Seòmar agus comataidhean

I remind the committee of my declaration of an interest with regard to private rented property.

I thank the panel for coming along this morning. I will focus on two areas. I want to get your perspective on the potential for a new common housing standard and to hear any thoughts that you have on the design of new homes and retrofitting of existing homes. We have touched on some aspects of that and on how those designs have the potential to help with mitigation of dampness and mould problems and ensuring that they are minimised. Debbie, will you start with your thoughts on either of those?

Okay. Is part of the concern that a build or a retrofit standard that would improve insulation might make ventilation worse?

Timothy Douglas, do you have any comments?

Are there any specific things that you would want to see in a new common housing standard?

So, the common housing standard is as much—or if I have heard you correctly, probably more—about timelines, processes and implementation as it is about new technical requirements.

I find it interesting that you are having problems with damp that you did not have before, and it is something that we should consider in a bit more detail.

John Kerr, do you have any comments on either of those questions?

Thank you and good morning.

I want to ask the same two questions that I put to the first panel. First, would a new common housing standard help to address issues with dampness and mould? John Blackwood made the point that we should perhaps be looking at having more statutory guidance instead of a standard. I would be interested in hearing the panel’s thoughts on that.

I also wanted to ask about the design of new homes and about retrofitting existing homes. What potential scope is there for that work to help address some of the issues that we have been talking about this morning?

Do you want to start on either of those questions, Carolyn?

That is good. Thank you very much.

Before I start on that, I have a brief supplementary to Mark Griffin’s question on evidence. The minister went through a number of examples of work. However, the 2015 Scottish household survey showed that 24 per cent of people in Scotland felt that they could influence decisions affecting their local areas, but in the 2019 survey that had dropped to 18 per cent. I believe that that is also reflected in our worsening performance on the community empowerment indicator on social capital in the national performance framework. That hard evidence suggests that things have got worse rather than better, so I would like to hear the minister’s reflections on that. Is that on the radar, and does it drive the approach to understanding whether or not we are making progress?

That is a fair comment. I think that it was described in one of the papers as the “glue” behind the scenes. However, that does not take away from the fact that, when I engage with local community organisations that do great work on the front line and which have many frustrations in many areas, their work tends to coalesce organically, but there is not the sense that that is something that the CPP or any other structure is adding value to. In fact, the area partnerships are seen largely as a mechanism for funnelling funding to local organisations, rather than as something that pulls things together strategically and coherently. Indeed, community councils also have an important role to play in that.

I suppose that I meant to reflect on the frustration that was expressed by the third sector about not feeling part of that process. By the time you get to it, it is the third sector interface, which again is quite far removed from the people on the ground who are delivering real stuff in real communities.

Does Councillor Heddie have reflections on any of that, bearing in mind that Orkney might have a different experience due to its size? I think that his screen has frozen, so I will move on to my next point.

Engagement of the business community in delivering community empowerment is also a very important strand at a local level. What steps can be taken to ensure that it is effectively involved? As part of that, I am going to reflect on the work of Scottish Enterprise and other enterprise agencies that is referenced in the written evidence. I was not engaged with any of the work that is referenced, but I want to give a perspective on it from my previous work with businesses and enterprise agencies.

I was surprised to see Scottish Enterprise referenced—it is mentioned as one of the stakeholders—because, in my experience with it, its work was much more placed at a national strategic level to build world-leading industrial and technology clusters that make Scotland competitive, rather than being involved in the nuts and bolts of what happens at a very local level. I would have thought that that local role was more for Business Gateway, frankly. I would welcome any reflections on that point as well.