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Thank you for joining us. Earlier, we heard the Deputy First Minister extolling the virtues of Ireland’s policy agendas. The impacts of the rent control policy in Ireland include a 30 per cent increase in homelessness, with a 38 per cent increase in Dublin alone. Do you think the Government has not looked at the unintended consequences of the rent freeze policy?

Going back to the rent control policy and unintended consequences, the Scottish Government has set itself a target of providing 110,000 affordable homes. We are now hearing from housing associations that they are not able to deliver that. Given what you said about the need for more supply, what impact do you think that the policy will have? Have you spoken to housing associations about it? They are really concerned about the very negative consequences that it will have on their ability to progress projects, which they might have to scrap.

Yes.

Good morning. I want to ask two questions, one of which concerns partner organisations in local government. In not just this budget year but previous ones, as a result of decisions by Scottish ministers, councils have seen cuts to their budgets. In what way would a flat-cash allocation to local authorities impact on your organisations and the services that local government helps to deliver?

An important part of this, which you have outlined, concerns the projected lack of uptake of the benefits that are currently available. When it comes to this year’s in-year spend, where do other benefits—for example, the best start grant—sit, and are those also being earmarked as potential areas in which finance is currently allocated but may not be spent?

That is helpful. We are also waiting to see the bill and probably will not see it until an hour before the committee has to look at it.

Specifically with regard to rural homelessness, which we maybe do not talk enough about, supply and demand in those cases is often hugely limited. Do you know of any work that has been done about potential consequences for rural homelessness?

Finally, I want to ask about an issue that I have raised consistently. We are seeing a really depressing and worrying picture with regard to the number of children in temporary accommodation. I would say that, here in the capital, the situation is at crisis point. Where is the Scottish Government going wrong with the policy direction on that?

Good morning, cabinet secretary and officials. Thank you for joining us.

In your opening remarks, cabinet secretary, you touched on the remote, rural and island housing action plan. The Scottish Government plans that 10 per cent of the 110,000 affordable homes will be located in remote and rural communities. Can you update us on where the Government is with that and what percentage has been delivered?

Given what you said about this having to be a timed intervention—for six months—and the fact that we have just agreed to the Scottish social housing charter, which provides a framework whereby rents can be discussed between housing associations and their tenants, why has the social housing sector been included in the bill at all? It sounds like that might create more problems for the sector over the six-month period than is necessary.

That is helpful. A concern about which the committee has heard a lot and of which I am sure that you are acutely aware is the decline in the number of small to medium-sized builders, who often develop and take forward such projects. You mentioned funding being demand led. Given the current cost-of-unit price, what can the Scottish Government do to support smaller developers, especially when they are looking to develop affordable housing, which is often on a small scale?