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To date, the low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme has allocated £26,732,792 to 33 projects bringing persistent vacant and derelict land back into use.

The low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme has invested in 33 projects bringing back just over 112 hectares of persistent vacant and derelict land back into use.

The low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) has invested £6,258,299 into projects which include new low carbon affordable housing as part of their project proposal. This is 23% of the total £26.7 million of funding which has been allocated to date.

The Innovative Finance Steering Group last met in December 2022. There are no formal meetings of the Group currently planned. The further operation of the group will be reviewed following the budget.

The Scottish Government does not hold information which breaks down the staff cost, or staff time, that was committed to the delivery of the Fairer Council Tax Consultation.

The Council Tax Team and Local Taxation Unit, and analysts that supported the delivery of the consultation, work across a number of aspects of Local Tax policy and their time cannot be disaggregated from other demands. Approximately nine members of staff contributed to this work.

The cumulative cost of the Fairer Council Tax Consultation is £48,039.52. This relates only to the cost of publishing the Fairer Council Tax consultation, and the cost of an independent third party to analyse the consultation responses.

The Scottish Government is defined by three distinct and interdependent missions centred on the principles of equality, opportunity and community: to tackle poverty; to build a fair, green and indeed a growing economy; and to improve our public services. In that context, the Minister for Housing’s specific responsibilities are:

• Affordable Housing Supply Programme
• Housing to 2040 strategy
• homelessness and rough sleeping
• cladding remediation
• welfare and debt advice
• regulation of existing housing systems

Please see the following information as of 1 December.

The rates and bands of Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) apply equally to UK resident and non-UK resident buyers.

Scottish Government wrote to local authorities on 12 September confirming the strategic objective, distribution methodology and individual allocations of the £30 million fund. The distribution methodology, agreed with local authority leaders, is based 50% on the number of displaced people from Ukraine in each local authority area and 50% on the adjusted Strategic Housing Investment Framework (SHIF) indicator formula that is used for distributing homelessness prevention funding.

While there is an expectation that this funding will help councils support displaced Ukrainians into longer-term accommodation and reduce the risk of homelessness, the funding is not ring-fenced, and local authorities are able to exercise full discretion locally to support other groups. This is in line with the Verity House Agreement and recognises that local authorities are best placed to allocate their resources to meet competing demands for their services.

The letter has been published and is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ukraine-resettlement-letter-to-local-authorities-about-funding/