Chamber and committees

I will come back in on that. One concern is about labour and about getting materials to islands. Has that been considered? I also think that, in some cases, communities have land but house builders do not want to build there because they are difficult to get to.

I want to pick up on the islands infrastructure fund. When the Scottish Government announced that fund, it said that it would have

“a transformative effect on the community as a whole.”

I would like to hear your thoughts on how we can involve communities in the design and allocation of that fund to ensure that it is truly transformative. We heard earlier that community-led initiatives need to be funded, so money is obviously needed.

I want to change the subject with a question for colleagues in the James Hutton Institute about Boundaries Scotland. I am a member of another committee that has been looking at electoral boundary changes for Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles, Argyll and Bute, Highland and North Ayrshire. I am not necessarily looking for an answer to this, but I just want to flag up that Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles and North Ayrshire were happy with the results of Boundaries Scotland’s work. On the other hand, Highland and Argyll and Bute, which are, as Jenni Minto has pointed out, blended mainland and island authorities—I know that North Ayrshire has some islands, but Argyll and Bute and Highland have a lot of them—were the least happy with the results, and I think that it would be very worth while if you could somehow track that in the work that you are doing.

The issue is about representation of rural, far-flung areas in blended authorities, because what ended up happening was that mainland rural areas started to have less representation and islands that felt more connected to the mainland felt that they were losing something, too. Perhaps it would be good to bring some cross working into this.

Thank you. Would someone else like to speak to that?

Thank you.

Yes. There seems to be a low level of satisfaction with housing availability and affordability on many of the islands. Is the Scottish Government’s commitment to delivering 11,000 affordable homes in remote, rural and island communities enough, and how can we ensure that enough of those are on the islands, where they are needed?

I will give just a little background to that. I travelled round all the island groupings—not enough in Argyll, unfortunately, but certainly to Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles—over the summer. In the Western Isles, I found that each island had housing issues—there was a lack of housing—but the issues were all different. I am not sure that we have a true understanding of the reality of what it means to create housing in such places. Again, I put that question to Philip Raines to begin with.

I was going to come in on transport, but that is okay. I direct my question to Jane Craigie, Artemis Pana and Ailsa Raeburn—I would love to hear from all the witnesses, but we simply do not have time.

Only 24 per cent of respondents to the survey felt that young people are sufficiently supported and encouraged to remain in, move to or return to islands. How can the forthcoming Scottish Government budget be directed to address population and repeopling issues in Scotland’s islands, particularly for young people?

It is great to hear that the Standards Commission will provide guidance, but are there any opportunities to give councillors training in this area? I am hearing from my colleagues about certain grey areas where things are not clear and councillors want to be confident that they are doing the right thing.

Good morning and welcome to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee’s seventh meeting in 2021. I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are in silent mode and that all notifications are turned off during the meeting.

Our first agenda item is an evidence-taking session on the “Code of Conduct for Councillors”. I welcome Ben Macpherson, the Minister for Social Security and Local Government. I also welcome Tony Romain and Claire McKenna, who are both senior policy officers in the local government policy and relationships unit at the Scottish Government. They join us virtually.

We will take evidence from the minister before moving to a formal debate on the code of conduct. I ask committee members to declare any interests that they have in the matter.

Thank you, minister. We have a few questions. We will begin with Mark Griffin.