Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has set out minimum standards for maintenance and repair that can be expected by tenants in social housing. These standards are set out in the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) and, by 2020, landlords will also have to meet the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH). We have made available £10 million in grant and loan funding over the last two years to help social landlords meet EESSH.

The performance of social landlords is monitored by the independent Scottish Housing Regulator who will engage with landlords who are at risk of not meeting standards. The Regulator’s most recent report found that 91.4% of social housing met the SHQS, and 68.6% of social housing already met the EESSH, in 2015-16. The report also found that tenants’ satisfaction with their landlord’s repairs and maintenance has improved, and that landlords are responding faster to emergency repairs.

In some cases maintenance and repairs to social housing in tenements are blocked by owners who are unable or unwilling to consent to common works. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 introduced a discretionary power for local authorities to pay missing shares, and we are seeking views from stakeholders on extending this power to registered social landlords. The Scottish Government has also established a stakeholder forum to consider a single condition standard for all housing tenures, and I announced earlier this week the launch of a pilot equity loan scheme to assist home owners with essential energy efficiency works and repairs.

Private home owners and landlords are primarily responsible for improving their own property. Social landlords, including local authorities, are responsible for improving social housing. The Scottish Government requires local authorities to produce a local housing strategy which must, in particular, set out their strategy to address houses that do not meet the statutory tolerable standard, and their strategy for providing assistance for improving houses. The performance of social landlords against outcomes in the Scottish Social housing Charter is monitored by the independent Scottish Housing Regulator who will engage with landlords who are at risk of not meeting standards.

The Scottish Government includes an element for private sector housing activities in the general capital and revenue grant made to local authorities. However, it is for each local authority to decide what actions should be taken to improve housing, with regard to local priorities and resources

As social landlords, local authorities are expected to use rental income and prudential borrowing to ensure social housing owned by the authority complies with the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and to plan to meet the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing by 2020.

Private home owners are primarily responsible for improving their own property. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 gave local authorities discretionary powers to require owners to carry out work on substandard houses and to provide assistance with repairs and improvements to private property. The 2006 Act also set standards for private rented housing and gave tenants the rights to apply to the Private Rented Housing Panel.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 made some amendments to these powers to make them more effective in response to consultation with local authorities and other stakeholders, and also added additional safety elements to standards in private rented housing and third party reporting for local authorities to apply to the Private Rented Housing Panel on behalf of vulnerable tenants. It is for each local authority to determine how best to make use of those powers in order to meet its statutory duties and strategic aims, with regard to local priorities and resources.

Since measurement began in 2007, the percentage of people in Scotland using the internet has steadily increased by over 19%. 82% of citizens are now online and reaping the economic, social and cultural benefits that the internet can bring them.

Recent research has confirmed that households on average can save between £500 and £750 a year by being online, but Scottish Government appreciate that not everyone has access to a computer at home or the skills and confidence to use it.

The Scottish Government has provided funding for 486 public libraries in Scotland to be fitted with free Wi-Fi and trained members of staff to ensure those individuals who need support and encouragement to use online tools have a local, trusted community hub available to them.

In addition, there are a number of free open access points available for citizens across Glasgow. In 2016, the Scottish Government provided £110,000 of funding to help refurbish, increase and grow the effectiveness of the 35 community 'click and connect centres' which are operated by the Wheatley Group.

We are working in partnership with organisations across private, public and third sector ensure those isolated in the community have access to affordable broadband, and to raise the profile of the help and support that is available to get people online so that everyone can enjoy the benefits that the internet can bring.

The Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force has not delivered any direct support to homes.

The Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force is an independent short life group set up by Scottish Ministers with the remit of exploring issues around fuel poverty in rural areas in Scotland and to make recommendations to Ministers. The group will publish its findings later in 2016.

Under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988, a tenant with a short assured tenancy or statutory assured tenancy can refer a case to the Private Rented Housing Panel (PRHP) for a determination on market rents. The PRHP is an independent judicial body and we do not hold information centrally on the number of cases it considers each year. Information on rent cases can be found in the PRHP's annual reports published here: https://www.prhpscotland.gov.uk/who-we-are/annual-reports.

The Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 is not yet in force. It is expected to commence in December 2017.

The Scottish Government introduced mandatory gender pay gap reporting for listed public authorities with more than 150 employees in 2012. The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 requires listed public authorities to publish information on the percentage difference among its employees between men’s average hourly pay (excluding overtime) and women’s average hourly pay (excluding overtime), every two years from April 2013.

In March 2016, the Scottish Government amended The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 to lower the threshold for listed public authorities to report their gender pay gap, from those with more than 150 employees to those with more than 20 employees. The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2016 came into force on 18 March 2016.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to tackling poverty and inequality, including in-work poverty. The First Minister's Independent Advisor on Poverty and Inequality, Naomi Eisenstadt, raised in-work poverty as a priority in her report, Shifting the Curve, when it was published in January 2016. We are already making progress with a number of the specific recommendations made.

One recommendation was that we build on Living Wage Accreditation. We have set a new target of 1,000 accredited employers by Autumn 2017. We have also increased funding for the Scottish Living Wage Accreditation Initiative to £300,000 to achieve this and to target larger employers.

The report also recommended encouraging pay ratio disclosure as a way of tackling pay inequality. We have already ensured public authorities with more than 20 employees publish their gender pay gap every two years and provide an equal pay statement every four. We will extend this legal duty to include disability and race pay gap reporting.

We included information on family friendly and flexible working in the business pledge in direct response to the recommendation to make family flexible working more explicit within the business pledge. We have also planned a joint Scottish Business Pledge/Family Friendly Working Scotland event for National Work Life Week, which will run from 3-7 October 2016.

We know that to promote inclusive growth and to provide opportunities for all, we need to encourage a fair and inclusive jobs market and promote regional cohesion.

We will do this by focussing on creating more jobs, better quality jobs and jobs that work for every individual in terms of skills, pay, security, and prospects.

The Scottish Government does not offer funding for the purposes of accessing private tutors.