Chamber and committees

That will be one area of work of the new national public energy agency, which we will launch later this year.

When we published the heat networks delivery plan, I visited Queens Quay in West Dunbartonshire. That is one example of where a local authority is already giving leadership. It is showing that the development of capacity in heat decarbonisation and heat networks can be of benefit to the local economy and to democratisation in our energy system, and it is working in a way that will also create opportunities for the private sector to connect to that network and gain co-benefits.

There will be other local authorities that have not yet gone down that road, but will see the opportunity to do so in future. They will need support to share skills and gain the capacity that is required to make that happen. The experience to date, as well as the potential support that would come from not only Scottish Government resourcing but from working with the new agency, show the huge potential for that to happen.

The question of resourcing needs to respect the discussion that continues to take place between the Scottish Government and COSLA. After the upcoming elections, we will see new leadership in some local authorities and, I hope, many local champions of this work across the political spectrum and across all local authorities.

The Scottish Government will work actively and constructively with individual local authorities and COSLA to address the capacity issues. Once again, however, I have to say that the discussions on specific resourcing need to be allowed to continue, and we will need to take account of Parliament’s decision on passing the order before we are able to specify exactly what the funding is going to be.

In the first instance, the first strategies will have to be completed by the end of 2023, and they will be updated on a five-yearly basis from that point.

The nature of the challenge will be different in different parts of the country, which is why locally led planning is so important. It would be appropriate for each local authority to identify in its first strategy the issues and challenges that need to be addressed. It is fair to say that, at this point, no one is able to confidently predict with precision exactly how the strategies will be implemented over the coming decades. That is why we will go through the process of giving local authorities not only the duty but the resources to identify the circumstances that are right in their locations, to develop place-based approaches and to update them on a five-year cycle.

Good morning, colleagues. I am grateful for the opportunity to give evidence on the draft Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (Scotland) Order 2022.

As we are all aware, achieving our statutory targets for net zero and fuel poverty will mean transforming Scotland’s building stock. As set out in our heat in buildings strategy, we have to ensure that, by 2045, our homes and buildings no longer contribute to climate change, as part of the wider just transition to net zero. More specifically, by 2033, all homes should have achieved a good level of energy efficiency—equivalent to energy performance certificate band C—and, by 2030, emissions from heating our homes and buildings must be 68 per cent lower than 2020 levels. That will require very significant deployment of zero-emissions heating.

Delivering that transformation will require concerted effort across national and local government as well as the wider public and private sectors. Locally led planning will be key to ensuring that the decarbonisation of heat in buildings is delivered in a way that is relevant to local contexts and tailored to the specific needs of communities. Such planning is needed to translate national and local net zero priorities into place-based strategies for heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency improvement.

Local heat and energy efficiency strategies are the principal mechanism for that locally led planning. They will support local planning, co-ordination and delivery of the heat transition across communities in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has been working closely with local authorities to test approaches for local heat and energy efficiency strategies. I express my gratitude to all those who took part in the pilot programme, which involved all 32 Scottish local authorities and was a great example of partnership working between national and local government.

LHEES will be structured in two parts. Local strategies will provide a long-term strategic framework for the improvement of the energy efficiency of homes and buildings in the local authority’s area and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the heating of such buildings. Those strategies will be accompanied by delivery plans, which will set out how a local authority proposes to support the implementation of its strategy.

The Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (Scotland) Order that we are debating today will place a duty on local authorities to produce strategies and delivery plans by the end of 2023 and then to update them every five years. If the committee and the Parliament approve the order and it is brought into force, it will create a clear statutory basis that will ensure consistency and comprehensive coverage across Scotland against a common minimum standard and raise the profile of local strategies with industry and investors.

The order was developed in co-operation with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. I particularly thank COSLA’s environment and economy spokesperson, Councillor Steven Heddle, and COSLA leaders for their support and for the partnership approach that has been taken in developing local heat and energy efficiency strategies.

Local authorities will need to be suitably resourced to undertake the new duty. Scottish Government officials are working with COSLA to deliver appropriate funding to enable local authorities to access the necessary staff capacity and technical skills to produce their local heat and energy efficiency strategies.

It is clear that local government has an absolutely critical role to play in the transition of Scotland’s building stock to deliver net zero and that many local authorities are already driving forward action in that area. Approving the order will ensure that there is consistent, comprehensive coverage of local heat and energy efficiency strategies across Scotland and will enable local planning, co-ordination and delivery of the decarbonisation of Scotland’s homes and buildings.

I look forward to the committee’s discussion and to answering questions.

I guess that the ideal is that we increase the number of situations in which an alternative route or resolution is found. One would hope that if a landlord made such an approach and the tenant engaged constructively, the case would never have to reach the tribunal stage, because a way of resolving the situation and sustaining the tenancy would be found. That is what we are looking to achieve. It seems to be fairly clear that if a landlord has taken the steps and is still, because the tenant has refused to do so, unable to engage properly with their tenant, the tribunal will be able to take that into account.

We will continue to listen to the sector and to recognise the very different circumstances—or heterogeneity, as I think one of the witnesses on the previous panel described it—of landlords in the private rented sector. I have met the Scottish Association of Landlords and other organisations that represent the sector on the landlords’ side, as well as those who represent the interests of tenants.

There is probably a need to recognise that there is a shared interest here in achieving the two goals that I set out earlier: closing the gap in outcomes between the social rented sector and the private rented sector; and raising standards across the board. Good-quality, responsible, professional landlords will see that as being in their interests, too. They do not want to have low-quality landlords—those who are sometimes called “rogue landlords”—operating in the sector. The professional and high-quality parts of the private rented sector want there to be good standards across the board and want an end to unscrupulous or unacceptable behaviour.

Beyond the specific measures that we are talking about today, we need to recognise that there are concerns around a wide range of other issues. For example, as the committee heard from the previous panel, there are concerns around energy efficiency and the move to net zero. All political parties support the move to net zero, and I think that the private rented sector recognises that there is work to do. On average, its stock has a lower level of energy efficiency than the rest of the housing stock, which impacts on the affordability of housing for tenants. We need to make sure that we support the whole sector to move forward with that agenda, as we do with the rest of society.

The Government continues to commit to working with the sector in all its diversity, listening to it and understanding its concerns, and we will do that, in particular, with landlords who want to work with us to raise standards, while taking on board the perspective of tenants.

That is hugely important. There have been periods when evictions in the private rented sector were the largest route into homelessness. That has perhaps declined proportionately but there is a real concern and a desire to make sure that that does not become a problem of the scale that Mark Griffin is are rightly concerned about.

The pre-action protocol and the tribunal discretion provisions are both safeguards that can help to prevent eviction into homelessness. The protocol, in particular, encourages and supports the dialogue that I referred to earlier between landlords and tenants so that they can work towards the establishment of repayment plans to help clear rent arrears and sustain a tenancy and to make sure that tenants have access to the financial support that can also help them.

The organisations that you have heard from have made similar points. Shelter in particular says:

“The pre-action requirements (PARs) for eviction proceedings on the grounds of rent arrears introduced another important preventative measure for eviction and homelessness ... this extra protection for renters”

against evictions

“should be made permanent. The PARs encourage landlords to help their tenants access support and advice on rent arrears management before any eviction action is taken, thus helping them to manage their debt and remain in their home.”

There is a pretty clear sense from the organisations that work most closely on homelessness and that rightly challenge the Government to continue to do more on homelessness prevention that the measures will be a positive step in that direction. I by no means suggest that they are the only steps that we need to take, but they will certainly be positive in helping to achieve that.

There is a great deal that we are actively looking at in the development of the housing bill and the consultation on the new deal for tenants. I welcome any constructive proposals for the ideas that we should be considering for inclusion in that bill.

I am not sure whether Miles Briggs is referring to correspondence that he has had with me; it does not immediately ring a bell. It might be that other ministers have dealt with it, and I am not going to try to answer on their behalf correspondence that I have not seen. If Miles Briggs wants to write to me about it, I will certainly explore that matter and discuss it with other colleagues who might have already considered his correspondence.

The fundamental point about the Coronavirus (Reform and Recovery) (Scotland) Bill is that is gives us the opportunity to make permanent some provisions that were introduced on a temporary basis during the pandemic. That is the fundamental opportunity that it presents. Of the four provisions that I mentioned earlier in discussion with Mark Griffin, the two that the bill deals with have clearly demonstrated themselves to be positive in terms of the impact that they have on people’s lives by resolving some disputes between landlords and tenants. They are also proportionate measures that can help the Government to achieve its policy objectives beyond the pandemic. The bill is the opportunity to take the relatively modest step of making permanent those successful temporary provisions.

On the wider question of other considerations that we need to address, the Government will, of course, be open to constructive suggestions from all sides as we develop the next piece of housing legislation.

I heard the discussion during the first evidence session. If I remember rightly, John Blackwood from the Scottish Association of Landlords said that a landlord would be poorly advised to pursue a request for eviction with the tribunal if they had not gone through the pre-action protocol, because there is an expectation that the tribunal would consider whether the landlord had complied with it.

We are looking to make permanent the temporary provisions that were put in place during the pandemic, because that will be the simplest and cleanest way to achieve continuation. At some point in the future, perhaps in the housing bill in year 2 of the session, we might be able to consider whether there are wider views. If the evidence that we gather between now and then shows that the protocol should be amended to create a stronger legal duty to ensure compliance, we could consider that. At the moment, making the current temporary provisions permanent is the cleanest and simplest way to ensure that we retain the additional level of protection.

It is pretty clear that we can have confidence that any landlord who feels the need to pursue an eviction, and who genuinely believes that they are acting reasonably in the circumstances, will have gone through the pre-action protocol steps in the first place, in order to demonstrate to the tribunal that their actions have been reasonable.

It is up to the tribunal to decide what circumstances it takes into account, which will determine how long it might take for a case to be considered. It is possible that it will take longer for some cases to be considered, if there are exceptional or unusual circumstances. However, that will not always be the case.

The evidence that we have to date suggests that the effect will be modest. The most important thing is to ensure that most tenancy exits do not go to the tribunal. We need to recognise that, and acknowledge that the intention of the provisions is to encourage negotiation and agreement between tenants and landlords when there is a problem. If we are successful in doing that—I think that the evidence shows that the temporary provisions have been successful—any additional workload burdens would be manageable and the effect would be modest.

The financial memorandum that accompanies the bill explores the costs to the tribunal in detail. On there being quantifiable costs to discretionary decision making, it is worth noting that the introduction of the pre-action protocol, and the obligation of the tribunal to consider a landlord’s compliance with it before making its decision, will again reinforce that it is in the landlord’s best interests to engage with their tenant early to prevent arrears from building up in the first place. Again I note that that early engagement could prevent altogether the need for eviction proceedings, which ultimately would reduce the costs for the tribunal.