- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government by what date it anticipates that the Single Building Assessment programme will move from a pilot to a full scheme.
Answer
To support our approach and ensure quality for the next phase, we will shortly begin an interim and independent evaluation of the pilot phase.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring it conducts of the characteristics of households and tenancy arrangements in the operational build-to-rent sector, and the affordability of, and tenancies offered in, proposed developments.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not conduct monitoring of the characteristics of households and tenancy arrangements in the build to rent sector.
Build to Rent is recognised as a mainstream housing delivery mechanism and can complement existing housing models.
Build to Rent can be characterised by:
Single institutional ownership and professional on-site management of the entire development;
- Individual units are self-contained and separately let;
- Resident access to shared, communal facilities and on-site amenities integrated as part of the development.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent to raise awareness of, and market for, the Open Market Shared Equity and New Supply Shared Equity schemes, in each of the last five years, and how much it plans to spend in 2022-23.
Answer
Marketing for the Open Market Shared Equity scheme is carried out by the administering agent as part of their contract to administer the scheme on behalf of the Scottish Government.
It is the responsibility of Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) who deliver the New Supply Shared Equity scheme to carry out marketing for each of their developments.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to raise awareness of, and market for, the Open Market Shared Equity and New Supply Shared Equity schemes, in each of the last five years, and what its plans are for 2022-23.
Answer
Marketing for the Open Market Shared Equity scheme is carried out by the administering agent as part of their contract to administer the scheme on behalf of the Scottish Government
It is the responsibility of Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) who deliver the New Supply Shared Equity scheme to carry out marketing for each of their developments.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is the case that the New Supply Shared Equity scheme cannot be used for private new supply, and, if so, for what reason.
Answer
The New Supply Shared Equity Scheme is only available for the purchase of new build homes being sold by a local authority or registered social Landlord . This is an affordable housing scheme and counts towards the target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many properties it has supported the purchase of through the New Supply Shared Equity scheme, and, of those, how many it (a) has taken and (b) retains a “golden share” in, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Annual New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE) sales are published as part of the attached Affordable Housing Supply Programme Out-turn Reports.
More homes: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
The number of NSSE sales with a golden share attached and retained are included in the following table by local authority.
Local Authority | Number of properties purchased with a golden share attached | Number of properties with golden share retained |
Argyll & Bute | 67 | |
East Renfrewshire | 32 | |
Glasgow | 17 | |
Highland | 681 | 675 |
Orkney | 24 | 11 |
Renfrewshire | 28 | |
Shetland | 11 | 11 |
Western Isles | 77 | 77 |
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how the Single Building Assessment will align with the proposed Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022.
Answer
Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 are currently being drafted. The intention is to lay these regulations in the Scottish Parliament shortly. The regulations are not retrospective and will apply to new buildings, alterations to existing buildings where new building work is proposed and to certain conversions as specified in the regulations.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will allow local authorities to carry forward unspent Tenant Hardship Grant funding to 2022-23, or whether it will seek to recover any underspend.
Answer
Each local authority has been given a set allocation of funding which will close when that allocation is fully spent. Local authorities can continue spending into the next financial year with any remaining allocation should they need to do so.
The Tenant Grant Fund is being paid to local authorities as General Revenue Grant, if a local authority is unable to spend their revenue funding in year, it is placed in their reserves and used the following financial year. As it is revenue funding they do not require Scottish Government approval.
Local authorities have indicated that they are confident that they will be able to spend their allocations in the coming months, therefore we do not anticipate any need to recover an underspend.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many of the pipeline of around 9,000 Build to Rent homes in major cities, which are referred to in the Housing to 2040 strategy, are at the more affordable end of market rents.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not gather information on the affordability of rents in the Build to Rent sector.
Build to Rent is recognised as a mainstream housing delivery mechanism and can complement existing housing models.
Build to Rent can be characterised by:
- Single institutional ownership and professional on-site management of the entire development;
- Individual units are self-contained and separately let;
- Resident access to shared, communal facilities and on-site amenities integrated as part of the development.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05703 by
Shona Robison on 27 January 2022, whether information about the construction
and fire safety of high rise non-domestic buildings is collected and, if so, what
format that information is available in, and how many high-rise student
accommodation buildings have combustible cladding.
Answer
Shona Robison: There is no central source for this information, however some of this information is held by local authorities and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).
In November 2019, the Scottish Funding Council published a call for information to Scotland’s Colleges and Universities to seek assurances on fire safety in their respective estates. All Universities and colleges advised they had collated up to date information on the cladding types used on their buildings. All but one of 28 institutions reported satisfaction that all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that where cladding is present, it is safe. The Scottish Government relayed this information to SFRS.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) are the enforcing authority for most non-domestic premises that are covered by Scottish fire safety legislation i.e. Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, as amended and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006. SFRS have a risk-based audit programme which targets activities and resources at premises which offer the greatest risk to the safety of relevant persons in the event of fire. SFRS enforcement activity is about promoting and enabling sustained compliance with the law. It also ensures that actions are taken to deal promptly with serious risk and that duty-holders who fail in their obligations are held to account. Confidential information on fire safety and to some extent, building construction, is therefore collected and evaluated as part of a SFRS enforcement audit.
Building warrant applications are checked by local authority verifiers for compliance with the building standards (including fire safety as set out in Section 2 of the Technical Handbooks). During construction, a Reasonable Inquiry process allows for assessment of the works in accordance with the approved (compliant) building warrant drawings. Only after a new building’s completion certificate is accepted by the verifier can the building be occupied. Local Authorities keep building standards registers, including building warrant records.