others who are still councillors. Did you consider a move towards evening meetings in order to give flexibility to people, for example? Did you consider the provision of secretarial support? That is one thing that really surprised me. In Edinburgh, the council groups are very well supported, but that just is not the case in other councils. Sometimes, administrations use that support during negotiations. That is completely wrong, but it seems to take place across Scotland. MSPs are very well supported—I do not see how we would be able to do this job without that support. Did you do a deep dive into those issues as well?

Right. That answers that question. [Laughter.]

Good morning to the online panel—it is nice to see you again. I have a couple of questions on costs and barriers to elected office. Given on-going issues, and given that unions are balloting their members on pay-related strike action, how would a 40 per cent pay rise for councillors be received by the wider local government workforce?

That is helpful—thank you. Another recommendation was to introduce severance payments for councillors losing their seats at elections. We already have a set of principles for MSPs—the payment, half of which is taxed, is up to two terms’ salary, depending on the terms served. When the single transferable vote was first brought in for council wards, payments were provided to councillors who were standing down. Will the witnesses explain how severance payments would work? What costs might be attached to that?

I will move on to my next question. We previously heard SLARC’s recommendations on establishing a dynamic national data set to look at the composition of our councils and councillors. Does COSLA have views on why that has not been made available to date? How could we create that? The committee has looked at that and found that some self-reported information has not been available and that there were general data protection regulation issues in looking at councillors standing down. Do you have a view on that?