Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 18 March 2025
The next item on our agenda is an evidence-taking session as part of our work on building safety and maintenance. We will be hearing this morning from two panels of witnesses.
For the first panel, we are joined in the room by Sean Clerkin, who is campaign co-ordinator at the Scottish Tenants Organisation; Yvette Hoskins, who is vice-chair of the Dundee RAAC campaign group; and Emma Saunders, who is the national organiser at Living Rent. We are also joined online by Aoife Deery, who is a senior social justice policy officer at Citizens Advice Scotland, and Shona Gorman, who is vice-chair of Tenants Together Scotland.
Before I turn to questions from members, I should point out that we have read in the press this morning that the Scottish Government has announced its intention to lodge amendments on damp and mould to the Housing (Scotland) Bill. We do not know the detail of those amendments yet, but it is still important that we have our conversation today, as it will, I hope, help the Government in that respect.
We will direct our questions to specific witnesses initially, but if you would like to come in, please indicate as much to the clerks. Aoife and Shona, you should do so by typing an R in the chat function. One less thing for you to think about is operating the microphones—we will do that for you.
Finally, before I begin with some initial questions about tenants’ experience and landlord practice, I should say that the session will be split into questions on damp and mould—those issues will be the primary focus for our first few questions—and questions on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. You might feel initially that we are not asking any questions that are relevant to your specific area, but we will definitely have questions for you.
As the first question is really for Citizens Advice Scotland, I will direct it to Aoife Deery, but it is also for Living Rent, Tenants Together Scotland and the Scottish Tenants Organisation. I am just cueing you up, Aoife, because I am interested in hearing how, from the work that you have been doing, you think the volume of tenant complaints about damp and mould in their homes has changed over the past couple of years.