Chamber and committees

Thanks for that. The policy’s intended impact is quite clear. The Government has said that the policy’s aim is to bring more homes into the full-time, long-term letting domain. However, I do not see any numbers from Wales to suggest that the policy actually delivered that there. It is perhaps more a tax to raise revenue for councils. The Government estimates that potentially £35 million will be raised. Is your reading of this that the lack of statistics on how many additional new homes and long-term lets the policy will provide means that it is just another revenue stream for councils?

Has the Government considered other available mechanisms—for example, conditional grants or leasing schemes—that could be used to incentivise second home owners to use their homes differently? Was that part of the consultation?

A grace period is important, but why is there not a formal process beyond that? You suggested that councils that are trying to bring empty homes back into use will have to have discussions with developers and individuals, but it will create a postcode lottery if each council has a different process and a different ruling. We are trying to encourage councils to bring empty properties back into use—we have heard that there are 47,000 such properties—but it will be open to councils to decide whether six months is to be taken as a cut-off point. If properties are to be looked at on a case-by-case basis, who will do that work?

Thank you for that.

The relationship that you have developed—that is, of being closer to bodies that people are complaining about in order to try to speed up the process—has attracted comment. For example, in 2014, Professor Chris Gill, who is now at the University of Glasgow but was formerly at the SPSO, wrote about not only those new responsibilities and engagement with public service bodies but the need to demonstrate sufficient independence during that period. What safeguards are you making sure to embed in that process?

That is great. Thank you.

That is helpful. You will be aware that the Government has signalled that the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill will include new homelessness duties. Has part of the communication with stakeholders been about pre-empting that? It will be a statutory piece of legislation and will, I accept, cross public services. Has work started already on that?

Good morning, minister, and good morning to your officials. Thanks for joining us.

What consideration has the Government given to the argument that has been put to the committee that people with second homes are not using public services to the same extent as permanent residents and that they might have already paid an additional dwelling supplement to land and buildings transaction tax?

I put on the record my thanks to constituents in north Edinburgh for hosting us. Those of us who have been working with home owners across Scotland know how stressful this period has been for them. It is important to put that on the record. I was struck by the fact that they feel that the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government have made limited progress on the matter compared with what has been done at the UK level. It is important that, through the cladding bill, we address the matter as urgently as possible and develop solutions.

As my colleague Pam Gosal said, there are specific issues that we need to investigate with regard to electric vehicles; e-bikes, which were specifically raised; and charging points in developments. I raised concerns with ministers a few months back about the regulations that we passed to make it easier to have charging points in properties for electric vehicles. We need to look at that in the context of cladding and the significant time that is needed to resolve the issue. We need to take that forward in our work on the bill.

Good morning, panel, and thank you for joining us. I want to return to the question that Willie Coffey asked about the trends that you outlined. Has there been any national analysis of what trends there have been since the SPSO took over the role of standardising complaint procedures in 2010?

That is helpful. Those of us who watch certain television programmes will understand that expected timescales can slip. Having that flexibility in the guidelines is therefore really important. The City of Edinburgh Council told Edinburgh MSPs recently that it takes up to eight months to bring a council-owned property back into use. That is the period of works that it expects. It is therefore important that the guidance provides that flexibility.