Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2026 [Draft]
That contribution shows why tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people across Scotland are delighted that Patrick Harvie is no longer a housing minister in this Government. He almost single-handedly starved Scotland of £3.4 billion of investment in housing. Everybody who wants a home should make sure that Patrick Harvie is never in government again.
Of course we need to remember where this idea came from—the appalling tragedy at Grenfell—but we also need to remember the anxiety that residents who are trapped in properties surrounded by dangerous cladding now feel. They feel incredibly anxious. I know many of them, and that is why I feel particularly strongly that this Government has put us in a bind by introducing a bill that was so flawed that it has had to introduce extensive exemptions for numerous sectors. That has undermined the very bill that it is trying to pass.
Surely the minister must understand that the sector sees the bill not in isolation but as part of a cumulative impact on the sector. The issues around the housing emergency, the home energy standards, accessibility, all the various taxes and regulations and the problems with planning come together to create that impact on the sector. The minister referred to that in his speech, but he seems to be blind to the impact that the bill is having on the sector.