Meeting of the Parliament 23 September 2025 [Draft]
I have just one amendment in the group, which is amendment 239. At the moment, councils do not have to factor in the needs of students when producing local housing strategies; they do not have to mention student housing at all, which is a rather bizarre situation. At stage 2, I proposed that we rectify that, but I agreed to hold off from pressing an amendment, as the cabinet secretary at the time said that she would work with me on the issue. I have discussed it with the current cabinet secretary, and she sympathises, but that has not translated into out-and-out support. She sympathises with a number of my other amendments but cannot quite bring herself to back them. The amendment is an easy fix that would mean that councils could not overlook the needs of students when writing their housing strategies. I intend to press it.
As we have heard, Pam Duncan-Glancy’s amendment 370 builds on that, with a call for guidance on the strategies. She has my support on that, as she often does, and I will also support her other amendments in the group.
I turn to some of the other amendments in the group. Maggie Chapman raised the issue of deposits for foreign students and called for a review, which does not seem unreasonable. We debated the issue at some length at stage 2, and it definitely needs to be tackled.
Maggie Chapman also calls for the Scottish Government to set up a guarantor scheme. I wonder about the cost of that. I sympathised with the proposal, but one of the advantages of being in my current position is that I can change my mind during debates, as I have done already, so I will probably not support that proposal.
I was struck by the comments of Edward Mountain, who also raised the issue of guarantors and has proposed a scheme in which landlords could increase the level of deposit. That seems to me to be a neat solution that should not be dismissed out of hand, so I will support it, too.