Chamber and committees

Jackie Weaver, do you have any reflections to offer on the diversity of parish councils in England?

John Blackwood and Tim Douglas, do you or your members have any experience of local authority interventions on that front? Are there any examples of local authorities getting in touch with members to talk about standards? What does that process look like? How is it handled on both sides?

I have a question for John Kerr. It is not about a council’s role as a social landlord but about its strategic responsibility in ensuring that all homes in the local authority area meet the tolerable standard and its ability to report breaches of that standard to the tribunal. How proactive are councils in assessing stock across all tenures? What do you do to support private tenants, too? In the previous session, we heard that private tenants sometimes live in houses with damp or mould but do not have the time or the energy to pursue that, or they might be concerned about their tenancy if they were to do so. What are councils doing proactively in relation to all the stock in local authority areas?

Thank you.

It has been eight years since the Community Empowerment (Scotland) 2015 Act was passed. Can the minister and Councillor Heddle point to any evidence that shows that communities are more empowered now than they were back when the act was passed? I will go to the minister first.

My experience is that, quite often, asset transfers happen almost as a last resort, when there is a proposal to close a facility and the local community does not want to lose it. Your comment is helpful.

Are we doing enough to build capacity in communities and to support them to get involved in decision making? How are we supporting existing infrastructure, and what role do community councils have in community planning? I ask Councillor Heddle to respond first.

Thanks, minister.

Councillor Heddle, do you have anything to add? Are you able to point to anything that shows that the nation is more empowered than it was when the 2015 act was passed?

Are you able to set out how the Government feels that local planning authorities should balance the policies and proposals that they consult on and develop locally with potential competing interests or clashes with NPF4? How do you expect planning authorities to resolve those issues? You talked about the guidance that you plan to release to supplement NPF4. When might that be released?

Minister, do you have anything to add to that?

Does Nigel Sellars have any knowledge of that?