Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-36197

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it anticipates will be made available from the Learning Disability Support Fund to the Scottish Assembly over the next three years.

Question reference: S6W-36196

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of any changes to the funding criteria for the Learning Disability Support Fund, which will operate from October 2025, for organisations such as the Scottish Assembly and the leadership framework that it operates.

Question reference: S6W-36195

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to the Scottish Assembly, which supports people with learning difficulties to access services, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-36137

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, what its response is to the Shelter Scotland report, In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, and what its position is on whether children living in such accommodation are having their best interest rights upheld, as per the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, including their right to (a) an adequate standard of living, (b) healthcare and (c) leisure and play.

Question reference: S6W-35576

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in Shelter Scotland’s report, In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, how it will ensure that local authorities receive long-term funding and the appropriate guidance to accelerate the delivery of social housing, provide permanent family homes and reduce waiting times for families stuck in temporary accommodation.

Increasing housing supply is key to reducing levels of homelessness. In 2024-25, we made additional funding of £40 million available to local authorities, taking investment in affordable housing to almost £600 million. 80% of the additional funding has been targeted to areas with the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures to increase the supply of social and affordable homes through acquisitions and to bring long term empty social homes back into use. This will help to increase the supply of settled homes of the right type and size, including larger properties suitable for families.

The 2025-26 budget of £768 million represents a 38% increase when compared to the 2024-25 original published budget of £555.8 million – an increase of £181 million capital (44%) and an increase of £30.8 million (63%) in financial transactions. Supported by our guidance on the planning and delivery of the affordable housing supply programme, this investment is estimated to enable the delivery of approximately 8,000 homes while contributing towards our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. This significant increase in our budget will allow us to prioritise proposals that aim to reduce the number of families with children in temporary accommodation. To the end of September 2024, 24,382 homes have been delivered towards this target, of which 18,539 (76%) are homes for social rent. And an estimated 2,776 households with children have been helped into affordable housing in the year to September 2024.

Our long term commitment of £100 million over several financial years for mid-market rent will, with institutional investment, grow to at least £500 million and will support the delivery of around 2,800 affordable homes.

Through our engagement with local authorities, we know that efforts are being made at a local level to help reduce the time between a household accepting an offer of settled housing and moving into their home.

However, the most effective way to reduce the flow of households into the homelessness system is to prevent homelessness from happening in the first place. The measures in the Housing (Scotland) Bill are designed to make the prevention of homelessness everybody’s business and to ensure that people get the help they need to prevent their homelessness earlier.

Question reference: S6W-35577

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will accelerate plans to amend the rent adjudication framework to remove the ability of the rent officer or tribunal to determine a rent that is higher than that requested by the landlord, in light of the ending of the temporary restrictions on rent increases from April 2025.

Question reference: S6W-34535

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties bought in the calendar year 2024 were liable for the Additional Dweller Supplement, broken down by (a) the local authority area of the property, (b) properties in the purchase price band of (i) £0 to £100,000, (ii) £100,001 to £200,000, (iii) £200,001 to £300,000, (iv) £300,001 to £400,000, (v) £400,001 to £500,000 and (vi) £500,001 and above and (c) whether the buyer (A) was resident in the UK or (B) had a primary correspondence address abroad.

Revenue Scotland is responsible for the collection and management of Scotland’s fully devolved taxes, including Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT).

Management information data from Revenue Scotland regarding the LBTT Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) is provided in the following tables. On (c), the information provided is based on the correspondence address included in the tax return. The return does not however require information to be provided regarding a taxpayer’s residency status.

Where an amount of ADS is due in relation to a transaction, it may in some cases later be reclaimed.

(a) Tax returns submitted in 2024 with ADS declared due by local authority

Local Authority	Tax Returns
Aberdeen City	1,310
Aberdeenshire	900
Angus	380
Argyll and Bute	580
City of Edinburgh	2,700
Clackmannanshire	170
Dumfries and Galloway	610
Dundee City	770
East Ayrshire	370
East Dunbartonshire	310
East Lothian	350
East Renfrewshire	270
Falkirk	480
Fife	1,360
Glasgow City	2,600
Highland	1,050
Inverclyde	230
Midlothian	240
Moray	330
Na h-Eileanan Siar	100
North Ayrshire	530
North Lanarkshire	1,000
Orkney Islands	110
Perth and Kinross	710
Renfrewshire	780
Scottish Borders	450
Shetland Islands	90
South Ayrshire	460
South Lanarkshire	1,290
Stirling	390
West Dunbartonshire	270
West Lothian	540
Unknown	150
Total	21,870

(b) Tax returns submitted in 2024 with ADS declared due by band

Total Consideration Band	Tax Returns
£0 to £100,000	6,770
£100,001 to £200,000	7,190
£200,001 to £300,000	3,560
£300,001 to £400,000	1,910
£400,001 to £500,000	940
£500,001 and above	1,490
Total	21,870

(c) Tax returns submitted in 2024 with ADS declared due, by location of buyer’s address

Buyer	Tax Returns
Total tax returns submitted in 2024	21,870
…of which buyer address in UK	21,170
..of which buyer address outwith-UK	700

Notes for tables:

1.These data are management information figures derived from data as held in Revenue Scotland’s Scottish Electronic Tax Management System (SETS) at February 2025. These figures may potentially change due to administrative updates.

2.Some records in table (a) could not be readily assigned to a local authority. In some cases this can be where the addresses had not been assigned when the property was transacted.

3.Totals in tables may not be the sum of the values in the table due to rounding.

Question reference: S6W-34930

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations have become rural housing bodies each year under section 43(6) of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003.

The following organisations were prescribed as rural housing bodies in the following years. Please note that there is no requirement to notify Scottish Ministers when a rural housing body is wound up or ceases to operate.

2004

Albyn Housing Society Limited

Barra and Vatersay Housing Association Limited

Berneray Housing Association Limited

Buidheann Taigheadais na Meadhanan Limited

Cairn Housing Association Limited

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar

Dunbritton Housing Association Limited

Fyne Homes Limited

Isle of Jura Development Trust

Lochaber Housing Association Limited

Muirneag Housing Association Limited

Orkney Islands Council

Pentland Housing Association Limited

Taighean Ceann a Tuath na’Hearadh Limited

The Highlands Small Communities’ Housing Trust

The Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust

The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust

The North Harris Trust

Tighean Innse Gall Limited

2005

Buidheann Tigheadas Loch Aillse Agus An Eilein Sgitheanaich Limited

Ekopia Resource Exchange Limited

Rural Stirling Housing Association Limited

West Highland Housing Association Limited

2007

Colonsay Community Development Company

Community Self-Build Scotland Limited

Dumfries and Galloway Small Communities Housing Trust

Fyne Initiatives Limited

2008

Argyll Community Housing Association

HIFAR Limited

North West Mull Community Woodland Company Limited

West Highland Rural Solutions Limited

2009

Craignish Community Company Limited

The Highland Housing Alliance

2013

Down to Earth Solutions Community Interest Company

West Harris Trust

2014

Yuill Community Trust C.I.C.

Mull and Iona Community Trust

2017

Kilfinan Community Forest Company

Dormont Passive Homes (Scotland) Ltd.

2019

Arran Development Trust

2023

Argyll and Bute Council

Hebridean Housing Partnership Limited

Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn

2024

Shapinsay Development Trust

Tayvallich Initiative Ltd

Question reference: S6W-34929

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have had a rural housing burden applied to their title deeds in each year since 2003, broken down by (a) council tax band and (b) local authority area.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However, I have contacted the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (the Keeper) and they have been able to provide some of the information. The breakdown by each year the rural housing burden was applied is not available. The property registers maintained by the Keeper do not include council tax band. The following number of titles contain rural housing burdens by local authority:

Argyll and Bute 134

Dumfries and Galloway 109

Highland 388

Inverclyde 1

Moray 4

Na h-Eileanan an Iar 110

Orkney Islands 24

Perth and Kinross 13

Total 783

Question reference: S6W-34932

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many rural housing burdens have been issued each year since 2003.

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