Chamber and committees

The Housing Benefit Reform Stakeholder Advisory Group was established in November 2010. Since then it has met seven times. The following organisations are members of the group:

Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers

Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland

Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy

Citizens Advice Scotland

COSLA

Council for Mortgage Lenders

Housing Support Enabling Unit

Rights Advice Scotland

Scottish Association of Landlords

Scottish Council for Single Homeless

Scottish Federation of Housing Associations

Scottish Government

Scottish Landlords Association

Scottish Rural Property & Business Association

Scottish Rural Property and Business Association

Shelter Scotland

Tayside Region Tenant Organisation.

Meeting papers will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

It is not possible to estimate the number of one-bedroom properties required as a result of the proposed changes to housing benefit in the UK Government’s Welfare Reform Bill.

We estimate that of around 111,000 single person households of working age in the social rented sector in Scotland receiving housing benefit around 52,000 are currently occupying one bedroom properties. A further 59,000 are in two or more bedroom properties and will therefore be subject to under occupation penalties as proposed in the Welfare Reform Bill.

As a result of the changes, some of these households may decide to remain in their existing property and absorb the penalty. Others may decide to move into smaller or shared property in the private rented sector. Some may try to transfer to a smaller property in the social rented sector. However, there is very little scope for under occupying households to transfer to smaller properties as only around 3,000 households in one bedroom properties require larger accommodation.

Further analysis is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/supply-demand/chma/Benefitchanges

We estimate that approximately 94,100 households of working age in the social rented sector will receive a reduction in housing benefit, specifically as a result of the under occupation penalties contained within the Welfare Reform Bill.

It is not possible to say definitively what the average reduction will be. The bill proposes that the reduction will be applied as a rate applied to the eligible rent of the household. The amount of the reduction will depend on the actual rates set by the Department for Work and Pensions. The bill proposes that these will be set by Order. The impact assessment for this measure published by the Department for Work and Pensions gave an illustrative average reduction of £11 per week in 2013-14 for all social tenants in Great Britain as a whole. However the impact assessment does not state the actual penalty rates used to arrive at this estimate. The Scottish average reduction is likely to be a little lower than for Great Britain as a whole as social rents in Scotland are lower than in Great Britain as a whole.

The UK Government has not made sufficient information available to allow us to properly assess the overall effect of their reforms. The Supplementary Legislative Consent Memorandum, which we published on 1 November, sets this out along with the analysis we have carried out to date and we will continue to add to this work as more becomes known.

The Scottish Government will be providing £7.5 million for the Reducing Reoffending Change Fund over the current spending review period. This is in addition to resources for the support of community justice services provided by local authorities, and does not preclude supplementary funding by other sources. The Scottish Government is in the process of consulting stakeholders across Scotland on the Fund.

Day to day management of NHSScotland assets, including surplus assets, is delegated to NHS boards to undertake in line with mandatory requirements in the NHSScotland Property Transactions Handbook and guidance issued by Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government will be providing £7.5 million for the Reducing Reoffending Change Fund over the current spending review period.

Work on expanding collaborative procurement is ongoing, however, it is not possible to confirm at this time, given procurements have not yet concluded, the extent of potential savings or the timescales for achieving them.

In the field of construction there are a number of collaborative procurement initiatives underway which include the roll out of the hub initiative which will deliver a flexible financing and procurement route for community healthcare projects for NHSScotland and other public sector bodies. The benefits statement produced by the Scottish Future Trust identifies savings of £1.46 million in bid costs for the procurement of the five hub territories with further savings of £4.4 million achieved through reduced procurement times and reduced private sector returns. Frameworks Scotland is a strategic and flexible partnering or collaborative approach to the procurement of publicly funded construction work. Evidence collated on the first 10 completed projects indicates a saving in construction costs alone of £400 per square metre or £5.8 million when compared to traditional capital procurement approaches. These cost reductions increase the impact of the capital budget allocated to support NHSScotland.

On equipment, the national approach to the procurement of radiotherapy and imaging equipment will maximise value for money for the purchase of that equipment through national procurement exercises. Work has also commenced on “Accelerated procurement” which delivers value for money by extending the benefits of national procurement to good and services not already included in national contracts.

Although held in the name of Scottish Ministers, day-to-day management of NHSScotland property, including rationalisation and disposal of surplus assets is the responsibility of NHS boards. Boards are required to produce Property and Asset Management Strategies annually which set out their objectives with regard to the management of their assets including the rationalisation of estate and disposal of surplus assets.

The capital budget for NHSScotland as outlined in the Scottish Spending Review 2011 identifies the potential to generate up to £60 million of capital receipts from the disposal of surplus assets which would then be available for reinvestment in NHSScotland infrastructure.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-03873 on 15 November 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-03873 on 15 November 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.