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A public consultation exercise, Building standards (fire safety) - a consultation on external wall systems - Scottish Government - Citizen Space , is currently being undertaken which includes consideration of high risk materials in external wall systems.

Responses to the consultation will be used to inform the Building Standards (Fire Safety) Review Panel 2020-21 work and final policy that will be prepared in support of any legislative changes in relation to high risk materials in external wall systems.

The consultation closes 08 October 2021 with the next panel meeting shortly thereafter.

No notifications have been received since issue of the provision in April 2021.

(a) No notifications have been received since issue of the provision in April 2021. Monitoring is only on receipt of such notifications. (b) No intention to publish such information but it will be summarised as part of reporting on the consultation on external wall systems which includes the onward use of BS 8414. This is scheduled to close 08 October 2021.

Housing to 2040 is Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy and makes clear our ambition to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by 2031-32, 70% of which will be for Social Rent.

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

The second milestone of the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing to 2032 (EESSH2) requires social landlords to ensure their stock meets, or can be treated as meeting, EPC Band B, or is as energy efficient as practically possible, by the end of December 2032 and within the limits of cost, technology and necessary consent.

The EESSH2 milestone does not change landlords’ responsibility to manage their investment policy to ensure that it is cost-effective, especially where substantial additional investment has a potential impact on rents. The Scottish Government guidance for landlords makes it clear that we do not expect landlords to invest in measures that are unaffordable or where the costs are disproportionate to the benefits to tenants. Landlords have broad discretion to decide if potential energy efficiency measures are too expensive or are not value for money in their stock. We will continue to work in partnership with the sector to find the most effective ways to tackle the shared challenge of the climate emergency together.

Scottish Government modelling suggests that it could cost a total of £3.4 billion to bring 62% of Scottish social housing up to EPC band B using existing technology. Historically, a large part of the expenditure needed to improve homes has come from landlords' own resources or borrowing as part of their continuing investment to improve their homes. The Scottish Government provides guidance to help landlords identify funding sources, including Energy Company Obligation, UK Government Schemes, and funding from the Scottish Government.

Through our Social Housing Net Zero Heat fund, the Scottish Government has already committed to make available £100 million over the next parliament to support existing social landlords across Scotland to install zero emission heating systems and energy efficiency measures across their housing stock. In addition, the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme and its successor programme will invest £400 million over the next five years in large-scale heat decarbonisation infrastructure. We will continue to work with the sector to assess the impact of funding to date and ensure that our funding effectively supports further acceleration of the decarbonisation of our social housing stock alongside the ongoing investment of social landlords in maintaining the efficiency and quality of their stock.

Before the Scottish Parliament election, the First Minister launched an action plan which set out a series of key steps for the first 100 days of an SNP government.

Following the election, strategic discussion on the implementation of the 100 days commitments took place with key stakeholders such as COSLA and individual policy areas worked in partnership with COSLA’s officers to develop the commitments which required input or delivery of local authorities.

The level and distribution of funding for all the Scottish Government 100 days manifesto commitments which will be delivered by local authorities have now been agreed with COSLA political leaders.

On 22 June 2018 the Scottish Government and COSLA wrote to public sector leaders, including all chairs and Chief Executives of public bodies, inviting them to submit proposals to the Local Governance Review. 20 Local Authorities, 6 Community Planning Partnerships and 16 other public bodies responded. Appendix One of the summary report published in May 2019 sets out the full list of respondents.

On 28 November 2019, the Scottish Government and COSLA provided an update to all public sector leaders . This highlighted opportunities for functional, fiscal and community empowerment and invited place-specific proposals for alternative governance arrangements. Councils have been working with local partners to develop proposals and dialogue with Scottish Government officials has commenced to explore the proposed changes and how they could improve outcomes.

This Scottish Government is committed to concluding the Local Governance Review within this parliament.

This Scottish Government is committed to concluding the Local Governance Review within this parliament. During the first phase of the Review, the Scottish Government, COSLA and the community sector undertook a highly inclusive engagement process called Democracy Matters. People from diverse backgrounds overwhelmingly wanted to see bold changes to how power is shared. Further extensive engagement with communities - of place and interest - will be an important part of understanding how best to respond to people’s aspirations for genuine control over those decisions which affect them the most.

The Scottish Government subsidised a total of 3,595 mid-market rent properties which were completed by Registered Social Landlords between 2016-17 and 2021-22. The following table shows the number which had a starting rent level exceeding the relevant Local Housing Allowance broken down by local authority area and More Homes Division Area team.