Meeting of the Parliament 23 May 2018
I thank Graham Simpson for using Conservative Party business time to propose a motion on a topic that is designed to achieve broad agreement across the chamber. As Graham Simpson said, this debate follows on from Ben Macpherson’s members’ business debate earlier this year. I am delighted that he subsequently established a cross-party working group on the maintenance of tenement scheme property. He posited that as being in contrast to a cross-party group that does not do any work. A lot of cross-party groups do a lot of work; I am sure that he did not mean to imply otherwise.
The Scottish Greens have a manifesto commitment to establish a not-for-profit repairs service to manage major repairs, together with commitments to look at log books, sinking funds and mandatory energy efficiency measures at point of sale in the private sector. We also promised to press for the removal of VAT on building repairs, and I welcome the minister’s comments in that regard.
Given that 68 per cent of dwellings in Edinburgh are flatted, more people are likely to live in such property than any other type of domestic property. It is therefore incumbent on us to deal with the highly unsatisfactory state of affairs that confronts far too many people on a daily basis. Getting things right for tenement dwellers is not just about ensuring maintenance; it is about promoting our health. Having personally experienced threats of physical violence and harassment when I have tried to initiate tenement repairs, and having met constituents who have experienced that, I can well understand the stress and anxiety that comes from poor governance in tenements.
The private sector has made some useful interventions, such as the tenement health check policy, but there are still huge legal and financial barriers in the way of maintaining tenements to an acceptable standard.
Presiding Officer, how long do I have?