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The Scottish Government is aware that the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) publishes an engagement plan for every Registered Social Landlord which is publicly available on their website. Their engagement plan for Reidvale Housing Association covering the period up to 31 March 2023 states that they are engaging with the Association on its strategic options appraisal.

As an independent Regulator it is for the SHR to make decisions about how they regulate. Their Regulatory Framework sets out how they perform their functions and regulate social landlords.

The membership of the panel is agreed between Scottish Government and COSLA and consists of a number of organisational representatives. A list of those organisations and current members is as follows.

Scottish Government   David Cowan (Co-Chair)

COSLA       Calum Lindsay (Co-Chair)

SURF Scotlands Regeneration Forum Laura Black

Scottish Futures Trust   Mhairi Donaghy

Highlands & Islands Enterprise Douglas Cowan

South of Scotland Enterprise Bryan McGrath

Scottish Enterprise     Gillian Adam

SOLACE – (Chief Executives) Russell McCutcheon

SLAED (Economic Development) John McCrone

HoP ( Planning)     Beverley Smith

Directors of Finance   vacant

Project Neptune was published on 8 September 2022 and can be accessed:

https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/strategic-framework-of-options-for-the-chfs-network-project-neptune/

The Office for National Statistics confirmed Scottish Canals as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) effective from April 2020. Scottish Canals has a responsibility to ensure that it conducts its core business of maintaining and improving Scotland’s canal network and is resourced by the Scottish Government to do so. Since 2019, the Organisation’s capital Grant in Aid allocation has increased by 87% and this is enabling the Organisation to plan, progress and successfully complete projects of large scale as an NDPB.

Scottish Canals also retains the ability to operate commercially when appropriate and work is currently being undertaken by the Organisation to analyse the success of its investment activities in recent years. This analysis will be shared with the Scottish Government in due course alongside recommendations to Ministers on how the Organisation takes forward its investment activities as an NDPB.

Like all Non-Departmental Public Bodies, Scottish Canals are required to seek approval from the Scottish Government for funding proposals above agreed threshholds. This ensures that larger projects are both affordable and in the best interests of wider public funds spend.

Proposals relating to Stockingfield Bridge will be subject to this process and will require Scottish Government approval before any undertaking can be made. I have yet to receive such a proposal from Scottish Canals but will of course give any such proposal full consideration.

Following the first Oversight Group meeting in June, David Strang, former chair of the Drug Death Taskforce, has accepted my offer to become Chair of the group, ensuring its independence from government. I will of course continue to attend as a member of the group. This will begin from the next meeting scheduled for 22 September 2022.

To ensure independence from government, a steering board of members has been nominated to co-ordinate the agenda for Oversight Group meetings.

It is for Glasgow City Council as the statutory housing and planning authority to set out local housing requirements. The Glasgow Local Housing Strategy 2017 sets a Housing Supply Target of 15,000 new homes over five years, including 7,500 new affordable homes. Scottish Government published new housebuilding statistics, based on private-led completions data provided by Glasgow City Council along with social sector housing association new build completions data from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, and these show a total of 4,923 all-sector completions over the four year period 2017-18 to 2020-21, with more than half of these being social sector housing association homes.

The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown significantly impacted the construction sector across Scotland with associated delays to delivery of homes.

Like all Non-Departmental Public Bodies, Scottish Canals has to comply with the requirements of the HM Treasury Consolidated Budgeting Guidance Framework which does not allow for underspends to be carried over financial years.

Scottish Canals is allocated a Grant in Aid budget for the year based on expenditure forecasted by the Organisation and balanced by the income it expects to generate. Any operating surplus that the Organisation generates should be used to reduce the Grant in Aid requirement.

Scottish Canals has benefitted from significant increases in Grant in Aid awards in recent years. Since 2019, the Organisation’s capital grant from the Scottish Government has increased by 87% and it has received an annual uplift in resource funding. In addition, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Scottish Canals benefitted from additional funding of £1.7m to meet a reduction in its revenues.

Scottish Canals, as with all public bodies, is operating in an unprecedented challenging environment for public funds. Despite this, the Organisation has benefitted from significant increases in both its resource and capital Grant in Aid budget allocations in the last few years. Since 2019, the Scottish Government has increased the Organisation’s capital grant allocation by 87%.

In the last 2 years, and as a consequence of the significant increases in its capital budgets, Scottish Canals has managed to reduce its backlog of works by 20%. This has been achieved alongside significant Scottish Government support for unplanned events such as the Union Canal breach at Muiravonside in 2020. This highlights the importance of the Scottish Government’s support for Scottish Canals.

The National Mission Oversight Group met for the first time on 30 June 2022. The next meeting is scheduled for 22 September 2022. The Group will meet every three months and dates of meetings will be agreed in advance for the following year. The National Mission Steering Group will advise accordingly.