Seòmar agus comataidhean

The suspension is within the 32 local authorities in Scotland, so it still leaves the power in relation to someone from a local authority outwith Scotland.

It applies within the 32 local authorities.

Yes. We monitor breaches very closely. I am obviously concerned about any breaches, so we monitor unsuitable accommodation order breaches. That will be part of the package of information that we will look at.

Going back to one of my previous answers, we need to address the housing system as a whole. We can address some of the issues around temporary accommodation and we can tackle the unsuitable accommodation orders.

Some local authorities are doing imaginative things. For example, at a recent housing event that I attended, one local authority representative spoke about how they are getting far more upstream in identifying households that could potentially end up homeless and in temporary accommodation by looking at, for example, people getting into council tax arrears as well as rent arrears. By getting further upstream and helping families with their debts and arrears earlier, the local authority’s homelessness figures and the number of people in temporary accommodation came down. It is about tackling the issue of those presenting as homeless and continuing to expand housing provision and look at innovative ways of tackling temporary accommodation, but it is also about prevention.

I am keen to consider further how we might help families before they end up in the homelessness system. That is about drilling down into the experiences of folk who have ended up in temporary accommodation. What is their story? How did they get there? What happened and what were the opportunities for intervention?

The prevention duties that we are bringing forward will be important in that respect as well. It is about looking at all the opportunities to intervene and seeing it as everybody’s business to ask the questions about whether folk are getting into debt or arrears, whether homelessness is a potential consequence of that and how we can prevent it far earlier.

It has been a constructive discussion, and a lot of important points have been made. I will come back to the committee at some point with an update on how the order is working in practice, if that would be helpful.

Thank you for the invitation to today’s meeting.

The proposed change to local connection referrals between local authorities in Scotland was recommended in 2002 by the homelessness task force and was picked up again in 2018 by the homelessness and rough sleeping action group.

In brief, local connection has been recognised for two decades as a barrier to accessing homelessness services in Scotland, and we are now removing it. We made changes in late 2019 so that investigating local connection became a discretionary power, rather than a legal duty, for local authorities. That means that, at the moment, households can still be asked to demonstrate their local connection to the area when they present as homeless to a local authority.

Most homeless households want to live in an area where they are already settled within a community. However, for some households, application of the local connection test is a barrier to securing a settled home. Choice is important, and homeless households should be as freely able to move to a new area as anyone else is. They might do so in order to access support, take advantage of employment opportunities or simply make a fresh start.

The number of households presenting as homeless with no local connection to the local authority is low—it is currently around 5 per cent of all households assessed as being homeless or threatened with homelessness. When no local connection is established, local authorities have the power to refer the homeless household back to an area where they do have a local connection. However, local authorities seldom use that referral power, which suggests that they are already operating in a person-centred way, following the legislative change in 2019.

Our 2019 consultation showed that there is broad support for the change in local connection among homelessness stakeholders, local authorities and our lived experience group, the change team. However, we know that some local authorities have raised concerns about the timing of this legislation, as they are already under pressure to deliver their homelessness duties. Big cities such as Glasgow and Edinburgh are seen as being attractive places to live, with a wide range of support services and employment opportunities. Our island communities are also concerned that even a small increase in homeless households could have a significant impact on support services such as health and social care services.

A robust monitoring and evaluation framework has been developed with stakeholders, and, through regular engagement with local authorities and services, we can capture trends as they emerge. That will provide the evidence base for mitigations, should any disproportionate adverse effect on local authorities be identified.

As members know from my previous correspondence with the committee, we have delayed this Scottish statutory instrument a number of times in order to support local authorities. However, we are determined to improve access to housing and support for homeless households, so we are moving forward with the changes now.

Finally, safety, stability and support are all affected by where people live, and I see the ending of local connection referrals in Scotland as an important step in removing the barriers experienced by homeless households, ensuring that those households receive a consistent service and offering them opportunities that are available to other Scottish households.

Yes, we need homes in the right place and of the right size and quality, but we must also deliver more homes. All that is a balancing act. Local authorities and RSLs are delivering high-quality homes, which is important. It is also important that there is good insulation and that we have energy-efficient homes. Does that mean that there will be fewer homes? There is a balance between delivering at scale and delivering quality.

For example, we are looking at modern methods of construction, such as off-site construction—or however you want to describe that—as potential ways of getting as much out of not only the £3.6 billion investment but the additional investment that that brings and that the sector raises.

We are talking to the sector and local authorities about innovative ways to build, including builds that can be done all year round, which would lead to economies of scale. We are also looking at the number of house types. Do we need 50 different types of two, three or four-bedroom properties, or can RSLs and local authorities come together to hone in on a smaller number of house types that can go through planning more quickly?

All of those things are important, as is looking at operating more as consortia in the delivery of homes. Homes England has done that quite successfully. We should be looking at ways of driving efficiency in the system without compromising on quality.

We need to look at all those things, to make sure that every pound that we invest in the affordable housing supply programme is going as far as it can to deliver as many good-quality energy-efficient homes as possible, in the right places.

The importance of that guide was set out in “Housing to 2040”. It is not that the current guide is not still providing an excellent standard—it is—but that we want to review it in order to better meet the needs of an ageing population, to help people to live in their homes for longer, and to learn lessons from the pandemic by recognising, for example, the importance of outdoor space and space for homework and study.

We have had to take some time in doing that, in order to get it right—to ensure that the guide is going to be fit for purpose. To be honest, that has taken a bit longer than we would have wanted, but there is a balance between taking time and getting it right.

There has been a lot of informal consultation with stakeholders. The latest that I can tell the committee is that we plan to formally consult on the proposed changes to the guide in the spring of next year. That is a bit of a delay, I will be honest, but it has been worth taking more time to get that formal consultation right.

In the meantime, there is nothing wrong with the existing guide; however, getting the new guide right has taken a bit longer than perhaps we would have wanted. I am happy to keep the committee updated as we move that work forward.

We are asking a lot of the sector in asking it to do all those things at the same time. We need to ensure that we support RSLs. The financial performance of RSLs remains robust, which means that we are starting from a good position. However, we are asking a lot of our RSLs and we need to be cognisant of that.

We need to ensure that decarbonisation of the existing stock and creating new homes that are energy efficient and of a high standard are done in bite-sized pieces. We have asked social landlords to focus on fabric first, while we put in place the building blocks that are important in taking forward investment in decarbonisation.

We have also been very clear that tenant affordability is key. We have said that decarbonising the existing stock and building new homes must be done without compromising tenant affordability—it cannot be done on the back of tenants’ rents. As you will be aware, the task force has done a lot of work on how we finance that in a way that is deliverable, affordable and does not put the onus on tenants’ rents. It is a challenge.

We have provided some quite significant funding so far, although we have also said that we know that that will not be enough to do everything that needs to be done. We will need to work closely with the sector as we make progress on the changes that are coming over the next few years. We need to support the sector in that.

We rely on local partners to consult with tenants. As a Government, we set the budgets and the targets in collaboration with local partners. I meet tenants organisations directly and regularly to hear their views. However, we expect some of the consultation on the detail of the housing plans to be done at a local level by local authorities and registered social landlords. They are required to carry out consultation on rent levels annually. We would expect them to have the reach into communities and local tenants organisations that it would be impossible for us to have. We do our bit on the national level, but we also expect that local consultation to happen.

First, I absolutely recognise those concerns and that is why Patrick Harvie and I have spent a lot of time discussing the issues with the social rented sector. We are addressing the way in which we are going to work with the social rented sector by establishing a joint group of officials and the social rented sector, to work through those issues in more detail.

It is fair to say that the vast majority of social sector rents have already been set up to 1 April 2023, because they are set earlier in the year. The social rented sector is concerned about what will happen from 1 April, rather than what will happen in the next few months. It is worth saying that, as a starting point, rent levels in the social rented sector are considerably lower than in the private rented sector.

It is important that the Parliament sees the bill when it is published. The question will be whether the powers and mechanisms in the bill extend beyond the end of March 2023. I set out earlier all the factors that we need to take into account. You mentioned the rent freeze, and I do not underestimate what the social rented sector is saying about that, but the sector will also be really concerned about interest rates going up and the costs of borrowing. It is not just one issue. All of that means that we must be very cognisant of the sector’s investment plans and must reassure UK Finance and the lenders that Scotland continues to be a good place in which to invest in affordable homes and the social rented sector.

The financial stability and position of the social rented sector is very good. That is a good starting point. As we go forward over the next few months, we will balance all that with the sector’s investment plans and, importantly, the affordability of tenants’ rents, as well as the economic climate. We will have to balance all those things with the sector to ensure that tenants are supported and the sector continues to deliver on its investment plans. We will talk to the sector about the Government’s role in all of that, in order to ensure confidence.

I am sure that we will continue to discuss such matters in detail, not least once the bill has been introduced. Please be assured that we are spending a lot of time working on those issues with the sector, because we recognise their importance.