Chamber and committees

Russel Griggs brought up building capacity for communities. Do you or Pauline Smith have thoughts on what we need to be doing to build that capacity? Where do we need to start?

Good morning, and welcome to the 13th meeting in 2024 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are in silent mode. Pam Gosal joins us remotely and we have received apologies from Gordon MacDonald.

Under agenda item 1, does the committee agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

On your point about there being confusion, could you say a bit more about what happens on the ground? Does the confusion slow things down? How do the two different pieces come up against each other?

Do you have a sense of why there is resistance to do it? Is it a slow Government process?

Thank you. I will bring in Russel Griggs and then go back to Pam Gosal, who I think has another question.

When I say “we”, that means the Scottish Government, but we can see whether the committee could take that on, too.

I really appreciate you making the point that we have existing housing stock. The issue is about how we make that work better and how we help people who are stuck in houses that are too big for them and want to downsize. How do we create space to enable people to move?

We are facing a climate emergency, so we need to be looking at the existing housing stock in Scotland and the whole piece around the need to retrofit 80 per cent of that. That is another bit of the puzzle that is really quite challenging in rural communities.

I absolutely take that on board.

I will bring in Willie Coffey in a moment to pursue the planning issue a little, but I want to pick up on economic development, which we have explored a bit. I think that we are going to talk more about the rural and islands housing funds in a moment. HIE’s submission talked about a strategic planning exercise, which was interesting. We have touched on the idea of a more joined-up approach and working together with stakeholders. The submission states:

“This would include ministers or officials from the Economy, Planning, Business Support, Rural and Homes divisions, all in the same room at the same time to consider a joined up strategic response to both the economic boom and the rural housing crisis that we face.”

Somewhere in our papers, I read that the Scottish Government indicated that it is working with HIE and SOSE on economic and housing issues. Have you had any traction with the idea of a strategic planning exercise?

Thank you for that. Willie Coffey has a couple of questions.

What kind of tweaks are you talking about?