Chamber and committees

Whilst there have been homes delivered in rural areas since 1999, this has only been reported on since 2015 -16. Data on new build affordable homes in rural areas is therefore provided from that year onwards in the following table below. Figures relating to 2021-22 will be published early in 2023. There were also non-new build homes provided and the final column in the table includes all affordable homes delivered in rural areas.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of industrial units built for SMEs. Relevant asset owners are responsible for property within their ownership. Local authorities may hold data on development in their area.

We expect the Scottish Local Authorities Renumeration Committee to provide its report and recommendations to the Government in Autumn 2023.

Once this is provided, the Scottish Government will consult with COSLA on a response to the recommendations, and inform Parliament of our decisions as soon as possible thereafter.

The latest Scottish Government Private Sector Rent Statistics, Scotland, 2010 to 2022 was published on 29 th November 2022, which presents average private rents by property size and Broad Rental Market Areas between 2010 and 2022 (years to end September), based predominantly on advertised rent data. This is the lowest level of granularity available for the Scottish Government Private Rent Statistics. The figures cannot be disaggregated to local authority level as the data collection method used has not been designed for this purpose. and therefore the Scottish Government does not produce or publish rental data at local authority level. In addition, data is not held for the years prior to 2010.

In terms of average rents in the social rented sector, the Scottish Government Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Statistics publication contains a time series by local authority area (Table 8) of the average weekly rent on local authority HRA properties from 1997-98 onwards. These figures are also included alongside corresponding figures for housing association average rents by local authority area in an archived Scottish Government Housing Statistics publication table , although this table covers the period 2005-06 to 2012-13 only. More recent data on average rents in the social rented sector for local authority and housing association properties, including by property size, is published as part of Scottish Housing Regulator Charter Data outputs for the years 2013-14 onwards, available in the Scottish Housing Regulator Statistical Information webpages . The Charter Data figures are available at a social landlord level only, and so housing association figures are presented as landlord level averages rather than by the local authority location of their housing stock. However separate Scottish Housing Regulator stock data for the latest year 2021-22, available in the same Statistical Information webpages, includes information for on average rents split by both social landlord and local authority area for the year 2021-22.

The Scottish Government does not have a reporting system in place to track instances of damp and mould in all socially rented homes.

Data on the presence of mould and damp is collected through the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS), including from a sample of about 700 social rented homes each year.

Survey results from the SHCS provide an indication of the prevalence of mould and damp in social rented housing. These results are expressed in the following table as percentages of homes with and without mould and damp.

It should be noted that as these results are based on a sample survey, the level of accuracy on the results can vary between +/-1% and +/-3%, as shown in the table. This means that the changes between years in prevalence in mould and damp estimated from the SHCS may not be statistically significant as they are within the margins of error of the survey estimates.

Table 1: Percentage of social sector dwellings with presence of mould and (any rising or penetrating) damp, SHCS 2012 to 2019

Published figures on the most recent and historical numbers of patients that have been admitted to hospital can be found within the within the Annual Acute Activity publication, which was released on 27 September 2022. The publication can be found at the following link:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2022/

Published data is only available for a ten year period, from financial year 2012-13 to financial year 2021-22. Data on patient activity is presented in Table 2 – inpatient and day case activity, and the measure of interest can be found by selecting the NHS board of residence in the indicator drop down and either stays, episodes or patients within the measure drop down. Figures where ‘no fixed abode’ will then be listed in the table.

Below is an excerpt from the dataset, with the measure of interest highlighted in bold.

The Scottish Hospice Leadership Group discussed these issues at their meeting in November 2022, which was attended by a Scottish Government official.

In the Chamber on 15 December the First Minister said that we will undertake to ensure that discussions take place directly with the sector.

The Government plans to introduce a new Housing Bill this year. The timing and scope of that Bill is subject to ongoing review an consideration as we continue to deliver our emergency response to support tenants through the ongoing cost of living crisis.

We have reached an agreement with social landlords on below-inflation rent increases for the next financial year.

Organisations representing social landlords have announced their members’ plans for average rent increases for 2023-24, which will keep rents significantly below private market levels.

Under the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Act 2022, rents are effectively frozen in the social rented sectors until 31 March 2023. Decisions on future plans for the private sector rent freeze, as well as other measures contained in the Act, will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government announced on 21 December an agreement with the social housing sector meaning restrictions on rent-setting will no longer apply to the sector from 1 April. Social landlords have instead committed to average increases that will ensure rents remain affordable, while allowing them to continue investing in essential services such as home improvements and maintenance.

We have been clear since we introduced the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 that we would work with the social rented sector to agree a way forward for after 31 March, and social landlords have been consulting with their tenants on possible rent rises for after that date. The agreements are based on the options being tested through those consultations, aiming to keep rents affordable while ensuring landlords have the resources to continue providing essential services for tenants and to deliver more affordable homes.

COSLA has committed to keeping local authority rent increases for 2023-24 to an average of no more than £5 a week. The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations has committed to increases averaging 6.1%.

The agreement of average figures, rather than a fixed cap, allows for the flexibility to honour the outcomes of the statutory tenant consultations social landlords must undertake each year on rent setting.

No social landlord is consulting on a rent increase at or above CPI inflation, which was 11.1% at the time of the data being collected.