Chamber and committees

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

Willie Coffey and Mark Griffin are joining us remotely for today’s meeting. We also have with us the convener of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, Elena Whitham, who is joining us for both evidence sessions on the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill under item 2. I welcome Elena to the meeting.

Item 1 is for the committee to decide whether to take item 4 in private. Item 4 is consideration of the evidence that we have taken on the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill. Do members agree to take that item in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you very much for giving us that optimistic view, Matt.

John Blackwood what is your perspective on that question?

Alastair Houston, do you have any thoughts on making the changes permanent now instead of putting them in a wider package?

We turn to the second evidence session on part 4 of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill, for which we are joined by the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights, Patrick Harvie, who is joined by Scottish Government officials. Greig Walker is the the bill team leader, and joins us online; Yvonne Gavan is team leader in private housing services; and Craig McGuffie is a lawyer. I welcome our witnesses to the committee. As Mr Walker is joining us remotely, I would be grateful if Mr Harvie would make it clear when he wishes him to respond to a specific question, to allow broadcasting staff to bring him in. I intend to allow up to 75 minutes for this discussion.

Before I open up to questions from the committee, I invite Mr Harvie to make a short opening statement.

Thank you for those perspectives.

Mark Griffin is joining us on BlueJeans with a couple of questions.

The sector is fluid—people come and go. From hearing your response, what rose up in my mind was a thought about looking to other countries. Is the private rented sector a common thing in other countries? How do they do it? In Scotland, we see as normal the combination of the private rented sector and the social rented sector, but is it normal in, say, the Netherlands? Do other countries tend to go down the line of more socially provided housing? Do other countries always have such a mix?

The third item on our agenda concerns consideration of two instruments that are subject to the negative procedure. There is no requirement for the committee to make any recommendations on negative instruments.

As the committee has no comments to make on the instruments, do we agree that we do not wish to make any recommendations in relation to either instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

I see that Matt Downie wants to come in, too.

I am sorry, Mr Watson—I really appreciate your response, but we have other questions. If you could bring your comments to a close, that would be great.

Is it worth looking at that, given that we have heard this morning about the fluidity—to use a water-related word—of the Clyde area and the changes that are happening there?