Chamber and committees

Yes, please, convener. I want to drill down into the competing pressures and strategic outcomes. For example, we know the targets that the country has set itself for the production of renewable energy. Do the witnesses think that NPF4, as it is currently drafted, will help to deliver renewable energy in their council areas, given the competing demands that exist, such as those relating to the restoration of peatlands? How will that be taken into consideration? That is quite a wide question, but I want to look at how NPF4 will meet the targets in the world of renewables.

The development of the national planning framework is the opportunity to demand of all councils that we meet our renewable energy targets. Will NPF4 help you to do that? There will be more difficult and challenging issues. For example, many communities will come to you with objections to larger wind turbines, but the job of meeting the targets has really been given to planning departments. Will you have the tools to help you to deliver in that regard? This is a national mission across Scotland, which planning departments are tasked to achieve. What would make the process easier? A lot of applications end up being called in by the Scottish Government because of the challenges. Will NPF4 make your job easier or more difficult?

In that case, can I go back on my word and briefly ask another question, convener?

Would anyone else like to come in on that?

I want to ask a couple of questions about the pressures that councils face, a number of which are highlighted in the helpful briefing from COSLA. Glasgow City Council and the City of Edinburgh Council face particular pressures. How do you manage to balance your resources? Specifically, what work are you doing with the third sector, which can play an important role, especially in assisting people who have no recourse to public funds?

Andrew Morrison, Alistair Dinnie and Pat Togher all want to come in. I will bring in Andrew Morrison, specifically on my question about the third sector.

I want to move on to the budget pressures that will be faced as a result of the coming budget. We know about the concern that has been expressed about cuts to council funding. Martin Booth, who colleagues from Glasgow will know is the executive director of finance at Glasgow City Council, recently represented the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers at the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. He expressed concern about support for English as a second language, which will undoubtedly come under challenge as a result of the budget. We know that around 100 different languages are spoken in the school population in Glasgow.

How is the specific issue of the need for language assistance to access services prioritised by councils? I will bring in Susan Aitken first. If anyone else wants to answer that question, I ask them to put an R in the chat.

I am not sure whether anyone else wants to come in on that.

It follows on from the language question and concerns access to healthcare services. The language barriers around healthcare are often critically important. This question is directed at Pat Togher. What work is under way on that? We know that barriers to access to healthcare already exist for homeless people but are greater for people who do not have English as their first language.

That is helpful. Any details that you can provide to us of what that looks like would be very useful.

I want to move on to the issue of addressing stigma, which you touched on in your opening statement, and the role of trauma-informed services. I will specifically focus on local government. There are concerns that budgetary pressures will mean that the task force’s recommendations and local authorities’ work in trying to turn around the public health crisis will not necessarily be carried out. I fully accept that there are pressures because of the pandemic, but why do you think that that is the case? Given the cuts that we are seeing to local council budgets, are you concerned that the issues that we need local authorities to address—housing is often one of the key issues—will not necessarily be addressed? How will the task force recommend that those aspects are given the priority that they need?