Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have a quick question off the back of Unison’s evidence. Unison is making the case for an inflationary pay uplift for local government staff. Does Councillor Macgregor feel that that will be possible? Can such an offer be made within the budget settlement?

If they watched earlier evidence panels, both cabinet secretaries will have heard from some representatives about the surveys that they have done of their members and about their consultative ballots this past year. The cabinet secretaries will also have heard from local government workers in their constituencies about how undervalued and angry they feel because there has been a failure to reward them for the amount of work that they have done.

Last year, there was a real prospect of strike action disrupting public services, which the Government’s provision of additional funding to make a more generous pay offer averted at the eleventh hour. However, we know that COSLA has said that, this year, making an inflationary pay award would not be possible with a flat cash settlement for the core budget.

What would the cabinet secretaries say in response to the prospect of industrial action being taken this year by local government and public sector workers who do not feel valued because of a lack of an adequate pay offer? Such action would have an impact on public services on top of the disruption that we have already seen because of the pandemic—I know from personal experience the impact that disruptions to nursery and primary school education can have.

Good morning. I want to come back to the issue around local government staff pay and morale and councils’ ability to deliver services. The cabinet secretary has said that the local government core budget is being protected in cash terms. Given inflation and demographic pressures, that means a significant cut, as we all know. How would your members react to being told that their wages are going to be protected in cash terms this year, with inflation running as it is?

Has there been any consideration of running pilot projects in local authorities that have particular concerns?

I will continue that line of questioning from Miles Briggs. You said at the start of your opening statement that you wanted to give local authorities powers to address concerns. It is clear that there are concerns in some local authority areas, but we have not heard the same level of concern in other areas. Was any consideration given to devolving the powers completely to local authorities, giving them the discretion to decide whether to introduce a licensing scheme to address their local circumstances?

I will be brief. I have been heavily influenced by the evidence that we have taken, particularly the evidence that was given by Police Scotland in our final evidence session on the need for a degree of licensing to be introduced.

I would have preferred it if the proposal had been trialled through a pilot project to see how a licensing scheme could be operated, as that would have given assurance to the sector. In addition, I am in favour of local authorities potentially being given the discretion to decide whether licensing would be suitable for their area, in consultation with their communities and Police Scotland.

However, in the absence of any alternative proposals, the committee is faced with a “Take it or leave it” decision on the proposed licensing scheme. I support the proposals in the knowledge that there will be a review in 2023, and in the light of what the cabinet secretary said about the industry’s desire to get back round the table to discuss implementation.

My questions follow on from the discussion that we have just had. One is about data; the other is about how we adapt any system locally.

My first question is for Andrew Mitchell, because he talked about a study that had taken place in Edinburgh in 2018. Do we know how many short-term lets there are in the country? Do we know the scale of the issue that we are regulating for? If not, and if we are doing this in the absence of data, how can we be sure that we are going to get it right? Has there been a refresh of the 2018 study to ensure that we know the scale of what we are trying to accomplish?

That brings me to my second question. Do you feel that a national system should be introduced or are there particular local authority areas that would rather not spend their resources on what they might not see as a pressing local issue? Perhaps we can kick off with Nicola Robison. Does Police Scotland have any data on antisocial behaviour issues in this respect? Is that sort of thing common across the country or is it much more localised? Moreover, if anyone wanted to talk about the issue of a national approach versus devolving powers to local authorities to run something locally, I would welcome it.

Thank you.

Good morning. A lot of the discussions that I had over the summer, before we came to consider the regulations, involved the definition of short-term let. I have concerns about what our starting point is for the regulations if we do not understand the volume of short-term lets in the country.

The Government has used the figure of 32,000 properties, based on data that was gathered from Airbnb, but the non-domestic rates roll shows only 18,000 properties in the sector. Will the witnesses say what their view is of how many short-term lets there are in Scotland and how that compares with the Government’s figure? If the figure of 32,000 is out of step with the actual situation, how could that affect the starting point for the regulations and the impact that they could have?