Chamber and committees

I, too, have been interested in the empty homes issue and the work that is being done to bring empty homes online. That seems to be another opportunity in areas. There seem to be quite high levels of vacant and empty homes that we could tap into, as well.

Do either of you want to? You do not have to. They are not indicating that they want to respond, Mr Briggs, so let us move on.

We will move on to wider issues.

Thanks very much for your response. Those examples are very helpful, and I have made notes to learn more about those places. We recently had a visit to Govan, where something similar is going on.

Yes—sorry. Steven, you were named when the question was asked.

Thank you for bringing up that point about rural housing burdens.

That concludes our questions. [Interruption.] The clerk is telling me that Roslyn Clarke wants to come in as well.

If any witness wishes to respond to that question, they may do so. I also offer a little time for them to bring in any other critical points that they want to mention to the committee, such as the one on rural housing burdens. I will go around the witnesses to see whether anyone wishes to come in. I ask Roslyn Clarke to respond to that question first. If she needs to add other points to ensure that we hear them, she should please do so.

We are now joined by our second panel to discuss affordable housing. I welcome Steven Henderson, group director of finance, Wheatley Housing Group; Frank McCafferty, group director of assets and repairs, Wheatley Housing Group; Pam Humphries, head of planning and regeneration, North Lanarkshire Council; Tom Norris, managing director, Places for People Scotland; Colin Proctor, director, construction industry and delivery, Scottish Futures Trust; Neil Rutherford, senior associate director, housing and economic investment, Scottish Futures Trust; and Elaine Scott, head of housing strategy and development, City of Edinburgh Council.

Both the Wheatley Housing Group and the Scottish Futures Trust are represented by two witnesses with different areas of expertise. In the interests of time, I will be grateful if a single witness from each of those organisations responds to any given question.

It would be helpful if members directed their questions to a specific witness where possible, but I will be happy to bring in others who wish to contribute. If other witnesses wish to comment, they should indicate their desire to do so to me or to the clerk, please, and I will bring them in at an appropriate moment.

My opening general questions are to all the witnesses, although one witness from the Scottish Futures Trust and one from the Wheatley Housing Group should respond—they will have to divvy things up from across the room.

What are the challenges in delivering affordable homes in your area of operation? How are you addressing those challenges? Do you have any good examples to share?

You mentioned that community-led housing initiatives are able to provide different types of delivery. You described using derelict or vacant buildings as well as building new buildings. Would different types of delivery also include different types of tenure?

Thank you very much.

This has been a very useful conversation. We have gone from highlighting high-level matters such as land being a key issue to the question of infrastructure and the concept that housing is not just about building houses but about the place making aspect. In rural and island communities, the approach cannot just be about sticking up a whole load of houses; our witnesses have touched on the need for place making. We must ask ourselves how we can fund such aspects if there is money for housing but not for shared common spaces such as live-and-work settings. It has been fantastic to hear Mark Rodgers drill down into the figures and describe the reality of how we can fund housing when the cost starts to get up towards £250,000 per unit. There are also different challenges in places such as the Isle of Rum.

We are grateful to our four witnesses for giving us their differing perspectives, including Roslyn Clarke’s view on how the Applecross community has enabled aspects of housing there and Donna Birrell’s and Mark Rodgers’s perspectives on a slightly larger scale. Thank you so much for coming—I was about to thank everyone for coming in, but some of us have joined the meeting via Teams. It is very much appreciated.

I suspend the meeting to allow for a change of witnesses.

Good morning, and welcome to the 15th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. Mark Griffin joins us remotely today, and we have received apologies from Annie Wells.

I ask members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

Do members agree to take item 4 in private?

Members indicated agreement.