Chamber and committees

Good morning, and welcome to the 22nd 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 and that all other notifications are turned off.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 4 and 5 in private. Do we agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Thanks very much. I will bring in Gordon MacDonald on the theme of personalisation of homes.

I will bring in Willie Coffey, who has questions on evictions.

What should the key indicators be?

My understanding from being in the Parliament is that things take time and we cannot do everything at once. Parts of the bill will move us in a direction. You said that the situation is a symptom of a wider problem. Will you expand on what you think the wider problem is?

Hang on a minute. We have lost your audio.

Could you try again?

To clarify, are you saying that, if we had more transparency on those three levels—and if they were public facing—that would help us in making the sector better for people?

So a more assertive regime would be one that is similar to that in the social rented sector.

Thanks very much.

Pam Gosal has a couple of questions.

You may be aware that, in the lead-up to the bill, we had a landlords panel and a tenants panel before us, which was very helpful in enabling us to speak to people with lived experience. Our tenants panel proposed an alternative system whereby landlords should apply to a third party such as rent service Scotland if they want to increase rent levels. The thinking behind that is that it would place the onus on landlords to ensure compliance, improve data collection and relieve the pressure on local authorities to collect data. Tony Cain, what are your thoughts on that suggestion?