Chamber and committees

I was not going to ask this, but we have had a very political argument, which I do not think necessarily puts Scotland’s true finances into context. I wonder whether the minister wants to put on record the fact that the Barnett formula provides an additional £2,000 per head in Scotland compared with the other parts of the UK, which is allowing us to take the decisions that he refers to. There is also the global impact. The minister very briefly talked about the war in Ukraine; on Friday it will be one year since that illegal invasion began, and it has had a global impact. I am not pretending in any way that we have been cushioned from it, but reality needs to be taken on board when we are talking about these issues. There is also the fiscal position, in which our country has spent £8 billion more—the Barnett formula allows us to do that. Does the minister recognise that?

In pure economic terms, however, that was £8 billion less than we spent.

On the back of those questions, what assessment has there been of the impact of the late or delayed payment to people, especially in rural Scotland? Have you reached out to any fuel poverty charities to find out what impact it has had, especially for people off grid?

That is a good point.

To go back to other points that have been raised, for the tenants associations that I have met in Edinburgh recently, the backlog of maintenance is also a key part of their concerns. A lot of people have issues that they were hoping would be resolved, but they are now being told that it is unlikely that there will be budget to do that. There is that wider concern.

It might be worth monitoring the issue, because the description that is being provided seems to be quite varied across council websites. I take your point about the signposting of fire exits, but different details are provided on council websites, given that 32 variations are being applied.

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes.

I thank the panel members for joining us today.

My question is about private tenancies and how to support people who are furthest from the housing market into tenancies. You have comprehensively outlined what you see as a change in landlord behaviour. Record numbers of people in Scotland are living in temporary accommodation. Is that a direct result of that change and of the people who are furthest from the market being unable to access private tenancies? That is likely to have a more pronounced impact in rural Scotland, where the loss of even one property can have a huge impact. Sarah-Jane Laing, will you talk about the rural dimension?