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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-06877

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 20 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide its first annual statement on the progress towards its target of delivering at least 50,000 affordable homes by the end of the Parliamentary session.

Statistics relating to the progress of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These figures relate to the number of approvals, site starts, and completions of units. They can be accessed using the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuild/AHSPtables

The next set of quarterly statistics (Q3 2016-17) are due to be published on the 14^th of March 2017. Statistics for the full financial year (2016-17) are due to be published in mid June 2017.

In addition to these quarterly statistics, a more comprehensive annual breakdown of approvals, site starts and completions by local authority and programme type, including figures on expenditure, is made available each year in the published Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme Out-turn Reports. The Out-turn Report for the year 2016/17 is planned to be published in early 2018. Previous Out-turn reports can be accessed using the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/investment/ahip

Question reference: S5T-00376

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to reduce the amount of time families are spending in emergency accommodation.

Question reference: S5W-06198

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any new models planned for building new homes and, if so, what they are.

Working with strategic partners, including local authorities, housing associations, developers and private sector investors, the Scottish Government has supported the delivery of approaching 5,000 new affordable homes through innovative financing models – generating up to £650 million of housing investment in addition to our conventional funding routes.

We are pursuing further new models, particularly to deliver affordable, mid-market rent (MMR) homes through the MMR Invitation. Novel proposals that have the potential to deliver affordable MMR homes backed by Scottish Government funding and levering in private finance at scale are currently being assessed.

We are also finalising a Rental Income Guarantee Scheme (RIGS) to help kick-start delivery of institutionally backed high-quality new-build private rented homes at scale (known as Build to Rent). RIGS is being developed with the Private Rented Sector Champion and wider industry stakeholders and is designed to share rental income risk with investors/developers to support the emerging Build to Rent market in Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-00619

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports food banks.

Question reference: S5W-06196

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of all funding initiatives designed to assist toward meeting its 50,000 target for new homes.

The Scottish Government has set out, through its More Homes Scotland approach, the real commitment needed to deliver its ambitious target of delivering at least 50,000 affordable homes supported by at least £3 billion of investment, use of grants, loans and guarantees.

The funding initiatives designed to contribute towards the affordable homes target are: grant funding homes for social rent; grant funding homes for mid-market rent; National Housing Trust initiative; Local Affordable Rented Housing Trust; Mid-Market Rent invitation; Town Centre Empty Homes Fund; Rural and Islands Housing Fund; Partnership Support for Regeneration; Open Market Shared Equity Scheme; New Supply Shared Equity Scheme; and the Home Owners Support Fund.

Question reference: S5W-06200

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities it has met to discuss their plans for building new homes.

Question reference: S5W-06199

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it is monitoring the progress of new build homes toward meeting its 50,000 target for new homes.

The Scottish Government regularly meets with local authorities, developing housing associations and other partners across Scotland to monitor progress towards meeting its target to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes.

We have set out through the More Homes Scotland Approach how we aim to increase housing delivery across all tenures, through funding, but also through joint working as shown by the Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group (JHPDG) action plan.

The delivery and monitoring process which successfully delivered and exceeded the previous 30,000 affordable housing target is also being employed again through the use of Strategic Local Programme Agreements (SLPA). SLPAs are developed between local authorities and the Scottish Government and detail the projects that have been agreed by both as priorities for housing investment funding, including existing projects which have not yet completed, new planned projects and future pipeline projects.

This supports an approach to dealing with need that is identified and addressed at local authority level using local knowledge and input from stakeholders to deliver housing in the right numbers and in the right place to ensure sustainable communities.

Question reference: S5W-06195

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the criteria will be for counting the number of new build completions as part of its 50,000 target for new homes.

Question reference: S5W-06197

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will announce allocations to local authorities for housing support.

The Scottish Government is acutely aware that Councils need long term certainty of funding to put in place the plans for affordable housing in their areas. To permit the necessary advanced planning, council areas have been advised of their initial minimum resource planning assumptions for the three years from March 2017 to March 2020. Local authorities will be informed in the coming weeks of their full Resource Planning Assumptions for their areas for 2017-18.

Securing optimal outcomes from the programme requires long-term planning which is why we have also committed to a new offer of resource planning assumptions through to March 2021 for all councils following the 2016 spending review.

Question reference: S5W-05871

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what public sector contracts (a) it and (b) its agencies have awarded to (i) the Pennon Group and (ii) its subsidiary company, Viridor.

The Scottish Government and its agencies have spent sums with the Pennon Group through its subsidiary Viridor as detailed in the following table.

Authority Name	Financial Year	No. of Transactions	Value	Type of Service
Scottish Government	2013-14	1	£55.00
Historic Environment Scotland	2014-15	1	£1,530	Waste disposal
Scottish Government	2015-16	2	£400
Historic Environment Scotland	2015-16	1	£480