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That is an option in the future if circumstances change. As you pointed out, a lot of work has been done on the public health supplement. However, I believe very strongly that, as you have set out, this is not the right time to introduce such a supplement, primarily because of the pressures of the increase in employer national insurance contributions. The Scottish retail sector has very much welcomed the fact that that has been recognised and that we are not going ahead with the supplement.

The supplement would have affected mainly large retail operations. Nevertheless, given the oncosts of employers’ national insurance contributions, we came to the conclusion that this is not the right time. I do not have a crystal ball to see whether there will be different circumstances in the future, but those were the reasons for the decision.

I have a lot of sympathy with the principle behind that, given that we are trying to avoid the loss of homes, particularly in rural Scotland, where the issue remains despite the action that has been taken. My starting point is to empower local government to make those decisions. We are looking at a consultation on the general power of competence, and you will be aware that we have taken measures to strengthen the fiscal levers that local government has.

I will need to come back to you on whether there is time left in the current parliamentary session, given that primary legislation would be needed to go beyond the existing second home levy, as you set out. I do not think that that is planned, but I will come back to you and confirm that.

I am aware that that has been looked at. Ellen, can you respond?

Those figures are correct. Lifting the two-child cap will lift around 15,000 children out of poverty. It will help many more families than that, but the estimate is that it will lift 15,000 children out of poverty. Bear in mind that those are some of the poorest families, so it will be game changing.

In relation to our statutory duty to tackle child poverty, we think that lifting the two-child cap will be the most impactful lever on the back of the other measures that we have taken, such as the Scottish child payment, free school meals and so on, to help lift some of the poorest families out of poverty.

I will bring in my officials to respond to that question.

We need to work through that a bit more. On the basis of what the UK building safety levy will bring in, we have estimated that around £30 million a year will be contributed. I guess that that will last for as long as the programme lasts for. We discussed whether the levy would continue once all the identified buildings had been remediated—that is a legitimate question. I see the contribution very much as funding the programme, so the levy would need to remain in place for as long as is required to do that, and it will need to be kept under review.

Another question was about what would happen if it turned out that the work was not as expensive as expected and a lot of buildings did not need the expected level of remediation. We can review the levy if that turns out to be the case, but I suspect that that will not turn out to be the case, given the scale of the problem.

Do we have a date for the bill’s introduction?

Those discussions are on-going. We are cognisant of the fact that Scotland has a larger small and medium-sized enterprises developer sector than is the case elsewhere. Those SMEs have been very important for the affordable housing sector.

When it comes to developers who will be required to contribute to remediation, we are talking about those that have a turnover of more than £10 million. Stephen Lea-Ross might want to say more about that.

Some of the buildings are very complex and some are not. Some are straightforward and may require little or no remediation but, as Stephen Lea-Ross said, the ones that require extensive remediation could, in themselves, take up to five years to remediate.

A lot of work has been done on that. I can give you some high-level information and come back with some details. In 2021, an inventory data collection project was undertaken by the Scottish Government using information gathered from local authority building standards departments. That established that around 382 buildings above 18m and around 500 buildings between 11m and 18m required some level of remediation.

There is then the question of the required level of remediation. A UK Government publication back in 2022 estimated between £640,000 and £790,000 for full remediation, but partial remediation could be considerably less than that. The point is that that is why the single building assessment will be so important. Each building will be different, so the cost of remediating each building will be different. The legislation that will come into force next year will give the tools to make sure that a single building assessment is done for each building.

It will take a number of years to work through. We have prioritised and made clear that we want the priority to be the highest buildings and those that are most at risk, if you like.