Chamber and committees

Absolutely. The repurposing of what we already have is crucial in the carbon neutrality story. I think that people lose sight of the amount of carbon that goes into building a new building. I still see buildings being built out of concrete blocks. We need an understanding that repurposing is fair.

I thank the witnesses—it is brilliant to hear about the work that you are doing. From what you have talked about, I understand that you have started the process, but it is the first year. Concerns have been raised about the competitive bid and the panel, but we are in a process. There is learning to be done from the first round, but it seems that you are taking into account the bigger picture.

In relation to the bigger picture, I was struck by the point about transformational infrastructure. Earlier, when we heard from Orkney Islands Council about that, at first I thought, “A nursery?” but it was exciting to hear Gareth Waterson speak about the impact that that would have in relation to infrastructure and how it could transform Orkney through people being able to access jobs and so on.

I would love to hear about other examples of transformational infrastructure that could be put in place in the islands. Tony Rose has just talked about potential transformational infrastructure in Edinburgh and that complexity being pulled together. Perhaps there are things in the islands that you have become aware of that we need to consider beyond housing, because we have already covered that this morning.

I will scoop up one more rural question—as a Highlands and Islands MSP, I am particularly keen to get a bit more information on this. It is clear from what you have said that you are aware of the importance of rural housing enablers and community-led housing in developing new affordable homes in rural areas. Community Land Scotland told us in written evidence that there are

“unnecessary complexities in the funding”—

I think that it was referring to the rural and islands housing funds—

“and planning processes which, if addressed, could speed up the process and enable more communities to deliver hyper local schemes that meet local need.”

I am interested to hear your thoughts on that comment. In what way will the forthcoming remote, rural and island housing action plan address those issues?

Thanks, Willie. Thank you, cabinet secretary, for your responses. I have a few follow-up questions.

At the beginning of your opening statement, you touched on the challenges around not having the powers to borrow. Would you go into that a little bit more? You might have touched on it in response to Paul McLennan and Willie Coffey, but would you give us a bit more on what we would need in order to be able to fulfil the commitment on our affordable housing supply programme?

That would be brilliant. Thanks very much.

I thank the cabinet secretary and her officials for their evidence. That was our final pre-budget scrutiny evidence session. We will write to the cabinet secretary with our findings and recommendations on the affordable housing supply programme after the October recess and in advance of the budget’s publication.

We agreed at the start of the meeting to take in private the final items on our agenda. As we have no further public business to consider, I close the public part of the meeting.

To some degree, yes, but I am still not that clear on what evidence the target is based on.

If we go back to the original target of 100,000 affordable homes, I really appreciate your adding 11,000 extra rural and island homes on top of that, because those are crucial. You mentioned that the 100,000 target built on the 50,000 target from a previous session of Parliament. Where would we as a committee look to for an understanding of how that number was arrived at? That is still not clear to me.

Good morning, and welcome to the 23rd meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

The first item on the agenda is to decide whether to take items 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 2 is to take evidence on the Scottish social housing charter, November 2022 from the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights, Patrick Harvie. Mr Harvie is accompanied by Michael Boal of the Scottish Government’s social housing charter and regulation team. I welcome Mr Harvie to the meeting.

Before I open up the session to questions from members—if anyone has any questions—I invite Mr Harvie to make a short opening statement.

Thank you for that opening statement and for setting out a range of aspects of this topic. We have a number of questions to take the conversation to a deeper level.

Before I bring in other members, I will lead with the theme of targets, meeting needs and place making. Something that has come up quite a bit in our conversations with stakeholders is the question of how the target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 will be delivered. How was that target set? What evidence is it based on? In what way does it relate to local assessments of need? Is the housing need and demand assessment process fit for purpose in giving us that kind of information?