Chamber and committees

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.

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.

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.

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.

Details of the grant allocations and outturns for each council as part of our Area Based Schemes programme since 2013 are published on the Scottish Government website:

Area-based schemes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Information about the previous Home Insulation Scheme (HIS) and the Universal Home Insulation Scheme (UHIS) from 2008 to 2013 is available from the Energy Saving Trust website.

Home+Energy+Programmes+Summary+Report+20092013.pdf (energysavingtrust.org.uk)

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) commits to providing all children, young people and their families with the right support at the right time, and where extra help is needed this can include a personalised child’s plan, which might contain therapeutic support, depending on the circumstances.

This year, we have also initiated a Whole Family Wellbeing programme of activity to help transform the delivery of holistic family support. This includes investing £32 million through Children’s Services Planning Partnerships and supporting them in driving this work at the local level. This is to ensure that all families, including adoptive and foster care families, can access support based on their needs, where and when they need it.

All local authorities have a legal duty to provide support to meet the needs of people who have been adopted and their families. We provided £128,000 this year for specific therapeutic support, namely to Adoption UK Scotland for the TESSA programme which provides therapeutic input for adoptive families, and to Health in Mind to run a Trauma Support Service for people affected by historical adoption practices, as well as implementing peer support for both groups and individuals.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with COSLA to find a way forward on the introduction of a Scottish Recommended Allowance for foster and kinship carers.

The Scottish Government supports local authorities to develop new walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure through the Places for Everyone programme (PfE) with over £52 million in funding committed in 2022-23. Local authorities can apply for funding and support for projects that aim to develop path networks on disused railway lines.

The Scottish Government also invests in developing active travel networks on disused railway lines as part of the National Cycle Network, with £1.6 million committed in 2022-23 to projects on disused railway lines. This includes £280,000 allocated to constructing a section of route along an old railway alignment from St.Fillans to Lochearnhead, and £45,000 for design work on a route from Comrie to Crieff.

Local groups with proposals to promote active travel by utilising disused railway assets should in the first instance raise with their local Regional transport Partnership and with Network Rail, who own most disused railway across Scotland. The Network Rail Property team in Scotland will assist where possible in the development of any initiatives that will support the Scottish Government’s aims to increase active travel, as is demonstrated at Levenmouth.