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Good morning, cabinet secretary. You have previously touched on the impact on industrial relations in the local government workforce. COSLA has said:

“the timing of the response and related messaging has contributed to conflation between the SLARC recommendations and on-going pay negotiations for our workforce”.

What is your response to that? Have negotiations over local government staff pay been made any more difficult because this discussion has been going on at the same time?

Essentially, you will update a 2022 figure for a one-year increase, but you will appreciate that that will be applied in 2025, which is three years later than the 2022 data. What is the rationale on applying just a one-year uplift to figures that are three years out of date?

The other issue that I want to cover relates to the regulations that the Government intends to lay. We heard from the previous panel and SLARC that they had hoped that those regulations would be in place for 1 April 2024. I understand why that was not possible, for the reasons that you have given. The witnesses on the earlier panel also said that SLARC set the benchmark for its data at 80 per cent of the level in the 2022 annual survey of hours and earnings because that had the latest available figures. Will the regulations that you lay reflect the latest ONS data or will they fall back on the 2022 figures that were available to SLARC at the time? It has expressed a preference that that be updated to whatever the latest verified data is.

Good morning. I have a question about the methodology that was used for the recommendation on remuneration. You have linked that salary recommendation to the 2022 Office for National Statistics data. I appreciate that, during the course of your work, you expected the Government to lay regulations in April of this year, but the Government has said that it will not implement the recommendation until 1 April 2025. Given that unexpected time lag, do you intend to provide an updated recommendation, which would perhaps not be limited to a strict financial number, but which might reference the most recent Office for National Statistics publication?

I want to come back to MMR. It is good to hear that the Government recognises the importance of mid-market rent properties, which make up a crucial part of the affordable housing supply programme. We have heard evidence from witnesses who are concerned that any legislative application of rent control to the MMR sector could impact on supply, which neither of us would want. Given the commitments that have been made in the programme for government and today, has the Government given any consideration to exempting mid-market rent properties from the rent control proposals?

I think that most people would accept that the rent control elements are the flagship part of the bill. Given that this is our last evidence session, and that we will be producing a stage 1 report, with recommendations, in the dark, without any knowledge of what the final proposals for the flagship element of this housing bill will be, has the Government given any consideration to withdrawing the bill and committing to reconsulting on whatever the final proposals are? Will it give the committee the chance to consult on that and to make substantive recommendations and conclusions in a relevant stage 1 report? We are otherwise going to be debating in the dark.

I want to ask about the provision on rent increases between tenancies. Does the Government have any concerns about whether that might inhibit investment in improving property standards? I am thinking in particular of net zero and the need to improve energy efficiency. Is there any way to enable landlords who make significant investment in improving their property to be able to have a rent that reflects the increased standard of their property?

Thanks. Are there any other comments on how the tenancy deposit scheme is operating?

I want to come back to the issue of deposits, but from a different angle. The CIH has submitted evidence suggesting that we could do more to ensure that tenancy deposits are returned, and flagging the issue of how deposits are held potentially impacting on people’s ability to move. Do you want to expand on any of that and give us pointers on where we should be going in the bill to suggest changes that would allow deposits to be returned and would support people who want to move?

I have another area of questions.

We have touched briefly on the rights of both tenants and landlords, the lack of awareness of those rights, the power imbalance between landlord and tenant, and tenants’ inability—even just the feeling of being unable—to pursue and enforce those rights. This question is probably for Tony and Mike. Thinking about the role that councils could have in maximising that awareness and the ability to enforce tenants’ rights, do you feel that there should be more powers for local authorities to enforce landlord registration and other things that could improve awareness and enforcement of tenants’ rights? I will come to Mike Callaghan first.