Chamber and committees

It is good to hear you say that it is an exciting time to come into planning. That is absolutely true. It is a critical role and I would encourage many young people to become planners.

Craig Iles and David Dunne also want to come in on capital investment plans.

We will hear from Pam Ewen next, and it would be great to hear from Iain McDiarmid as well, to get a Shetland perspective.

Thank you, Pam. It is great that you have brought up retrofitting, which seems to get missed in the conversation but is critical to the way forward.

Iain, would you like to comment from a Shetland perspective?

It is good to hear from you; I am sorry that we did not get you into the conversation sooner.

Once again, I am grateful for your specific examples on that point. Lastly, does Sarah Shaw want to come in on that question?

Thank you for that. It is good to hear that perspective.

We will move on to discuss the minimum all-tenure housing land requirement, on which I will bring in Pam Ewen and then Sarah Shaw, initially. How do you think that the minimum all-tenure housing land requirement will work in practice? Is it clear enough? Will it direct new developments to where they are needed? A supplementary question that has come up in evidence sessions is whether we need to rethink how we do housing in Scotland in general.

Sarah, did you want to come in?

I note that Craig Iles said earlier that, with that kind of power, you need a plan, and then you need time and resources.

Are there any other specific improvements that could be made to the draft that have not already been highlighted during the evidence session or in your written submissions? We have covered a lot, but there might be something else that you really want to tell us today. You can put an R in the chat for that.

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

Agenda item 1 is a decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take items 3, 4, 5 and 6 in private? Item 3 relates to the committee’s approach to further consideration of understanding barriers to local elected office; item 4 is consideration of our approach to the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill; item 5 is a chance for the committee to agree its approach to new standards for fire alarms in all homes in Scotland; and item 6 is consideration of our approach to scrutiny of the Building Safety Bill legislative consent memorandum.

Members indicated agreement.