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It is important that the opportunity is there for everyone—not just for the individuals involved but for those from the wider community—who wants to be involved in the process, whether that is local people or the media.

How many of the hearings are online?

That is an important process.

Seen to be done.

The committee has heard concerns about a lack of enforcement action against unlicensed operators, potentially due to the licensing authority being unable to recoup enforcement costs. Do you have any plans or is there anything in the pipeline to support authorities wishing to take enforcement action?

You say in the report that you held 16 hearings and that the annual costs were about £337,000. On average, that is about £21,000 per hearing. Is that the case? Does each hearing cost as much as that? Are some hearings lengthier than others, or do they all follow the same structure and process? What value do you place on the hearing process? How do you ensure that you are spending the money in a proportionate way and getting best value for money?

You have touched on the public appointments section of your office. It has once again needed beefing up, and you have put in an additional three full-time members of staff to support it. It might be good to get a flavour of why that had to happen, the additional impact that they are going to have and whether it has tackled the work-life balance issue in the organisation. As you have said, it was struggling to cope with day-to-day running but, at the same time, there needed to be some flex in that respect. It would be useful to have a flavour of that, too.

Costs.

We have touched on voids and the potential to bring properties back into use. Some local authorities are working well on that, but in others it is a bit more of a struggle. We also know that there has been a 17 per cent decrease in all-sector house building, and our witness earlier this morning touched on infrastructure and the impact that that can have on how we manage things in communities.

How do you see the sector managing all of that—the voids, the decrease in house building and the way that we are progressing on infrastructure—to alleviate the problems? We have heard about where the finances come from and where they should go to bring certainty back to the sector. However, if that certainty is not created, the emergency will continue into the future.

Good morning. You have already given us a very good appraisal of the system that we are in and indicated some of the changes that should or could have been made in the past to create a good foundation for a sustainable and effective housing system. I thank you for that so far. How effective are the actions of local authorities and the Scottish Government in working towards achieving a system that is progressive in the long term?

As you have identified, councils and local authorities want to promote and expand, but there are some—seven this year, I think—that have not built any houses at all because they do not have the capacity or ability to do that. We need to try to support that and create what is required for the future. You have identified areas that may be looked at to try to amalgamate, change and support one another to make that happen. Like you, I think that that is the right way to manoeuvre it and get it to the right place, but it is funding that always seems to be the problem, in that we do not have enough or the construction costs have changed or the dimensions of what can be achieved are not progressive. How would you try to affect some of that?