- 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, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government which indicators it currently uses for the housing and regeneration indicators, as set out in its housing and regeneration outcomes framework; on what date each indicator (a) was last updated and (b) is due to be updated, and what the status is of any work to update each indicator.
Answer
The Scottish Government published an update to the on 16 June 2020. The `Sources, Thresholds & Updates` tab of the master spreadsheet details dates that each indicator was last updated. This spreadsheet also shows each indicator that is used by the Scottish Government.
Work is underway to update indicators with the latest available data where available, and will be published before 9 November 2022. However, some data sources do not have available data for more recent years to allow for the associated indicators to be updated. This is for a number of reasons, including the impact from coronavirus and resulting restrictions, and other changes on data collection. Affected indicators will be detailed in the publication.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many representatives of the mortgage lending industry it has met in 2022 to discuss the implications of the cost of living crisis for homeowners with mortgages on their property.
Answer
Scottish Ministers and officials regularly meet with representatives of the financial services sector, including lenders, to discuss a range of matters including measures to support households and businesses.
The Deputy First Minister met with the financial services sector (the quarterly Financial Services Growth and Development Board (FISGAD)) on 30 August 2022. Details of the membership of the Board can be found at
Officials also regularly engage with UK Finance (representative body for the banking and Finance Industry). Details of UK Finance membership can be found at
Attendees at such meetings vary according to representatives' availability.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of options that it discussed with representatives of the mortgage lending industry regarding the implications of the cost of living crisis for homeowners with mortgages on their property, and what the policy outcomes were of those discussions.
Answer
Oversight and regulation of mortgage lenders is a reserved matter, as a result the Scottish Government has no powers or authority to intervene in the operation of the mortgage market, nor control mortgage or general borrowing rates.
However, the Scottish Government is committed to using levers it has available to support households through the Cost Crisis. Scottish Ministers and officials regularly meet with representatives of the financial services sector, including lenders, to discuss a range of matters including measures to support households and businesses in Scotland and have committed to continued collaboration throughout the cost crisis to tackle the immediate challenges and address key underlying structural issues.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government which mortgage lenders it has met in 2022 to discuss the implications of the cost of living crisis for homeowners with mortgages on their property.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10920 on 20 September 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government on which dates it has met representatives of the mortgage lending industry to discuss the implications of the cost of living crisis for homeowners with mortgages on their property.
Answer
The Deputy First Minister met with the financial services sector at the quarterly Financial Services Growth and Development Board (FISGAD) on 30 August 2022 and discussed measures industry and government can partner on to support households and businesses in Scotland.
Officials also regularly engage with UK Finance (representative body for the banking and Finance Industry) to discuss a range of issues affecting the mortgage sector including at their quarterly Board meetings in Scotland, last held on 10 June 2022, and on 1 September 2022 where discussions included the cost crisis, and the support lenders can offer customers in difficulty.
The Scottish Government remain in contact with the financial services sector on a regular basis in the current period and expect to engage regularly in the future.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09497 by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022, what the scope of the preliminary work is; when the preliminary work began; when ministers requested a proposal be submitted for approval; how many staff have been committed to the preliminary work; which stakeholders it has met to determine the extent of the work; how many homeowners and their representatives it has engaged with, and how it would fund buy-outs.
Answer
The work to design a potential homeowner assistance scheme is in the discovery phase which involves defining the scope of any potential scheme and evaluating the suitability of existing forms of assistance. This also includes identifying a resilient funding and delivery model. This discovery phase relies on existing resources until such time as a proposal is approved. This discovery phase work began during summer recess and is scheduled to completed in the coming weeks. Officials have regular engagement with potential delivery partners and homeowners as part of the overall process and additional discussions will be undertaken prior to any scheme launch.
- 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, 25 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many small and medium house builders involved in the affordable housing supply programme have become insolvent in the last year, and how many projects this has affected.
Answer
One small contractor, actively involved in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, went into liquidation in the last year during the course of delivering a 15 home project.
- 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, 25 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many requests it has received from the affordable housing supply sector for an early review of benchmarks in accordance with the scenarios envisaged in the Report on the work of the 2021 Affordable Housing Investment Benchmarks Working Group.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not received any requests from the affordable housing supply sector for an early review of benchmarks in accordance with the scenarios envisaged in the Report on the work of the 2021 Affordable Housing Investment Benchmarks Working Group.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09497 by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022, what steps it is taking to ensure that any scheme can increase in scale in the event of increased financial hardship as a result of increasing interest rates or a recession.
Answer
The Scottish Government is working on a package of measures in relation to cladding that will provide direct support to homeowners and details will be published in the coming months. We are taking steps to ensure a potential scheme has the appropriate funding and delivery model to adapt to demand.
- 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, 25 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what impact the reported rise in insolvencies among small and medium house builders is having on the affordable housing supply programme development pipeline.
Answer
We are not aware of any current difficulties affecting the immediate development pipeline related to insolvencies. We are unable to quantify the impact that the reported rise in insolvencies among small and medium house builders is having on the affordable housing supply programme development pipeline as for many projects until they are tendered we do not know who the house builder or construction company will be. Some local authorities and RSLs operate development framework agreements but we have not been made aware of any issues of insolvency affecting these frameworks. Scottish Government does not directly procure housing contracts. It is for Registered Social Landlords and Local Authorities to procure construction delivery partners.