³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Rachel Sunderland touched on the importance of squeezing out as much information as possible to make sure that we do not get orphan buildings. It is about pushing that as far as we can to find out who the owner of the building is and whether they are responsible for it. As Mr Briggs mentioned, there can be mergers and companies can be bought over. In such cases, where does the responsibility lie?

In looking at the budget that we have, there is an element of expectation that some orphan buildings will become part of that. We have reached an agreement with Homes for Scotland about the buildings that it is responsible for. With regard to the ones that it is not responsible for, we have to look at how we maximise the budget.

The key principle is to try to make sure that we find the owners who are out there. We need to acknowledge that there may be buildings for which we do not have owners but, again, that was part of the process of looking at the budget that was required at the start. That is on-going. At times, it can be difficult until we get into the building and find out what the remediation need is. However, that element is built into the budget.

The SFHA made a good point, and that was picked up by the First Minister, who tripled the fund to £30 million to recognise that there is an issue in that regard. That is the broader picture.

We are talking about heating costs, but food costs are also going up, so there is a broader impact. We will be undertaking an evaluation of the effectiveness of the fuel insecurity fund. A key point is that I also have responsibility for debt and welfare advice, so I have had initial meetings with agencies about that. It is about trying to ensure that they have the capacity to deal with the issue. That is an incredibly important issue that I have already raised with them, because we want to ensure that people can access that advice as well as the fuel insecurity fund.

We will evaluate the scheme later on this year. It has had a positive impact so far, but the issue is not going to go away this year. I think that it will continue for a number of years, so we need to support the sector in dealing with it. As I said, the fuel insecurity fund does that, and I have talked before about the net zero energy fund. It is about trying to understand how we can accelerate the programme, because the more houses that are net zero and more energy efficient, the better the housing stock becomes in each area and across Scotland.

I knew that that question was coming because I watched the earlier session and heard you saying that you were going ask it later on.

I will be back in a few weeks’ time to talk about another important issue.

Thanks, convener.

I think so, but I will ask Naeem Bhatti to respond on that. On your previous question, though, I should say that the charter is reviewed every five years, but there are on-going discussions and it is looked at on an on-going basis.

I think that we have a good understanding. Obviously, the Scottish house condition survey is the main element of that just now. The last one was in 2019, and I think that we heard from witnesses this morning that the next one is due in January 2024. Over the past few years, Covid has had an impact on getting proper surveys done. I know that external surveys were carried out.

Some of the evidence that the committee took this morning from CIH, the Scottish Housing Regulator and the SPSO demonstrates that a real collaborative approach is needed. SHR and CIH mentioned that and the work that they are doing to try to gather information. Local authorities also seem to be doing that. One thing that I took from this morning’s evidence session was that there is now more understanding of the reporting systems and where residents and tenants need to go for help. We have probably seen an increase in some of the figures—that was mentioned this morning—but it is good that tenants now have better understanding of that. The new survey that will come out in January 2024, which is about seven months away, will give us a greater understanding of the situation.

A strategic board was set up for housing to 2040, and the present Deputy First Minister chaired the first meeting, in March. Going forward, I will chair that group. We do not have a date for the next meeting as yet, but we plan for it to be before the summer recess. At the moment, we are setting out the strategic objectives. Those issues have not been discussed, but some of what has been raised at committee will be discussed by the strategic board. Stakeholders will feed into that as well, and I imagine that they will raise the issue. We hope to report some progress on that to the committee and the Parliament. We have had only one meeting so far and the next strategic meeting will be in June. There will probably be progress on the strategic objectives by that time, and the housing to 2040 strategic board will look at them. There are plans to get that in the diary for before the summer recess.

Yes—we can report back to the committee on that.

There are three issues on that. I mentioned what CIH said. One issue is where investment goes for repairs. We also talked about where investment goes towards the affordable housing supply programme, and we talked about the retrofitting agenda, which is incredibly important. There are two or three key points in my head in that regard.

We talked about repairs, and it is important to get a greater understanding of the issues, particularly regarding damp and mould.

On the affordable housing supply programme, we need to talk to as many local authorities as possible, because each local authority might have a different perspective. It was informative for me to speak to City of Edinburgh Council and Glasgow City Council and to learn about where their balance sits in the housing mix. That included retrofitting. I am also keen to go out and speak to the rural authorities, to discover whether they have a different outlook and perspective on the matter and how we can advance an affordable housing supply programme on a larger scale in rural areas.

Where does that fit in with retrofitting? Local authorities have to produce their local heat and energy efficiency strategies—LHEES—by the end of this year. Those will set out what each local authority requires for retrofitting across the private sector, the public sector and RSLs. That will be informative.

The Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee has had discussions about what local authorities need to do in order to deliver that programme. The recommendations that it made were probably more for the Minister for Energy but are relevant for me in deciding what we need to do to support the programme. That is an important factor as well.

The question is how we finance the programme. The Scottish Government is putting £1.8 billion towards it in this session of Parliament. Last week, I met officials from the four home nations and the issue was discussed—no country has the funds to develop and support that programme over the necessary period of time. A green finance and reporting group reports to Mr Harvie on how we finance the programme. There are also discussions with the private sector about how it can move towards the retrofitting agenda.

There is quite a mix, and we are making progress. The heat in buildings strategy is being developed through Mr Harvie. We need to understand where the mix is in each local authority, but it is a matter of considering repair standards, retrofitting and the affordable housing supply programme. The question is how, within the available finance packet, we can get the balance right in each local authority and across Scotland.