Chamber and committees

I will go back to some of the points that we have heard about workforce planning—specifically the request for a graduate apprentice scheme for social care and the creation of training places to increase the number of planners. This week, I met people from Edinburgh College who told me that they had 300 more applicants for construction courses than they could take.

On the outcomes—Fiona Whittaker mentioned the Withers report—why have we not got to a place where public services in the further education sector and the council sector are linking in with the development of the workforce? I am sure that people are doing that, but their efforts do not seem to be delivering the outcomes that we have been talking about for years in terms of head count and the flow of new entrants into the college sector and local government.

Was the Withers report dumped on a shelf? Why have we not seen the linking-up of services in relation to workforce planning? It seems strange that we are still talking about some of those issues.

That was helpful.

Are your councils undertaking any work on how changes to services might be impacting disproportionately negatively on women and minority groups in the workforce?

Thank you.

We have heard a lot about changes that the pandemic brought about. How is local government measuring staff wellbeing in relation to those changes, particularly among individuals who may now work permanently from home? What opportunities have been opened up for the workforce?

Finally, how does the extension to the regulations fit with the Scottish Government’s wider objectives in “Housing to 2040”? Moreover, I note that many of the homelessness duties that are being presented were to do with the development of sustainable tenancies within the private rented sector. I do not know whether you have to hand any data on the situation today, but my understanding is that very few such tenancies have been taken forward since the rent controls were put in place. It seems really critical that we re-establish that relationship to deal with the housing crisis that we are facing.

I want to ask a few questions about skills and the impact on developers. We have heard consistently about the pressures on the workforce that developers are experiencing. Is there a sufficient skilled workforce in Scotland to facilitate the introduction of the new-build heat standards?

I will bring in Duncan Sharp, as I want to start with the low-carbon skills grant that is available for heating and plumbing apprenticeships. Has that made a difference?

I will bring in Fionna Kell on developers.

In September 2019, the Government stated its intention to regulate new build in the way that is set out in the regulations. However, the pandemic had an impact and led to a delay in the regulations being laid.

Has the construction sector in general had enough time to plan for the regulations? I refer not just to the workforce challenges but to how the regulations will completely change how you sell and hand over a home.

Thanks. Does anyone else want to comment on that point?

That is helpful. Finally, on workforce, last year I attended the opening of Edinburgh College’s renewables and energy efficiency training centre. It was interesting to see that a number of young people had come to Edinburgh—I am sure that other larger colleges are also in that space—from rural communities to do the courses and that their intentions were to stay and work here. I welcome the fact that the mobile heat pump training centre has been brought forward to showcase that work, but is there a specific strategy for rural and island communities? Young people who want to start a career in that area will end up training in larger centres and then being offered work in urban areas, so we will not necessarily return those people to their communities to do that work in the future. Where is the Government on that?