Chamber and committees

That leads me on nicely to the question of what else you want to see as part of the on-going local governance review to change legislation and strengthen the position of community councils. Does the whole local democracy system need to be reformed in relation to the role of community councils and to empower them, as Oliver Escobar suggested? Do we need to capture anything else that we have not heard in today’s evidence?

Does anyone who is online want to respond?

Good morning, panel. Thank you for joining us. I will return to how community councils engage in the participatory budgeting process, which we have touched on. What impact has the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 had? What positives has it brought? Emma Swift touched on asset transfers. What are your views on that and on potential reforms that could empower community councils?

That is helpful. Are you drilling down into the data to find out about the specific point that was put to us? I do not imagine that landlords record when they tell people that they do not have the resources so they have to wait for repairs. It is a difficult issue, as Citizens Advice Scotland said to us. Is it more common in certain parts of the country where councils have funding challenges? Have you captured anything specific to some local councils that are in that situation?

That is helpful. Since you were appointed to this role, I have been on at you quite extensively about the Edinburgh situation. Do you believe that damp and mould issues are more prevalent in certain council areas or housing associations? Can you comment on the maintenance aspect and the inspection regime? I am not sure that we have got underneath the Scotland-wide figure to see whether there are outliers.

As an Edinburgh MSP, my post-pandemic mailbag on the issue is much fuller. Given the property market in Edinburgh, people are perhaps moving into houses that they should not be. Have you and your officials done any work on where that is a problem?

Good morning, and thank you for joining us.

At our previous evidence session, Citizens Advice Scotland told the committee that some of its social housing clients had been

“told that there was not enough funding to resolve their problem and that they would have to wait until the next funding cycle to see whether it could be resolved.”—[Official Report, Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, 2 May 2023; c 9.]

In your experience, is that a common occurrence? Should social landlords receive additional Scottish Government funding to help them to address dampness problems?

I have a further question on repair works. Minister, you touched on the meetings that you plan to have with the Scottish Housing Regulator. Does it have the powers to deal with landlords who let out poor-quality homes with damp and mould issues? Will you consider that issue?

I am looking at the issue as an Edinburgh MSP, and I can see problems with the housing market in the capital at the moment. Is there a specific problem with the quality of housing stock in Edinburgh? I submitted an FOI request about dampness surveys. The council’s response was that 122 such surveys had been undertaken in 2019, but that there were 1,215 last year. I think that problems are increasing in Edinburgh. Can you say from your experience whether Edinburgh is going in the wrong direction?

This next question might be for Callum Chomczuk. In relation to private rented housing, do you have any views on how effective the repairing standard is, and how effective the tribunal for enforcing it is, as a way of ensuring that quality private rented housing is free of dampness and mould?

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us here and online.

I will ask some questions about current policies. I will ask them both at the same time so that everybody has a chance to touch on them. The first regards the actions that are set out in the tackling child poverty delivery plan. Do they need to be revisited, given what we have heard about the rising cost of living?

Also, can you provide examples of existing policies that are particularly effective and policies that you think have been less effective? We have heard from many of you about the Scottish child payment, but I wonder whether we can gather any more information on that.

Shall we start from the beginning again, with Satwat?