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The Scottish Government recognises the importance of working with partners to ensure that emergency funding meets need effectively.

To ensure local authorities have the capacity and resources required to deliver any new policy commitments, all new policy or changes to existing policy that have a financial cost for local government, including those put in place in an emergency, are approved through the formal financial governance process. This requires agreed recommendations from the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Officers’ Settlement and Distribution Group and political sign-off from Scottish Ministers and COSLA political Leaders.

Tackling empty homes is a priority. Local authorities already have broad compulsory purchase powers, which are being used to tackle empty homes and, where possible, return them to use as warm, safe and secure housing.

We are taking forward work to modernise the compulsory purchase process to make it clearer, fairer and faster. Any new powers would need to be compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights and careful consideration given to the compatibility with existing powers. This includes proposals for Compulsory Sales Orders.

There is strong national planning policy support for approval of good quality conversions to residential development following thorough planning assessments. We have no plans to introduce new permitted development rights providing for the conversion of business premises to housing without a planning application. We sought views on this during the second phase of the ongoing review of permitted development rights. More than 90% of respondents agreed this should not be taken forward and that residential development should continue to be plan-led. National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) was adopted in February 2023 and is now part of the development plan. Policy 9 (Brownfield, vacant and derelict land and empty buildings) of NPF4 supports the sustainable reuse of brownfield land including vacant buildings. Furthermore, Policy 27 of NPF4 (City, town, local and commercial centres) specifically supports town centre living and the re-use of vacant buildings within city and town centres for residential development.

The Scottish Government does not hold the specific information requested. However, through our mainstream Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP), we have supported many community controlled housing association developments across urban and rural Scotland. Each year, since 2008-09, an Affordable Housing Supply Programme Outturn Report is published which sets out the organisations which have received funding through the AHSP. Specifically in rural Scotland, since the introduction of the Rural and Islands Housing Fund in 2016-17, 44 community-led rural projects have been completed providing 152 additional homes. The fund play an important role in offering support to community organisations and others to deliver affordable homes, while complementing the delivery through our mainstream programme by Councils and Registered Social Landlords.

We want disabled people in Scotland to have choice, dignity and freedom to access suitable homes, built or adapted so they can participate as full and equal citizens.

Scotland has led the way in the delivery of affordable housing across the UK. Since 2007, we have delivered 118,124 affordable homes, 83,291 of which were for social rent.

Our ambition is to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 – 70% of which will be for social rent and 10% in our remote, rural and island communities.

We are building homes that are sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of people as they change over time. The Housing for Varying Needs design guide incorporates the ‘barrier free’ concept of accessibility in homes. Recent analysis shows that 98% of new build homes delivered by housing associations and councils in 2021-22, where information was returned, met that standard.

A review of Housing for Varying Needs is underway. This work will directly inform the development of a Scottish Accessible Homes Standard, set to be implemented from 2025-26. This will enhance the accessibility and adaptability of new homes, ensuring that disabled people have an increased range of housing options and reducing the requirement to make changes to homes as needs change.

Local authorities as the strategic housing authority are responsible for assessing affordable housing needs in their area and setting out their plans to meet these requirements in their Local Housing Strategy and Strategic Housing Investment Plan.

Local authorities are required to set targets for the delivery of wheelchair accessible housing across all tenures as part of their Local Housing Strategy. The target should be informed by evidence of what is required locally.

The allocation of housing in the social rented sector lies directly with individual landlords. Local authorities and housing associations are responsible for allocating social housing, including applications on medical grounds, and how they do this is set out in their allocation policy. Decisions to allocate housing will be based on an assessment of the individual’s housing needs against the landlord’s published allocation policy.

Disabled people have priority access to our Low Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers which help people on low to moderate incomes buy a home. We recently widened eligibility to the Open Market Shared Equity scheme to ensure as many people as possible can benefit.

Public bodies, including NHS health boards, are responsible for monitoring the accuracy of interpretation services. The Scottish Government expects all healthcare services to be accessible to all people in Scotland, regardless of the circumstances of individual service users, including where an interpreter is required.

The Scottish Government works across public and third sector partners to improve the availability of translations and accessible formats. We collaborate to share best practice and signpost to translation, interpretation and transcription services that are accessible to all public bodies. Scottish Government resources to support this include the Interpreting, Translation and Transcription Services Framework .

Additionally, Public Health Scotland published the Interpreting, Communication Support and Translation National Policy in October 2020. Its aim is to ensure that NHS Scotland and its partners have a clear, consistent and fair approach to the provision of information and communication support for all. The policy outlines guidance for NHS Scotland to ensure that appropriate governance of interpreting and translation services is in place, as well as the need for systematic monitoring and review of local/contracted services and procedures.

As part of our review into the operation of the Public Sector Equality Duty in Scotland, we are proposing to create a new duty that would seek to ensure inclusive communication is embedded proportionately across the work of listed authorities when they are communicating with the public. This would include translation and interpretation into other languages.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling all forms of antisocial behaviour and to making all of our communities safe places where people can live free from fear or harm. I will monitor the development of the UK Government’s Antisocial Behaviour Action Plan as I consider how best to continue to prevent and tackle antisocial behaviour in Scotland.

The Scottish Government continues to support local authorities and Police Scotland to further reduce the damage caused by antisocial behaviour in our communities, including investing in prevention and early intervention. These agencies have a range of powers available to tackle antisocial behaviour. Additionally, the Scottish Government has been working with the Scottish Community Safety Network to better understand how we can prevent antisocial behaviour, and limit its harms.

This is a matter for individual local authorities. The information is not held centrally.

The high cost of energy prices combined with inflation is having a disproportionate impact on fuel poor households across Scotland.

That is why the First Minister recently announced that our Fuel Insecurity Fund will be increased to up to £30 million in the next financial year to support the most vulnerable households in Scotland. In addition, our winter heating payment has been maintained, providing a stable and reliable annual £50 payment to around 400,000 low-income individuals. This benefit is an investment of over £20m each year which is more than double the £8.3m provided on average by the UK Government in each of the last 7 years.

We were disappointed that the UK Government did not answer our calls to extend the Energy Bills Support Scheme as part of its Spring Budget Statement. The removal of the support scheme means a typical household’s annual bill will increase by around 19%. As well as removing 50,000 households from fuel poverty, the continuation of the scheme would also have removed 120,000 Scottish households from extreme fuel poverty.

Following the progress made at the Scottish Government energy summits held last year, we continue to work with energy suppliers to explore ways to mitigate the impact of rising energy costs on those who are struggling to pay their bills and heat their homes.

Published information on home purchases and spend across the First Home Fund, Help to Buy, Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) and New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE) schemes can be found on the Scottish Government website at the following links:

Help to Buy (Scotland):

https://www.gov.scot/policies/homeowners/help-to-buy/

Open Market Shared Equity and New Supply Shared Equity:

https://www.gov.scot/policies/more-homes/affordable-housing-supply/

First Home Fund:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-home-fund-spend-and-units-monitoring-information-report-december-2019-to-march-2021/

Please be aware when reading the published statistics that all schemes were available for first-time buyers. Help to Buy was also for second steppers and priority groups eligible for OMSE and NSSE. First Home fund applicants were eligible if one of a couple were a first time buyer.

An evaluation of the Scottish Government shared equity schemes (Help to Buy, Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) and New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE)) was published in June 2020. The evaluation can be found on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/evaluation-scottish-government-shared-equity-schemes/ .

The evaluation estimated that 64% of Help to Buy purchasers, 71% of NSSE purchasers and 95% of OMSE purchasers were first time buyers. All households supported by the First Home Fund include at least one first time buyer.

We do not hold any historical records pre 2007.