Chamber and committees

Adam Stachura, your written submission says that only 41 per cent of local authorities had carried out an equality impact assessment on the local development plan. Why do you think that is?

What is the direction of travel of commercial rent levels? Are they increasing or decreasing year on year? What is the average position on rent levels across Scotland?

You rightly highlighted the fact that there are holding costs for vacant properties. What proportion of vacant properties have an existing commercial lease in which the former tenant has vacated the property but is still responsible for the lease?

Craig McLaren, you highlighted in your evidence that there might be a need for general town centre use class. How do we bring that in so that we can get the mixed use of properties without overprovision of one particular type such as charity shops, betting shops or whatever?

There is nobody in those buildings.

The committee visited Dumfries, where there were a number of properties that had been lying empty for upwards of 20 years. We are going to Hamilton next week, and I believe that there is a similar situation there.

I ask Euan Leitch how we bring long-term abandoned buildings back into use.

You touched on the properties that have been turned to residential use, such as police stations, church halls and so on. Do you have good examples of commercial properties being brought back into residential use?

I want to ask about the empty properties in our town centres, many of which have long been vacant, for 10 or 20 years. The Federation of Small Businesses said in its evidence that the commercial property market “is not working”. One piece of evidence that it highlighted was that the price of occupying empty units is not falling. Why is that and what do we need to change?

Does Adrian Watson want to comment on the amount of empty properties in the town centres that his members represent? What impact is that having?

During the pandemic, the online share of retail sales reached a high of 37 per cent in February 2021. Peter Mowforth, are you able to highlight whether some sectors benefited more than others from that growth in retail sales and whether large or small retailers—or a mix—benefited?