Seòmar agus comataidhean

I am delighted that the new SNP administration in Perth and Kinross is embedding social wellbeing in its local approach. To support more local councils and regions to embed the wellbeing economy approach into their local strategies, we have committed to publishing a wellbeing economy framework. I am sure that the Scottish Government will have a lot to learn from Perth and Kinross, as will other councils.

I regularly meet representatives of local authorities and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to discuss a wide range of issues as part of our commitment to working in partnership with local government to improve outcomes for the people of Scotland.

We have a joint programme board with local government to oversee work to achieve the Covid recovery strategy, which has a fundamental focus on tackling inequalities and improving wellbeing for everyone in our communities. We are working closely on the creation of our child poverty action plan and local delivery plans as part of our national mission to tackle child poverty.

As set out in “Housing to 2040”, our aim is for everyone to have a safe, high quality home that is affordable and meets their needs in the place where they want to be. That is why our affordable housing supply programme is already supporting the provision of dementia-friendly homes in communities across the country, where that has been identified as a strategic priority by local authorities. North Lanarkshire Council, for example, recently completed 27 new homes at Caledonian Avenue, Bellshill, using best-practice principles for dementia design, backed by almost £1.6 million of Scottish Government investment.

I recognise some of the issues that the member describes. It depends on the site. Some brownfield sites have flooding or decontamination issues, but not all do. It is right that we encourage development and, in particular, that we encourage social landlords to develop on brownfield sites, so we will obviously do what we can around that.

It is important to recognise that there is already a commitment on place-based investment programme funding, which is backed by £325 million during this parliamentary session. We also have vacant and derelict land funding, which includes the £50 million low-carbon vacant and derelict land investment programme.

The fourth national planning framework—NPF4—will also help with town centre living. Post-pandemic, there may also be an opportunity to repurpose some commercial and retail properties in town centres, which will obviously help with the affordable housing supply programme. I am happy to keep speaking to the member about these matters.

Yes, absolutely. Again, I am very happy to keep Fiona Hyslop appraised as Tom Arthur, who has responsibility for many of the issues, and I consider those matters.

Our second town centre action plan outlines actions to embed the town centre first approach. It is absolutely critical that we join the dots across all elements of Government policy, not least our net-zero ambitions.

I am happy to keep Fiona Hyslop appraised of developments as we move forward on the recommendations.

Our joint response with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to the town centre action plan review outlines actions to embed a town centre first approach. It includes a call to action and sets out ways in which we can all play our part in rebuilding, re-energising and reimagining our towns. We are fully committed to the town centre first principle and continue to engage with partners on it. The principle influenced the development of our draft national planning framework 4 and “Housing to 2040”, both of which will help to deliver more town centre living.

I am aware of Tom Arthur’s visit, and Christine Grahame makes an important point. I am very happy to commit to liaise with local organisations, which know the opportunities in their areas better than we do. It is important that we try to ensure that we take the opportunity to create more affordable housing in our town centres, which also helps with their regeneration. As I said, we need to join the dots across various policies. Again, I am very happy to liaise with Christine Grahame about those matters.

We will speak to home owners about any payments that they have already made in relation to assessments. I know that officials have already been engaging with some home owners on that. We will continue to do so, because it is important.

Let me be clear about the reason why the single building assessment is so important. It was launched only last summer because a lot of work had gone into addressing the very issues that Miles Briggs describes. That was so that the single building assessment would have the confidence of the sector and of lenders and financial institutions. That is important because we expect that the fact that a single building assessment has been done, with the remediation work being identified, will in itself provide mortgage lenders with confidence that will enable people to move their properties on, if that is what is required. That shows the importance of getting the SBA right and getting it recognised, so that things can go forward.

Many of the issues can be captured in the accord, in order that we can move forward and ensure that home owners are fully briefed and informed.

Miles Briggs also mentioned insurance, which is reserved to the UK Government. However, we have been discussing with the United Kingdom Government the need for insurance issues to be clarified. I have received a letter from Michael Gove just in the past few days, in which he said that the UK Government is hoping to make progress on insurance over the coming months. I know that it is an issue of great concern to people, so I am happy to perhaps arrange a cross-party briefing at which more detailed information on the issues can be gleaned, if that would be helpful.

I was pleased to be able to support the expansion of the pilot, and I announced today that our programme will tackle the most complex buildings, increase the number of properties in the programme and remove the burden from home owners. I know that that will be of particular importance to Joe FitzPatrick and some of his constituents.

In the statement, I said that the UK Government has moved away from the work being Treasury funded and is driving towards a mixture of funding that comes through corporation tax on developers and the building safety levy. That is quite a complicated landscape of funding.

After quite a lot of digging and going backwards and forwards, we have been able to identify the additional £300 million through consequentials. It is hard to find out how much of that is related to corporation tax money raised and how much is from the Treasury. It is very difficult to define the amount. One principle that needs to be clear is that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should get their fair share of any money that is raised through corporation tax at UK level.

As I said in answer to an earlier question, we then have to find our own mechanism to bridge any gaps that we identify. The building safety levy is what is being used down south, but we will have to find an equivalent for Scotland, because that levy will not generate any consequentials for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. We will have to fill the gap ourselves.

No, neither we nor the Welsh had any sight of the announcements that were made. They took us by surprise because, until that point, we had assumed that the work was being done on a four-nations basis, particularly around the levy. However, we are where we are, and we are determined to make sure that we look to what we can do here in Scotland.

We will continue to work closely with Wales; we have a good working relationship there. We also have the four-nations building safety summit, if you like, that is taking place later this month, at which we will continue to pursue areas in which we might still be able to work together. Essentially, however, we will have to find some of the solutions ourselves.