Seòmar agus comataidhean

They are the City of Edinburgh Council, Glasgow City Council, South Lanarkshire Council, West Lothian Council and Fife Council. If I am wrong, I will correct that, but the first three are right.

Of course. The most recent homelessness statistics from two or three weeks ago did not make for easy reading. However, within that, there were some green shoots, in that certain councils had managed to reduce substantially the number of children who were in temporary accommodation. Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City had 45 or 50 per cent reductions—to be absolutely accurate, I will come back to you in writing on that. It is clear that the situation in Glasgow in particular is very strained. There are things that are adding to that, not least the UK Government’s asylum policy, which is causing difficulty and has to be handled exceptionally sensitively.

One of the main things that the housing emergency action plan does is to double the fund for voids and acquisitions, which the committee will be aware that we have been doing for a year. Councils have demonstrated great progress in using that money to bring social voids back into use. That work has gotten us to the point where there are very few social voids left to be turned over. I still want what is left to be turned over, but we now move to acquisitions—buying on the open market. In particular, I have asked local authorities to use that money to buy family-sized homes. They are harder to come by but are the homes that will get children out of temporary accommodation.

Another part of the plan that I am ambitious for is asking councils to implement the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers guidance on flipping. It would mean councils asking households who are currently in suitable accommodation, except for the fact that it is temporary, whether they would like to change it to a permanent residence. That kind of thing could make a difference quite quickly, albeit that we would have to backfill the supply of temporary accommodation, which the acquisitions fund could do.

I was not able to follow your figures as you were speaking, so I am unable to say whether they are the ones that I am working with, but, no doubt, you have done the maths correctly. Everything that we are doing just now is about trying to go from where we are—despite significant headwinds, not the least of which is inflation—to where we need to be, which is to build 110,000 homes by 2032.

Achieving that involves everything that I have mentioned: increasing the affordable supply programme; giving four years of funding certainty, to allow RSLs, councils and others to plan; setting the all-tenure target; and making sure that planning is a facilitator, not an inhibitor. It is all those things, as well are trying to build up the capacity to where we need it to be, because the curve is steep.

We will come back to you on that. I do not have the figures for the all-tenure delivery this year; they were just released last week. Ultimately, we will be baselining it from that and moving forward from where we are now with 10 per cent each year for the next three years.

Such housing can absolutely make a huge difference. One question that has been put to me is whether there is a need for the process of identifying need to be more place based and specific. In your region, and even in places such as Clydesdale, an assessment for a whole area could be very different from an assessment of one small town or village in that area. I have my eye on that.

Yes, we have, because it is such a pivotal point. I think that it would be fair to say that officials have a very good cross-Government relationship with UK Government officials. Likewise, I had a good relationship with Miatta Fahnbulleh when she was the relevant minister, and I had good discussions with her about her warm homes plan, what the Scottish Government was trying to do and how the cost of electricity and gas was pivotal to us all. She has moved to a different department, but I have since met Martin McCluskey, the new UK Minister for Energy Consumers, and put the case to him. To be fair, he was two or three days into the job and having to look at everything that had been prepared in respect of the warm homes plan and ensure that he was comfortable with it for his part. There has been a delay as a result of the reshuffle following the former Deputy Prime Minister’s exit from the Government, but we continue to push for detail on the plan and on the UK’s intentions in respect of the costs of gas and electricity.

First, the warmer homes Scotland scheme is a Scottish Government scheme that is separate from the warm homes plan, which has not been introduced yet. The plan is due to be introduced, but I do not know what the UK Government will introduce with it. Although that is unsatisfactory, it is the way it is, and I will keep pressing for detail.

Secondly, I understand that we want to give certainty to the sector because there is huge opportunity—for example, in heat networks—and I want that opportunity to be realised. At the same time, the bill is a highly complex piece of legislation, and it is incumbent on me and my officials to get it right. It is not aided by the fact that we do not know what Scotland’s other Government intends to do in respect of warm homes. I am continuing to press for more detail on that and to try to refine the bill. It remains my intention today to introduce the bill and to have it passed.

There is a tipping point after which the Scottish Government might have to move ahead.

Those plans are tied up, too. In the same way that it could affect the bill, the warm homes plan could affect what Ms Martin will take forward in the climate change plan.

I am very happy to answer that, convener. Quite a bit of secondary legislation will emerge from the Housing (Scotland) Bill. I am sure that the committee will be delighted to know that and will look forward to discussing it with us. The implementation of Awaab’s law will be a key part of that. When we were finalising stage 3, I was keen to make the commitment that it would be in force from March next year. Therefore, the intention is to lay those regulations very early in the new year. We have already started to do the work to develop what will be in those regulations.

As the committee can imagine, we need to make sure that the differences between the sectors are taken into account, as well as what is realistic for landlords and protective for tenants. It is helpful that similar work is on-going across the rest of the UK, which I am keeping a close eye on.