Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-03795

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish revised modelling to show any impact of delays to the opening of the remaining National Treatment Centres on bringing down waiting lists, as outlined in its NHS Recovery Plan.

Question reference: S6W-29977

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when its planning hub will start operating

The Planning Hub was established in September within the Improvement Service.

Scoping and engagement has commenced in collaboration with planning authorities, industry and other key organisations to identify the support and expertise needed by planning authorities to support consenting on hydrogen planning applications.

The Scottish Government continues to support the Improvement Service to work at pace to make the Hub fully operational.

Question reference: S6W-29974

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will set out details of its plans to extend services offered by the planning hub to support housing developments.

As laid out in the Programme for Government, the Planning Hub’s initial priority is to help planning authorities make quicker decisions on hydrogen planning applications.

This first phase of the Hub will be a pilot that looks to provide proof of concept for it to be in place for the longer term, with a plan to extend the services offered by the Hub in 2025-26 to support wider developments including the delivery of good quality homes and onshore wind. We will set out further details relating to extending the Hub’s services as this initial work progresses.

Question reference: S6W-29976

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time equivalent officers will work in its planning hub, and, of those, how many officers will concentrate on extending the hub's work from speeding up hydrogen consenting to housing development.

Question reference: S6W-29978

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide (a) a timeline and (b) details of its plans to extend the work of its planning hub from speeding up hydrogen consenting to developing housing.

As laid out in the Programme for Government, the Planning Hub’s initial priority is to help planning authorities make quicker decisions on hydrogen planning applications.

This first phase of the Hub will be a pilot that looks to provide proof of concept for it to be in place for the longer term, with a plan to extend the services offered by the Hub in 2025-26 to support wider developments including the delivery of good quality homes and onshore wind. We will set out further details relating to extending the Hub’s services as this initial work progresses.

Question reference: S6W-29992

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 24 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the spending on the national acquisition plan in 2023-24, and what its evaluation is of the effectiveness of this spend.

I refer the member to the answer to question: S6W-26978 on 7 May 2024, which details the spend and homes delivered by local authority area; S6W-27110 on 14 May 2024, which provides details on applications approved; and S6W-27112 on 14 May 2024 which details the spend by applicant in the 2023-2024 National Acquisition Programme. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

In 2023-2024, the National Acquisition Programme helped to bring almost 1,500 homes into affordable use, 94% (1,413) of which were homes for social rent. Due to the effectiveness of this programme in accelerating the delivery of affordable homes and boosting affordable housing supply, we have allocated the additional £40 million in 2024-2025 to acquire properties to help with temporary accommodation pressures or, where appropriate, to bring long term void properties back into use with a further £40 million being made available in 2025-2026.

Question reference: S6W-29975

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to announce its proposals for the planning process following the conclusion of its consultation into Investing in Planning.

On 23 September, we published a progress update on the Investing in Planning Consultation. It confirms that we are taking forward a package of proposals to improve capacity, skills and resources within the planning system. This includes the establishment of a National Planning Improvement Hub; changes to planning fees to support the resourcing of planning authorities; and proposals to streamline the system and support professional skills and capacity.

Question reference: S6W-29554

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of vacant and derelict land have been brought back into use as a result of the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund that it announced on 19 December 2020.

Question reference: S6W-29540

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP), which was announced on 19 December 2020 to bring vacant and derelict land back into use, has been used to invest in new affordable housing.

Question reference: S6W-29532

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 17 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications for the Home Owners' Support Fund it has received since 20 March 2022, broken down by the (a) Mortgage to Rent and (b) Mortgage to Shared Equity schemes, and, of the applications that were received, how many were (i) successful and (ii) ineligible.

All applications are made to the overall HOSF programme, and are then carefully assessed by my officials to determine suitability for either Mortgage to Shared Equity (MTSE) or Mortgage to Rent (MTR).

Applicants to HOSF receive advice from accredited money advisers. The advisers offer holistic advice and identify which potential solutions will best meet applicants’ needs. They are appropriately qualified to determine when homeowners meet the HOSF eligibility criteria. This ensures all options and potential solutions have been considered before an application to HOSF is made.

Since 20 March 2022, 96 new applications have been made to the Home Owners Support Fund (HOSF), an average of 3 new applications per calendar month.

To date, 47 cases have successfully completed. A further 10 cases have been approved and are in the final stages of conveyancing, due to complete imminently. All successful applications since 20 March 2022 have been Mortgage to Rent cases.

3 cases received during this period did not meet the eligibility criteria and were deemed ineligible. These cases represent a small proportion of overall intake and are the result of unforeseen issues that could not be resolved. For example, where alterations were made to the property without having the correct building consents in place.

Chamber and committees