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I know that the standards are up for review at the moment, but as well as the fairly huge cost burden, individual RSLs have properties on their books that, no matter how much money is spent on them, will never be brought up to standard as a result of a range of issues, such as mixed-tenure blocks of flats. What view is the regulator taking on properties that RSLs deem impossible to bring up to standard? We do not want to be in a situation where stock is decreasing. How is the process managed when RSLs take the view that they cannot spend money on properties to bring them up to standard?

Good morning. George Walker, in your earlier answers, you touched on the risks, costs and concerns that are associated with landlords’ commitments to achieving decarbonisation and net zero. In your previous session with us, you said that the costs and risks were not necessarily identified in associations’ business plans. Has the position changed? Are those business plans starting to give more recognition to the funding that will have to be identified and set aside for those things? If not, how is the regulator supporting landlords to go down that path?

Thanks for those answers. I want to touch on how the new fiscal framework would work in practice. We have heard about principles that would sit behind it but very little about the technical detail of how it would operate.

I direct my question to David Ross, since he talked about the proportion of the Scottish Government that is going to councils. Essentially, what is the ideal financial relationship that you would like to see between national Government and local government? Are you looking for a fixed share of the Government’s budget? How would that fiscal framework work in practice?

Thanks, convener.

COSLA launched the budget campaign a couple of weeks ago. It is fair to say that it paints a really grim picture for local authorities if there are no changes from the spending review figures. Shona, what impact would a flat-cash settlement have on local authorities? Are you able to set out a breakdown of the extra £1 billion that directors of finance have called for? Have you any suggestions as to how national Government might fund that?

Thank you for that. I will briefly come back to Councillor Morrison. A large part of that £1 billion was for pay deals and pay settlements. Since the pay deals were jointly negotiated, is COSLA asking for them to be baselined to alleviate some of the recurrent pressures?

COSLA talked last year about the lack of fiscal empowerment of local government, reduced core budget funding and too much ring fencing. I wonder whether the witnesses recognise that situation and the impact that it has on the delivery of local priorities. Are we essentially moving to a system where councils can afford to deliver only their statutory functions and what they have been given ring-fenced funding to do, without any consideration of local priorities? I will come to Councillor Jardine first, as he touched on that in earlier answers.

Thanks for that. I just?

Thank you for that clarification.

I will move on to another area. The programme for government 2021-22 confirmed that the Government would introduce a local democracy bill in this parliamentary session. What would COSLA and SOLACE like to be included in that?

I have one final question, which is on local government taxation. The Scottish Government partnership agreement between the SNP and the Greens committed to establishing a working group to deliberate on the form that local government taxation could take. Are there any updates from COSLA and SOLACE on how talks on local government taxation are progressing?

I have one more brief question about the multiyear nature of this year’s resource capital spending review. Has that given any certainty to local authorities on financial and workforce planning? Does anyone have any views on multiyear plans?