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I note that the UK Government has passed on a budget of £97 million to ministers. Why has more progress been made by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in getting that money out there than there has been in Scotland?

How many of the 26 buildings identified in the single building assessment pilot have received payments to enable the assessments to take place?

In relation to the cost pressures of decontamination and other additional costs, is it likely that developers will not bring forward those sorts of schemes? Are you regularly told that brownfield sites are more expensive to bring online? Is that being factored in, given all the cost pressures that we are hearing about?

Could there be improvements from delivery agencies? Local authorities are playing that role, but in other parts of the country, especially in regeneration projects, we have seen other types of delivery agency. Could bringing in additional private investment help? Pension funds have been mentioned. Would that turbocharge projects and move them forward?

That is helpful. All committee members are being made aware of land supply issues. We heard earlier about that challenge in a rural context. In an urban context, I am concerned that the brownfield site developments that are in local plans will not necessarily come on stream. Why is the national planning framework not necessarily the right place to meet the demand for land? Planning departments are also looking at that. In terms of the finance question, we are hearing about the need for that supply of land, but the finance is not necessarily there at the moment.

Thank you.

Good morning, witnesses. I will further develop some of Willie Coffey’s questions, with specific regard to Edinburgh; I am an Edinburgh MSP, so I put that interest out there.

There are areas of pressure across Scotland; Aberdeen used to be one, but now Edinburgh is acutely overheated, as many people keep telling me. Do you think that that is understood in the Government, especially given that land costs are greater there? Are those costs also becoming a key problem with meeting challenges in areas that are highly pressured?

We have seen how communities have expanded with the opening of the Borders railway, but people are still commuting into Edinburgh every day for work. Of course, that situation might have changed during the pandemic, but where are things not connecting up in order to develop communities? Is that anything to do with the infrastructure first approach, which we have been hearing a great deal about and a lot of which is about public services? How do we streamline that to ensure that services are in place and communities have what they need?

The Scottish Government’s “Housing to 2040” policy document emphases the importance of place, and one of the key issues in developing sustainable places and new communities is the provision of a rail link. As far as building new communities is concerned, is any work being carried out—and, indeed, being carried out with you—on the potential reopening of railway stations and the potential to develop larger communities around them? Moreover, have you been looking at developing new towns in your areas?

Perhaps I can start with Mike Staples, and anyone joining us virtually can put an R in the chat function if they want to come in.

On the same point, Dame Judith Hackitt’s review—which applied to England—was quite robust in pointing out that building regulations were not fit for purpose. Has the Scottish Government looked at that review? Are we likely to see a review in Scotland and could that review form the basis of a building safety bill or something similar?