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Thanks for that. It is very interesting to hear about those consultation responses. When you have been at this committee before, you have talked about the three issues of building new supply, better fitting, and keeping the rents affordable. Given that challenge, I am interested in hearing from you about any new proposals that you would like to see being introduced or about ones that you are introducing yourself to tackle this situation.

Good morning, and welcome to the 24th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. Members should note that the convener of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, Elena Whitham MSP, is joining us for both of our substantive evidence sessions in this meeting. I welcome her to the meeting.

I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

We have received apologies from Annie Wells.

Agenda item 1 is to decide whether to take agenda items 4 and 5 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 2 is evidence taking on emergency legislation on a rent freeze and evictions moratorium.

We have two panels this morning, with some of the first panel participating remotely. Joining us in the room are Caroline Cawley, member, and Emma Saunders, national organiser, Living Rent; Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns, Propertymark; and Rhiannon Sims, senior policy officer, Crisis. Joining us online are John Blackwood, chief executive, Scottish Association of Landlords; Aaron Hill, director of policy and membership, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations; and John Kerr, vice chair, Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers. I welcome everyone to the meeting. I should say that once we have concluded taking evidence from this panel, we will hear from Patrick Harvie, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights.

Before we move to questions from the committee, I want to make it clear that the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill was published only last night. As Parliament has agreed to all three stages of the bill being taken before Thursday, there is no formal role for this committee in its scrutiny. However, the committee previously agreed that it would be helpful to explore issues arising from the bill with stakeholders and the minister to help inform scrutiny of the bill in the chamber over the coming days. Given the timings, there is no expectation that witnesses will be fully up to speed with the specific content of the bill.

To ensure that everyone understands the process, I should say that members will have an allocated amount of time for their questions. We try to direct questions to witnesses, and we do not necessarily expect everyone to answer every single question. If you wish to respond to a question that has been directed to someone else, please indicate as much to me or to Euan Donald, the clerk, or, if you are on BlueJeans, put an R in the chat function.

We move to questions. The current cost crisis has required the Scottish Government to take legislative action to protect tenants, but do you think that it is a proportionate response that balances the rights of tenants and landlords? I will begin with Aaron Hill.

Elena Whitham is next.

Great. Thank you for making that point.

For our second session on the emergency legislation on a rent freeze and a moratorium on evictions, we are joined by the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights; I welcome Mr Harvie to the meeting. He is accompanied by Scottish Government officials Amanda Callaghan, head of private housing services; James Hamilton, lawyer, Scottish Government legal directorate; Adam Krawczyk, head of housing, homelessness and regeneration analysis; and Shazia Razzaq, strategic lead, university policy, governance and equalities.

Before I open up the session to questions from members, I invite Mr Harvie to make a short opening statement.

Thank you for your opening statement and for outlining at a high level what the bill is intended to do.

We had a very constructive evidence session earlier. The publication of the bill made it even more constructive because the people who participated were able to see what it contains, which I appreciate.

Quite a range of things was covered. One thing that came through early in the meeting from the social housing sector is the tension between the need for housing supply, the retrofitting piece and the need to keep tenancies affordable—we have that conversation quite often in the committee. One of the concerns that Aaron Hill raised was that the social rented sector in Scotland has always enjoyed a good relationship with lenders but that lenders have been spooked by the announcement of the bill. He talked about the need for certainty and stability in the future. He also talked about the fact that you have already been working with him. I would be interested to hear what you think about that concern and about how we can ensure that the social housing sector has stability in order to meet the demand for housing supply. We also heard from Crisis that the homelessness issue is escalating and that supply is part of the problem.

I am talking in general.

I thank everyone for their great questions. It was very helpful to get the bigger picture of the work that you have been doing, minister. Government and Parliament are here together to collaborate on shaping a fairer Scotland. Therefore, as I said at the beginning, I appreciate the fact that the bill came out with slightly earlier notice so that we could have a constructive conversation. I am impressed by the work that has been undertaken, the fact that you are working at pace and the fact that you have pulled all of this together in a matter of four weeks, with a priority on and a high concern about getting it right. This morning’s conversation has been very useful, and it was good to hear from stakeholders in the earlier evidence session. Thank you, Patrick, for being here along with your officials this morning.

I suspend the meeting to allow our witnesses to leave the room.

Thank you for that.