Chamber and committees

What you are sharing with us this morning is tremendous. We have a couple more questions and we need slightly shorter answers if possible. That would be tremendous.

Eilidh, do you want to come in on this question?

That is all right.

Does anyone have anything new and different to add to what Gordon MacRae has just said?

Good morning, and welcome to the 30th meeting in 2024 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are on silent—I will do that, too.

The first item on our agenda is a decision whether to take items 4, 5 and 6 in private. Do members agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Under the next item on our agenda, we will take evidence from two panels of witnesses as part of our housing inquiry. The sessions provide an opportunity for the committee to consider the response to the housing emergency and how we move beyond the emergency to a sustainable housing system that works for all.

On our first panel, we are joined by Professor Duncan Maclennan, emeritus professor of urban economics at the University of Glasgow and adjunct professor of housing economics at the Canadian Housing Evidence Collective and McMaster University in Ontario.

We have a number of questions for you. There is no need for you to operate your microphone, as that will be done for you. I will begin with some opening questions before I bring in other committee members.

First, what are your thoughts on whether there is a national housing emergency in Scotland and whether the Scottish Government is clear about how we should define a national housing emergency?

That is very helpful and provides some clarity. You referred to a report that pulls all the needs together. I did not catch it, so will you say what that report is?

That is very helpful. My second question was going to be whether the housing emergency could have been predicted, but I think that you have answered that, given the work that you have been doing for quite some time. Is there anything that you want to add?

That is great—thanks very much. One of my challenges is that I need to bring members in, but first I have another question. You have talked quite a bit about home ownership. Is it a given that home ownership, and the pathway into that, would be part of solving the housing emergency?

In other countries, and certainly on the European continent, people are quite happy to rent throughout their lives, with very good-quality rentals at a fair rent that is not such a burden on their financial circumstances. Home ownership is a tendency in the United Kingdom, but is it a given that that is what we have to do?

It is great to hear from you. We will let the session run on for a little bit longer, but we are a bit tight for time, because there are lots of people sitting behind you in the public gallery who have things to say.

Alexander Stewart has some questions on longer-term issues.