Committee
Local Government and Communities Committee 29 June 2016
29 Jun 2016 · S5 · Local Government and Communities Committee
Item of business
Minister for Local Government and Housing
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the second meeting of the Local Government and Communities Committee. I remind everyone present to turn off mobile phones, as they can interfere with the sound system. Meeting papers are provided in digital format, so members may use tablets to consult them during the meeting. If people in the public gallery see members using tablets, that is what they are doing. No apologies have been received for this morning’s meeting. We move straight to agenda item 1, under which we will take evidence from the Minister for Local Government and Housing on key areas of his portfolio. I welcome the minister, Kevin Stewart—good morning, Kevin—and his officials from the Scottish Government. Donna MacKinnon is head of the local government and analytical services division, John McNairney is the chief planner, and Caroline Dicks is from the more homes division. Thank you for coming along this morning. You are all very welcome. As we have indicated, it would be good if the minister could make an opening statement to the committee before we move to questions.
In the same item of business
The Convener (Bob Doris)
SNP
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the second meeting of the Local Government and Communities Committee. I remind everyone present to turn off mobile pho...
The Minister for Local Government and Housing (Kevin Stewart)
SNP
Thank you, convener. I welcome you and other members to their roles in the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee this morning, a...
The Convener
SNP
In a minute, I will bring in my colleague Andy Wightman, who has some questions on housing—as I do, so we could start there. I have no doubt that there has ...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
We have set ourselves a challenging target of 50,000 affordable homes, and my job is to ensure that everything aligns so that that is achieved. At this very ...
The Convener
SNP
You mentioned the significant budget that has been allocated. I assume that the Government has done some modelling work in relation to the minimum of 35,000 ...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
I will bring Caroline Dicks in later, but I will start by talking about what has happened over the past few days, which of course is extremely worrying. The ...
Caroline Dicks (Scottish Government)
The convener asked about the modelling in relation to the Government’s targets, and specifically the 35,000 social homes. The important part of the Governmen...
The Convener
SNP
I know that there is no such thing as a typical home, but there used to be a working assumption that the, if you like, bog-standard home—I apologise, because...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
I will bring in Ms Dicks.
Caroline Dicks
It depends. We have a table that shows different grant subsidy levels for different parts of the country. We can provide that table to the committee so that ...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
We can supply all the detail in some depth, convener, if you so wish. Obviously, the question that you asked is quite technical and there are a number of ans...
The Convener
SNP
Absolutely, minister. I am very much aware of that. That information would be very helpful, but the committee will need some comparisons because the question...
Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP)
SNP
Good morning, minister. How are the 50,000 houses going to be allocated in terms of geographic spread? Is the programme going to be demand led, or is it goin...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
Obviously, the programme will be driven by need and each area has its own assessment of its housing need. Mr Gibson rightly talks about his own constituency,...
Elaine Smith (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Welcome, minister, to the committee and to your position and thank you for joining us this morning. I would like to pick up on something that the convener a...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
A lot of these things are matters for local authorities to decide in their local development plans, and they have to consider them carefully when they come t...
Elaine Smith
Lab
Thank you, minister. I would probably want you to say that there will be no building on green-belt land, but I appreciate that you are clearly not going to d...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
It will be up to local authorities to look at planning in their particular locales.
The Convener
SNP
I know that the planning review is on-going, but I note that, particularly in large local authorities such as Glasgow City Council, local development plans a...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
The planning review has reported. As I said, it was published on 31 May, and I urge members to have a look at it. As I said, the Government will respond to t...
John McNairney (Scottish Government)
As the minister has said, we aspire to having a plan-led system. If communities can be fully involved in the policies and allocations in the development plan...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
I am very aware that some communities are much more able to respond to these kinds of things than others, and I want to ensure that any community capacity bu...
The Convener
SNP
That is very helpful. Of course, irrespective of the capacity in a community, it has to know that something is happening before it can respond. I imagine tha...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
As I have said, we will publish our response to the independent review’s recommendations in very short course. It is not for me to tell the committee what to...
The Convener
SNP
Yes, but all I am asking is whether a key principle for you as minister in responding to the independent review that has now been published will be to take o...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
The Government’s response to the independent review panel will come out in due course. If you want to bring me back to the committee to discuss our response,...
The Convener
SNP
I am absolutely sure that we will want to do that.
Andy Wightman (Lothian) (Green)
Green
Minister, you said in your opening remarks that the Scottish Government “has an excellent track record on housing”. However, house building has fallen by a...
Kevin Stewart
SNP
The Government has an excellent record on housing: we managed to achieve 33,490 affordable houses, if I remember rightly, in the previous parliamentary sessi...
Andy Wightman
Green
I welcome the opportunity to communicate further with you, minister, which I will do. My first question was about whether you consider the speculative volum...