Chamber and committees

We are committed to taking action to ensure the housing market operates more fairly across Scotland, providing affordable housing options and choices in all communities. Housing to 2040 , Scotland’s vision for housing to 2040, includes a commitment that before the end of this year, we will have undertaken an analysis of what is required to gather more comprehensive data on the Scottish private rented sector (PRS), setting out our intentions for mechanisms by the end of 2021.

An analysis of what is required in order to collect more comprehensive data on the PRS will underpin our approach. We are considering all options, including current or potential PRS data systems.

As set out in Housing to 2040, it is our intention to explore all possible solutions afresh, including the development of any new systems, with a view to seeking stakeholder views as part of a consultation on our wider Rented Sector Strategy in 2022.

The review of the operation of the Rural and Islands Housing Fund has been completed and in response to the questions asked (a) The Scottish Government engaged with Local Authorities, Registered Social Landlords, funding scheme participants, a rural housing sounding board who had helped inform the original guidance of the Rural and Islands Housing Fund and other stakeholders with an interest in rural and island housing. There was overwhelming support that the fund should continue, (b) we are currently preparing a report summarising the findings of the engagement with stakeholders and (c) the report will be published shortly.

The answers to each part of this question are as follows:

• In respect of (a)(i) (housing developments currently connected to residential district heating networks): this information is not held centrally.
• In respect of (b)(ii) – (homes currently connected residential district heating networks): the most recent data held is from 31 December 2018, when there were 29,647 known domestic connections to Scottish heating networks (including communal heating).
• In respect of (a)(i) (housing developments that will (in the future) be connected to residential district heating networks): this information is not held centrally.
• In respect of (b)(ii) (homes that will (in the future) be connected to residential district heating networks): this information is not held centrally.

The data currently held on heat networks comes from data collected by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) under the Heat Metering and Billing Regulations. Heat network operators are required to notify every 4 years. The latest data held is for 2018. Figures for 2019 and 2020 are not yet available.

Regarding future developments, planning applications for individual homes and housing developments are taken by planning authorities in the first instance. Where planning permission is granted there is no requirement to notify the Scottish Government or the Scottish Ministers of the decision. While the Scottish Government does collect some information on the performance of planning authorities this does not break down into details of individual applications.

The Heat Networks (Scotland) Act sets statutory heat network deployment targets, requiring 2.6 terawatt hours of output by 2027 and 6 terawatt hours by 2030. The targets are broadly equivalent to 120,000 and 400,000 average gas using homes being connected to heat networks for 2027 and 2030 respectively.? As heat networks are generally anchored around large non-domestic buildings, which account for significant portion of heat supplies, these figures should only be considered illustrative.

The Scottish Government has not received specific reports of scammers exploiting the new fire alarm standard. We are, however, recognise that the risk of people falling victim to a scam remains a possibility The Scottish Government launched a comprehensive awareness raising campaign about the new standard on 19 August 2021. This campaign includes messaging on the importance of using reputable tradespeople, looking out for trademarks that products that comply with the new standard as well as signposting to local government Trading Standards teams for further advice and to report suspicious activities.

We have committed to taking action to realise the right to adequate housing in Scotland. To establish the best way to make the right to adequate housing a reality, we have said that we will undertake a comprehensive audit of our current housing and homelessness legislation.

The aim of the audit is to identify where there are gaps in current domestic legislation and where remedies for violations of housing rights can be strengthened. It will assess how well current legislation protects marginalised groups and meets the needs of people with protected characteristics. The audit findings will help us understand how the introduction of a right to adequate housing in Scotland will impact on people's lives.

This work will begin later in 2021.

Local authorities are responsible for the administration and enforcement of landlord registration, and are the data controllers of the information on the landlord registration IT system for landlords in their area. The Scottish Government receives monthly aggregate information extracted from the system, the number of new and renewal applications both received and pending registration, along with the total number of active registrations, and the number of properties these relate to.

The Scottish Government uses this information to monitor the number of registered landlords operating and properties in Scotland and to appropriately distribute the applications fees to the relevant local authorities. The information is also used more broadly to help with gaining insights and understanding of the Private Rented Sector and its regulation in Scotland, alongside other official statistics on the sector such as results from the Scottish Household Survey. The Scottish Government does not publish this information because the Landlord Registration System is an administrative system used primarily to manage the registration of landlords and rental properties. It has not been designed to produce robust Official Statistics on the sector.

Registers of Scotland, as provider of the Register, publish the total number of applications received within their annual reports. https://www.ros.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/168431/Registers-of-Scotland-annual-report-2019-to-2020.pdf (page 10)

The current published set of annual statistics on the number of Long Term Empty Properties and Second Homes, based on Council Tax Base data as at September 2020, were published in the Housing Statistics Quarterly Update in December 2020, and are available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-scotland-quarterly-update/ , with detailed local authority level Excel tables covering the period from 1996 to 2020 available at Housing statistics: Empty properties and second homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The next set of annual statistics as at September 2021 are due to be published as part of the Housing Statistics Quarterly Update in December 2021. An exact publication date will be pre-announced no later than 4 weeks in advance, in line with the Statistics Code of Practice, on the Scottish Government website: Official statistics: Official statistics: forthcoming publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Short-Term lets control Areas legislation applies to changes of use from a dwellinghouse to a short-term let property. As such specifically designed and purpose built student accommodation will generally not be affected by the legislation, however the reference to student accommodation was included for the avoidance of doubt and to ensure future compatibility with proposed legislation relating to the licensing of short-term let properties.

As with any other change of use, it would be for the relevant planning authority to consider whether any change of use from student accommodation to short-term lets was a material change of use in planning terms and required planning consent. It would also be for the planning authority to consider enforcement action in any case where a change of use occurred without the appropriate planning consent.

The following tables show a breakdown of the number of children in households reassessed as homeless within one year, between one and two years, between two and three years, between three and four years and between four and five years for the years 2015-16 to 2020-21.

In order for a household with children to be reassessed as homeless all adults on the application must be the same as a previous application and children (any number of) must also have been present on the previous application. It is possible for the number of children to have changed between applications.

Information at individual household level cannot be provided due to data confidentiality.

The publication of the Housing Statistics for Scotland 2020: Key Trends Summary and associated Excel web tables had been initially planned for September 2020, however was subsequently delayed due to the impacts of COVID-19 on data provision and staff resourcing.

The Housing Statistics team are in the process of collecting, processing and quality assuring data returns from local authorities, covering annual data for both the delayed 2020 Key Trends publication along with more recent annual data covering the 2021 publication period. We are intending to publish a Key Trends Summary and Excel web tables containing both the 2020 and 2021 figures. The statistics will be released as soon as they are considered ready, under the guidance of the Chief Statistician. At this stage we anticipate this will be between October and December 2021.

Once there is more certainty around a publication date this will be pre-announced no later than 4 weeks in advance, in line with the Statistics Code of Practice, on the Scottish Government website: Official statistics: forthcoming publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)