Chamber and committees

I thank you for your confirmation of what local authorities have been doing in recovery, and your recognition of the need for support.

My colleague Meghan Gallacher has a question.

Welcome to the second meeting of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee in session 6. This is our first meeting together in person, as a committee.

Our first agenda item is consideration of whether to take in private agenda item 4, which will be an opportunity for members of the committee to reflect on the evidence that they heard earlier in the meeting. Do members agree to take agenda item 4 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I have a couple of supplementary questions. What role has local government played in the recovery? From your perspective, what has it done, specifically? Secondly, do local authorities have enough money to support communities through the period of recovery?

I am sure that members are glad to hear about the emphasis on local input for the national care service process.

I thank the cabinet secretary and her officials for their very helpful evidence. We have covered a lot of areas, and the evidence has given us a good foundation for going forward in our committee work. We look forward to working with you over the course of the session.

Thank you for your responses. We look forward to hearing about the outcomes of the work that you will be doing.

Absolutely—about planning departments.

Thank you for that reassurance and encouragement. We have time for one more question from Meghan Gallacher.

I will go back to Elena Whitham, who has a couple of questions.

I am going to slip in a supplementary question from Mark Griffin on local government pay.

I will briefly suspend the meeting before we move to our next panel of witnesses.