Chamber and committees

Good morning to the minister and the officials. The committee has heard from a number of private landlords with regard to investor confidence in the sector being knocked and what they believe will be a significant number of landlords seeking to leave the market. What assessment has the Scottish Government made of the impact that the private rent cap will have? Do you have any data specifically on urban and rural and island landlords that you can share with the committee?

You touched on students, and I want to ask specifically about Edinburgh. As an Edinburgh MSP, I have never known it so bad with regard to the numbers of people who are contacting me to say that they cannot find any available property. The levels of homelessness in the capital are going up. The number of people who are living in temporary accommodation is at its highest ever level and it includes a record number of children and pregnant women. The third outcome that you mentioned—limiting homelessness—does not seem to have helped in the capital.

I am concerned that, when students return this autumn, accommodation will not be available for them because many properties, when students move out, are going straight into being rented longer term to people who work here in the capital. Along with the universities, what assessment have you made of that situation, especially for Edinburgh? Last term, the message was put out to students that, if they did not have accommodation, they should not matriculate.

Have universities contacted the Scottish Government to express their concerns on that issue?

I will pick on Peter Kelly, as he referred to Edinburgh and Midlothian.

I will not rehearse the arguments that we made in the chamber with regard to our concerns about the legislation, but I will place on record once again that it is clear that this has impacted on both the social and private rented sectors and very much destabilised them. Those are not necessarily my words but the words of the sector when it has expressed its concerns. I welcome some of the changes that the Scottish Government has brought forward, but we will not support the instrument today.

Good morning and thank you for joining us. You will be aware of the conversations that are taking place about the local governance review and the potential development of a new deal. How will those two things lead to opportunities to improve the picture and take the empowering communities agenda forward?

We need to get to that point.

I will merge a few of my questions. What is the panel’s experience of partnership working in community planning? Where have you seen more collaboration taking place? Has the panel seen a shift towards preventative action? You have touched on the Edinburgh and Midlothian cases, but could you present any further examples, especially in relation to resources?

Who wants to come in first?

I do not know whether the Scottish Government has live data on this that the minister could share with the committee. Especially as we approach the September date, it is important to see how potential changes and the decisions of individual landlords will impact. That may be the critical point.

I return to the question that the convener asked about the setting of a 3 per cent cap and the Scottish Property Federation’s suggestion in its evidence that it should be closer to 5 per cent. Given inflation and what the minister has outlined, why was the private rented sector figure not closer to that, or to the 6 per cent average for the social sector?

That would be helpful.

As I said in the chamber, I welcome that you have written to councils to ask them to highlight what support is available. Do you know whether that has been undertaken?