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Finally, how do we make sure that as many of those 20,000 eligible children as possible take up the free school meals? I recognise that there has always been a significant difference between eligibility and uptake. I presume that the most effective way of doing that will be to work with Social Security Scotland and those who are delivering the SCP, to make sure that those bodies notify eligible families, as well as working through the councils and schools. How will you make sure that all the eligible families are aware that that opportunity is available to them?

You have talked a lot this morning about the wider policy intent around the additional dwelling supplement, and you mentioned second and holiday homes specifically and distinctly from the private rental sector. Will you expand on the Government’s policy intent around second and holiday homes?

The £34 million that will be raised will go towards public services, and we all recognise that that is needed more than ever during a cost of living crisis. We should not lose sight of the fact that the measure will raise a small amount of money during the remainder of this financial year, which will be important in closing a challenging gap in our public finances.

I associate myself with the comments that John Mason just made. Generational inequality is an issue. In the past, a lot of folk who were my age—28—or a little bit older or younger would have been able to own their own home. Previously, that would have been the norm, as John Mason said, but it is not the case for many of my friends from school and those whom I met during my brief time at university. There are a range of reasons for that, and the imbalance in the housing market, which favours buy-to-let landlords, is one of them. In a small way, this tax change will begin to redress that imbalance.

The change sits alongside other measures, such as the new powers that have been given to local authorities to regulate short-term lets. We need to take a range of other measures. However, as well as the primary consideration, which is raising revenue for public services at a time when we really need it, redressing that imbalance in power and the generational inequality in our housing market is a strong argument in favour of the modest change. We could have gone much further, but the change gets the balance right.

On the point about council tax specifically, when Government is evaluating the net impact on public finances of any tax change or, in this specific case, the increase to the additional dwelling supplement and the effect that it will have on the housing market, do you take into account, for example, the fact that an owner-occupied house will contribute more because it gets no council tax relief and no NDR relief than it would get for a holiday or short-term let business and so on? Is the cumulative impact on public finances of those taxes that go to national and local government taken into account?

Finally, I want to go back to the convener’s original line of questioning about exemptions from the ADS and LBTT more widely for local authorities and other landlords. During the considerations that you have mentioned in relation to the ADS review, have housing co-operatives been considered as a model of housing ownership that I presume we want to encourage in Scotland but which do not currently have any exemptions or reliefs from either LBTT or the ADS specifically? Have they come under the purview of the ADS review or wider discussions about LBTT policy changes?

They make up a minuscule part at the moment, but if the Government’s policy intent was to increase the proportion of the housing sector that is co-operative, that might be a mechanism through which to do that.

Given that we have some communities in Scotland, particularly coastal and rural communities, in which between a third and a half—and, in a few instances, more than half—of the properties are second or holiday homes, which are therefore unoccupied most of the time, would you acknowledge that, once that proportion of a local community is reached, the net impact on the community is negative? Any economic benefit during tourist season is more than outweighed by the fact that the community is in some cases largely vacant for most of the year.

Thank you. That is all from me, convener.

Deputy First Minister, you will remember that, during the stage 3 proceedings on the bill, Parliament agreed to my amendment asking for an 18-month review during the scheme’s initial period of operation. Please talk us through the processes that are in place to gather the evidence that that review will require.

I am sorry to cut across you, Deputy First Minister, but I am conscious of time. I am asking specifically about the organisations that made it clear that they would not contribute unless a waiver was in place. The organisations that were most vocal and were prepared to come to the committee and put their views on record were generally the organisations that were not intent on the waiver being necessary. In a way that was significantly problematic for parliamentary scrutiny, the organisations that did not appear in front of the committee and did not put their views on the record were quite clear, off the record, that they would not contribute without the waiver being in place. Have those organisations contributed?