Chamber and committees

Scottish Ministers and officials regularly meet with representatives of the financial services sector, including lenders, to discuss a range of matters including measures to support households and businesses.

The Deputy First Minister met with the financial services sector (the quarterly Financial Services Growth and Development Board (FISGAD)) on 30 August 2022. Details of the membership of the Board can be found at https://www.gov.scot/groups/financial-services-growth-and-development-board/

Officials also regularly engage with UK Finance (representative body for the banking and Finance Industry). Details of UK Finance membership can be found at https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/

Attendees at such meetings vary according to representatives' availability.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10920 on 20 September 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Use of existing stock, whether purchased on the open market or rehabilitated, has and will continue to have a role in delivering affordable homes towards the target in line with strategic local priorities. We do not hold forecasts to 2032. Local authority Strategic Housing Investment Plans set out the funding priorities for affordable housing in their area for the next five years. These may include local authorities’ rationale for supporting use of existing stock and some estimates but will rely on properties becoming available to purchase.

Housing to 2040 is Scotland’s long-term strategy for housing and is designed to be agile and adaptable to 2040. A governance process has been established to support sector-wide delivery of the strategy, recognising the crucial roles of stakeholders across the housing system and beyond to delivering the Housing to 2040 vision. A Strategic Board will give strategic oversight, provide accountability on progress and support the government as we develop an appropriate monitoring framework for the strategy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-01331 on 7 September 2022. The answer to the Oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliaments website, the Official Report can be viewed at:

https://archive2021.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=13875

We are not aware of any current difficulties affecting the immediate development pipeline related to insolvencies. We are unable to quantify the impact that the reported rise in insolvencies among small and medium house builders is having on the affordable housing supply programme development pipeline as for many projects until they are tendered we do not know who the house builder or construction company will be. Some local authorities and RSLs operate development framework agreements but we have not been made aware of any issues of insolvency affecting these frameworks. Scottish Government does not directly procure housing contracts. It is for Registered Social Landlords and Local Authorities to procure construction delivery partners.

The Scottish Government is monitoring in line with the Report on the work of the 2021 Affordable Housing Investment Benchmarks Working Group. The situations under which a meeting of the sector should be convened ahead of the planned 1 April 2023 publication of new benchmarks have not arisen and therefore a meeting has not been convened.

The Scottish Government is working on a package of measures in relation to cladding that will provide direct support to homeowners and details will be published in the coming months. We are taking steps to ensure a potential scheme has the appropriate funding and delivery model to adapt to demand.

The work to design a potential homeowner assistance scheme is in the discovery phase which involves defining the scope of any potential scheme and evaluating the suitability of existing forms of assistance. This also includes identifying a resilient funding and delivery model. This discovery phase relies on existing resources until such time as a proposal is approved. This discovery phase work began during summer recess and is scheduled to completed in the coming weeks. Officials have regular engagement with potential delivery partners and homeowners as part of the overall process and additional discussions will be undertaken prior to any scheme launch.  

The Scottish Government has not received any requests from the affordable housing supply sector for an early review of benchmarks in accordance with the scenarios envisaged in the Report on the work of the 2021 Affordable Housing Investment Benchmarks Working Group.