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On that point, Tom Arthur did some work on town centres, so we can come back to you on that.

Yes. Obviously, there is a focus on the five councils. On the other local authorities that have declared a housing emergency—I think that I have said this at the committee before—one of the key things that we are asking them to do is to say what their housing emergency action plan is. For example, what do they need to do in relation to their own infrastructure?

We expect that, if a council declares a housing emergency, it would ask us for what it requires, and that it would also look at a housing emergency action plan. We continue to work through local teams and through officials who are based in the Government.

Although we will continue to focus on the other local authorities, just now, our key focus is on the five local authorities. The evidence shows that those are the five local authorities that we need to target at this particular time to bring down the use of temporary accommodation. How do we deliver on that for children? One of the key things that we discussed last week at the housing to 2040 board, when we were talking about the budget—alongside acquisition funding—was how we target children in temporary accommodation. What do we need to do on that?

Shelter told us that how we fund housing for families that may have four of five children is key. We may need to buy bigger accommodation. How do we tackle that issue in Edinburgh and Glasgow? There will be individual local discussions about that, as well as discussions on what we can do through the funding that we will make available. We are not on to questions on the budget yet, but those were the kinds of discussions that were held last week. Shelter had its input, as did other organisations such as Homeless Network Scotland. Our key focus is how we deliver on that, and how we deliver actions—which are already happening—in a way that is sustainable this year and beyond?

You and I have had chats about the idea previously.

That money will help them to prepare for prevention duties. I also mentioned the acquisition fund, which is targeted funding. It was agreed with COSLA that 80 per cent of that funding would target the five local authorities—we talked about regional prioritisation. That goes back to the data, which shows that the five local authorities are facing the most pressure. We are focused on how to reduce that pressure. It also ties in to the local authorities that are experiencing systemic failure, which is the City of Edinburgh Council and Glasgow City Council. We are ensuring that they come out of systemic failure as quickly as possible.

I would be happy to come back to the committee or write to the committee—whichever way you want to approach that.

Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the legislative consent memorandum to the United Kingdom Government’s Renters’ Rights Bill.

The relevant provisions in the bill will prohibit discrimination and restrictions against people with children or people in receipt of benefits. That aligns with the Scottish Government’s work on rented sector reform and will provide an important element of protection to those vulnerable groups in the private rented sector.

As the committee will recall, the provisions on rental discrimination were first introduced by the previous Conservative Government in the Renters’ Reform Bill, which did not pass prior to the UK Parliament being prorogued, following the calling of a general election. Consideration of the associated LCM in the Scottish Parliament was also halted, given that the bill had fallen.

I am pleased that the new UK Government has elected to include rental discrimination provisions in the Renters’ Rights Bill and that those provisions appear to have support from a wide range of political parties and stakeholders.

Although housing is a devolved matter, there are elements in the provisions that fall into the reserved area of financial services. In order to ensure that the full range of protections are able to come into effect in Scotland, the Scottish Government is seeking the Parliament’s consent to the UK Government’s legislating on the devolved area of housing, as set out in the LCM. By proceeding in that manner, we will ensure that the full extent of the provisions will come into effect in Scotland in the same way as they will come into effect in England and Wales.

I and my officials look forward to answering any questions that members may have on the LCM. Thank you.

I am sure that, when I was on the committee before I became a minister, I asked the same question. It is very relevant. When we were doing the previous assessments, that is something that we have not had an issue with. From working with colleagues across the UK on Grenfell, I know that that is a very relevant issue in that regard, as well as cladding. However, at the moment, all the Governments are quite confident that the skills are there. The sector is beginning to skill up, realising the work that is required. We have had numerous intergovernmental meetings, and officials have had numerous meetings on that particular point. I have a meeting coming up with my UK Government colleague, and we will be asking the same thing. However, we have been reassured that there is a sufficient skills base at the moment. The sector recognises the need for that skills base, and is taking on more people.

At the moment, we are confident about what we have in Scotland and across the rest of the UK, but we are aware of the increased demand following the Grenfell inquiry and the cladding work both here and across Britain. We will continue to keep an eye on the issue, as it is incredibly important. We do not want any delays as a result of a lack of the availability of skills. However, at the moment, I am confident about the position.

Stephen Lea-Ross might want to add to that.

I will try to address that in a number of ways and will then bring in Stephen Lea-Ross. The pilot buildings were identified, and the risk criteria are important. I talked about the breadth and what we need to do with RSLs and local authorities. They should have a list of buildings that fall into the category. The discussions that we will have with RSLs and local authorities will go into that in more detail. Local authorities have a responsibility to make sure that they have the data in place. In the discussions, we are trying to home in on that particular figure. Stephen Lea-Ross can say more about where we see that going.

I also mentioned the open call. If there are buildings that have not been picked up, what do we do about that and how do we take that forward? As part of the pilot programme, 107 buildings were identified, and that programme enabled us to learn, to pick things up and to deal with those that are most at risk.

Stephen, do you want to add anything on the open call, on local authorities and RSLs, and on how we intend to take that work forward? I return to my point about increasing the breadth.

I have written to local authorities and we hope to meet as soon as possible—it will probably be very early in the new year—to try to identify that and firm it up. The same applies with RSLs. There is immediacy around this work. They will have existing information that we need, and that is an important aspect. Stephen Lea-Ross mentioned the information that we have, but in some cases more thorough investigation will be needed, rather than just the desktop information that we have. In setting out the budget this year, we tried to estimate what is needed.

As I think I mentioned at the time, we have talked about the consequentials coming through from the UK Government. The money has been spent as quickly as possible this year. If there is demand to spend more money this year, I will take that up with Government colleagues. However, we need to know what we need to know, if you know what I mean. That is an incredibly important part of it.

In addition, discussions are continuing with developers about the levy. They need to play their part in that regard. That has been well discussed and it is well established. We are in consultation with them at the moment. Although we have talked about the breadth, it is also about trying to home in and determine the timescales. We will come back to the committee once we have had the discussions with the local authorities. RSLs are slightly different because they do not have an umbrella group, but we are also engaging with them.

The work is very much based on risk-based assessment of where we are and identifying the most important parts. If risks are identified, we will put in place mitigations to make sure that they are lessened.

Stephen, do you want to add anything on that?

The annual report can cover that as well. Meghan Gallacher was quite right to ask the question. This time next year, we should be able to come back and say, “This is what we have done with local authorities, RSLs and so on, and this is how it has developed”. We need to increase the breadth of the work for the reason that was mentioned in the question. We need to identify where the risks are, mitigate them and get on with moving the SBA process on. I think that the committee will quite rightly ask the same question next year.