Chamber and committees

I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am a councillor in Aberdeen City Council.

The new deal for tenants consultation is a crucial consultation to address long-standing issues in the rented housing sector—specifically security, affordability, standards and regulation. We all deserve to live in a warm, dry and affordable home in which we feel secure and safe. Access to housing is a recognised social determinant of health and sits alongside education, health services, employment and economic stability as a key factor in ensuring good health and wellbeing.

There is no doubt that the pandemic has heightened anxiety and insecurity for many people who live in Scotland’s rented sector. Many lost their jobs or became too unwell to work. Despite lifeline Scottish Government support for tenants who are at risk of arrears or eviction, rising costs, cuts to universal credit and Brexit have created a perfect storm for many tenants across Scotland. I therefore welcome the SNP-Scottish Greens agreement, which puts the rights of tenants and the right to housing at its heart.

Like other north-east constituencies, over recent decades Aberdeen South and North Kincardine has seen sustained high rents, courtesy of the energy sector. However, the reality is that we continue to host poor-quality rented stock, particularly in the city of Aberdeen. Typically, dated council housing stock that is now affected by damp and mould has gone unactioned. In Aberdeen, 59 per cent of homes are not energy efficient, which results in high fuel bills, high carbon emissions and residents being unable to heat their homes to a comfortable level.

I have a local consultation under way, with residents who live in some of the poorest-quality housing in my constituency, to identify the housing issues that impact on them most. To date, the responses have been stark. The local economy, which was once propped up by oil and gas, has been in decline. That is reflected in the private rented sector, in which between 2010 and 2014 rents consistently rose far above the Scottish average, only to decline rapidly since then. That means that rents today are, largely, the same as they were a decade ago. Some private housing developments that had commenced before then have now become unprofitable or have collapsed, which has impacted on the supply of badly needed social housing, as well as on delivery of developer obligations, including schools. We face a bizarre paradox in which there is overprovision of private rented properties while, in June 2020, the waiting list for council houses was more than 6,000.

It is regrettable that Aberdeen City Council has fallen short of its commitment to build 2,000 new homes, with only 900 having been completed to date, which is adding to the already significant shortage of affordable housing in the city. It is safe to say that local change is needed, starting with a genuine commitment to build more high-standard affordable homes and, where feasible, to retrofit existing homes to make them warm, dry and more liveable.

I welcome our commitment to build 110,000 affordable homes over the coming decade, but I want to see within that local projects that are driven by what is required in housing areas, not by what developers choose to include in a project specification—which is, in other words, the tail wagging the dog.

The consultation on a new deal for tenants is a welcome step on from “Housing to 2040”. It offers tenants a tangible opportunity to have their voices heard, and it offers us an opportunity to provide our constituents with the good-quality, secure and safe rented housing provision that they deserve.

At last week’s Covid update for NHS Grampian, we discussed the challenge of people with health inattention not presenting with conditions that require investigation or treatment. Although the situation is beginning to ease, I am concerned that the upsurge in omicron will again discourage those who are in most need of healthcare from seeking help. What assurance can the First Minister give that everything is being done to encourage people to make and keep appointments with general practitioners and others, while recognising the huge pressures that health services are facing once again?

I will bring in Jamie Greene, after which we will move on to look at trauma-informed training.

In the interests of time, please keep questions and answers succinct. Katy Clark has some questions about misogyny in policing and then I will bring in Russell Findlay.

Katy Clark will be followed by Fulton MacGregor, who has questions about the use of recorded police interviews.

I am afraid not. The cabinet secretary is waiting, and we have already overrun. As I said to Katy Clark, I am very happy for any additional questions to be sent to DCC Graham for a response.

I thank DCC Graham and DCS Faulds for appearing today. I am sorry that things were rather rushed at the end, but there will likely be a number of questions that we will follow up with you in writing.

There will be a very short suspension while we have a changeover of witnesses.

Katy, I wonder whether I could come in here.

I am sorry to cut you off, but there a couple of other areas for questioning that I would like to get to before we close the session at 10 minutes to 12. I want to ask a couple of questions about independent legal representation, which I think that you covered in your opening statement, cabinet secretary. In the testimony that we took in private from survivors, many of them said that they felt that their voice was not heard in court, whereas they felt that the voice of the accused was heard. Of course, section 275 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 means that particularly intimate and sensitive information about a complainer can be used in the court. What are your views on access to legal representation for victims of sexual assault? Could that be extended to domestic abuse victims?

Our next item of business is consideration of legislative consent memoranda on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and the Judicial Review and Courts Bill. I am pleased to welcome back the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans. He is joined by the Scottish Government officials Phil Lamont, who is from the criminal justice division, and Ms Alison Morris, who is head of serious organised crime policy—divert and deter. I refer members to papers 3 and 4.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make some brief opening remarks on the LCM on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, after which we will move to questions on that LCM.

I ask for succinct questions and answers. We have until just before 10.30, and I know that members would like to get through quite a lot of questions.