 Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the second meeting in 2015 of the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee. Everyone present is reminded to switch off mobile phones as they can affect the broadcasting system. As meeting papers are provided in digital format, you may see tablets being used during the meeting. The first item today is to seek the agreement of the committee to take item 3 terms of its work programme in private. Rwy'n credu i'r mewn problemau. The next item on the agenda today is to hear evidence from the Minister for Housing and welfare on a range of current and forthcoming housing issues. I welcome Margaret Burgess, the Minister for Housing and welfare, and her officials, Bill Barron, Division Head Housing Services and Regeneration, Caroline Dicks, Acting Unit Head of Housing Supply Division, Barry Stocker, team leader of the private rented sector, and Steven Garland, head of Housing and Sustainability unit. I now invite the Minister for Housing and Welfare to make an opening statement. Okay, thank you, convener, and thanks for the opportunity to be here and talk about the developments across the housing sector. At the outset, I would want to say that housing is and will remain a priority for this Government. Access to good quality housing is a vital part of the Government's drive to secure economic growth, promote social justice, strengthen communities and tackle inequality. Over the lifetime of this Parliament, planned investment in affordable housing will exceed £1.7 billion, and this investment will maintain momentum in the housing programme, deliver vital support for construction and house building companies throughout Scotland. We are in track to meet both of our affordable housing targets. That is the five-year target to deliver 30,000 affordable homes by March 2016, and with 20,000 of those affordable homes being for social rent. Three quarters of the way into the five-year target, we have delivered 22,762 affordable homes, 15,903 of those for social rent, which is almost 80 per cent of our social rent target. The private rented sector is an integral part of the Scottish housing system, and we intend to improve security of tenure for tenants, while providing appropriate safeguards for landlords, lenders and investors. We are developing proposals for a new private tenancy system. Our consultation on a new tenancy system closed on 28 December, and so far we have received 2,543 responses that we are currently analysing and will ensure stakeholders are consulted throughout the policy development process. The Scottish Government's sustainable housing strategy sets out our vision for warm, high-quality, low-carbon homes that contribute to the establishment of a successful low-carbon economy. Living in the right home with suitable physical features is clearly important as are appropriate support services. The right support can be key to enabling older and disabled people to live safely and independently at home. If suitable accommodation and support is not available when someone is ready to leave hospital, their discharge can be delayed, which has impacts on the patient's wellbeing and on hospital bed availability. Reducing the number of people waiting to be discharged from hospital is an absolute key priority for this Government. We will invest, which was announced yesterday, a further £100 million over the next three years as part of our overarching commitment to integrating health and social care services across Scotland. Housing has a contribution to make, and we are working with the housing sector on proposals to deliver appropriate housing support and services. In November 2013, we held a major housing event attended by over 250 stakeholders. The vision for housing in Scotland remains the same, but we are looking at new ways to deliver. Working closely with the housing sector, we are working to deliver a five-year joint delivery plan for housing in Scotland, which we hope to publish in spring 2015. I am happy to provide the committee with more information on the plan as it develops. Finally, I wrote to the committee in 18 December in response to your follow-up review of the 212 homelessness commitment. I am pleased to say that the recently published statistic shows a further decline of 3 per cent in the number of homeless applications. Moving the right way in homelessness, the prevention approach is working, and it still remains a priority to ensure that we continue in that line. You mentioned that housing is a priority for the Scottish Government. Can you set out for us what the key housing priorities are for the forthcoming year? The key priorities are and have been to increase the supply of housing across all tenures in Scotland. That is absolutely key to everything that we are trying to do. We want to increase our housing supply. We also want to ensure that the quality of housing is high and improved, particularly in the private rented sector. We have taken steps to improve quality, ready in the social sector with the Scottish housing quality standards. In the private sector, we are regulating letting agents and giving local authorities powers, discretionary powers to tackle poor standards. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, prevention homelessness is also a key priority for the Scottish Government. We want to ensure that people have a right to settled accommodation, but we can also work with local authorities and stakeholders in the housing options approach to ensure that homelessness figures keep falling and continue to go in that direction. That is the absolute main priority. The housing supply across all sectors is also ensuring that people have access to good quality homes. You mentioned the five-year joint delivery plan that has come out of the stakeholder event that was held last year, which will be published in the spring of this year. Can you tell us what it will encompass and how does it fit into the existing strategy framework? What I would say is that the strategies that we have remain the strategies are vision for housing that everyone in Scotland should live in a high-quality home that is suitable to their needs and that, as affordable, remains a housing strategy. However, with our housing strategies, we had to look at the framework in which we are now working, both the financial and economic framework and the legislative framework in changes that are about to come. We felt that it was appropriate to look again at how we deliver those strategies. The strategies have not altered, but how we deliver them to best effect is what we are looking at in the delivery plan. The start of the process was about looking at our current strategies, our current resources and how we can best deliver them with the focus on increasing the supply. One of the priorities for the strategy is to have the buy-in from our stakeholders. It was a collaborative approach and a joint approach, and we very much have to have the stakeholders on board to do that, which we have done. So far, there has been a draft plan prepared, which the Housing Policy Advisory Group looked at last week. From that, we have identified around 30 actions across supply, planning, quality, place making, all the issues, the housing journey and looking at the 30 actions. Now, the group is looking at which organisation is best to lead on those actions and focus on a timescale to deliver. At that stage, it is quite embryonic at the moment because the Committee on Housing Policy Advisory Group met last week to look at the very first draft of the plan and to look at the actions and agree the actions because what we are looking here for is consensus from the sector about the way forward. We believe very much that there is a huge expertise out there in Scotland and in the housing sector. It is about how we can use that expertise and the resources that they can bring to the table to ensure that we can get the plan properly developed and deliver on it, which is important. Thank you. We welcome on to some of the specific issues that you mentioned, minister. You said that the overarching priority of the Government was to increase the supply of housing. Are you confident that the actions that the Government is taking and that the resources that are being committed are sufficient to meet the estimates and the evidence of housing need that have been provided by a range of organisations in Scotland, including Shelter? What we are saying very clearly is that £1.7 billion has been expended in delivering affordable housing throughout Scotland. We are also looking at other ways. We have a target, as I said earlier, of 30,000 houses in the lifetime of this Parliament, of 6,000 houses a year for affordable rent. However, in saying that, that is our baseline. We would want to exceed that target if we can, and that part of the joint delivery plan in looking at it is how we can attract other investment into housing, not just in the social sector across all tenures across the private sector as well. We need to look at more innovative ways of funding for affordable housing, and that is what we are currently doing. There is a range of activity on going at the moment with our partners to try to get that investment and unlock other investment into housing to be able to deliver more houses than has currently been delivered. I was going to ask the outset the housing supply budget for 15-16. To what extent is that allocated, and are there still elements of that to be allocated to projects? The overall budget for 15-16 is in the range of £597 million. In terms of the resource budget, all of that, I think that I know that officials can correct me wrong, has been allocated. There is still some of the financial transaction money that has not been allocated yet, and we will be announcing within the next few months how that money will be spent. I was going to ask specifically about the additional financial transactions. What are you going to use that £200 million for? In terms of the total financial transaction budget for 2015-16, there are £340 million in total. Of that, we have previously announced £100 million for help to buy scheme, plus the £30 million for help to buy for the small builders scheme, which was announced last week or the week before by the First Minister. That £130 million has been allocated for help to buy. The £30 million has been allocated for the open market shared equity scheme, £25 million to the charitable bond scheme, and £3 million to the rural rent-to-buy scheme has been allocated. I think that the finance deputy First Minister, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, made very clear that the rest of the budget should be spent on affordable housing supply, and we are currently working up projects for that with our stakeholders. Hasn't been allocated to specific projects. You are quite clear on the policy areas where that money will be allocated. Yes, we are looking at using that for the affordable housing supply and looking at ways of getting affordable housing at scale and ways of assisting in pressured areas. You mentioned the help to buy scheme. Last year, the help to buy scheme was launched and the allocated resource was all gone by July. A lot of people were left disappointed when the money ran out. What level of demand are you anticipating for the help to buy scheme in 2015-16? Do you think that demand will exceed resources once again? I think that there was a couple of things that I have to say about the help to buy scheme. The help to buy scheme does not sit in with our affordable housing budget. The help to buy scheme was set up primarily to increase the take-up of new build homes to help the construction industry as well as get people a new build house. We have done a couple of things in terms of the scheme. We have reduced the maximum threshold price from £400,000 to £250,000, which should allow some more people access to that scheme. We have also allocated £30 million for a new small builders scheme to ensure that small builders are not losing out on that. The demand has been high for the scheme. However, the money has to be spent within the financial year and people can apply it up to nine months in advance. We are monitoring it closely. We receive monthly update reports and look closely at the homes for Scotland and by the council of mortgage lenders. We look at reports on that. People in housebuilders will still be able to build houses up to the end of the financial year. The money allocated on the scheme has to be spent in that financial year. Is it therefore likely that a proportion of the funds allocated may return or not be used? As the minister said, people can apply to the scheme and then it might take up to nine months to get the house that they want to buy to be built and to get their mortgage in place and to secure the house and then to draw down money to get the shed equity from the Government. The planning for the scheme is very much about getting applications in and looking ahead towards the end of the financial year. We monitor that closely on a monthly basis. At the moment, it looks like there are enough applications coming in to take up all of the budget over the current financial year and next year, but we will wait and see as the year progresses and keep in touch with the agents that monitor the scheme for us to make sure that we maximise the use of the resources that are available. Good morning, minister. Could you confirm that you will meet your 2016 targets for affordable housing? We are on track to meet those targets. At the moment, we are well on track meeting the targets. We have built 22,753 houses. I said that the outset for a target was 80 per cent there in our social housing target. We are working very closely with all our partners and local authorities to meet that target. The indication is that we will do so. Minister, can you confirm your future commitment to sustain and develop social rents in Scotland? Yes, we are committed. I have said that on more than one occasion that social rent remains a priority for the Scottish Government. We have to look at other ways of other tenures as well, but social housing will always remain a priority for this Government and we would always intend to to build social houses and work with our local authorities to do that under RSLs. The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, as you will know, provided evidence to the committee of a shortage of affordable housing in Scotland. Do you agree with their analysis? I will go back to what I said at the very beginning that we are all working to increase the supply of affordable housing in Scotland. That is a priority for this Government. In saying that, there is always going to be a limited resource in how we can build those, assist RSLs and councils to build those houses and others. We are looking at every way possible to get more finance, look at finance, innovatively to ensure that we can maintain the supply of affordable housing. I would say that this Government has built more social housing than any previous Government. We are putting more money into housing and we continue to do that because it is a priority. In a sense, is there analysis that there is a moving target that you have constantly got to be adaptable to try to reach that moving target? Always have to look at the demand for housing and what we can achieve. Our ambition is not to stop at 6,000 houses and once we have built those 6,000 in a year say, well that is fine, we have met the target for this year. Our ambition is to build as many houses as we can within the resources that we have and look at getting other resources to continue to build to meet the demand. You will know that RICS has provided an excellent report on building a better Scotland. It made a number of hard-hitting recommendations to increase investment in affordable housing. Do you agree with its recommendations and are you going to be implementing that as a Government? In terms of the RICS report, that report is one of a number of reports that has informed the way that we are going forward in terms of housing. The event that we held on 18 November considered that report. There were a number of organisations there that looked at the report from RICS. We looked at that, we looked at the recommendation in their suggestions on land supply and land reform, as well as the land reform committee's review. That has currently been looked at and has been in part of the action plans that we are looking at, but we will be consulting, as the Government has already said, in land reform. In terms of the RICS report, that has been looked at in some of the actions and that will be looked at in the joint delivery plan that we are taking forward. It is still very much part of your future plans. You have not ruled any of the recommendations in RICS. We have not specifically said that we are not doing this and we are doing that. It has been certainly been considered, along with a number of other reports that have all been welcomed by us in terms of adding to the debate in the way forward in increasing housing supply, because we are all looking for the same thing and that is to increase the supply of affordable housing. I wonder if, following from your opening statement, if you could give us a bit more detail about what the Scottish Government hopes to achieve by reforming the private sector tenancy regime? I think that it is part of what we are already doing in the private sector, in terms of boosting consumer confidence, is one of the things in the private sector. The private sector, rightly or wrongly in some ways and rightly in others, had not a particularly good reputation among consumers. We recognise very much that the private sector is very necessary as part of our housing system and we want to ensure that there is confidence in that. We also want to encourage lenders and investors into the private sector, so that was behind it. We set up a review group to look at the tenancy regime in the private sector and they made one recommendation, and that recommendation should be a single tenancy within the private sector and a new tenancy, and that is what we consulted on. We also want to protect tenants, which is important, and to have appropriate safeguards for landlords and investors and lenders. We need all of them to buy in to how we move forward with the private sector to ensure that it is a thriving part of our housing system. I see that you had over 2,500 responses to the consultation that you said. Can I ask you what were some of the main issues that arose from the consultation? The responses are currently with a social media company that is analysing the responses for us, but anecdotally, in the comments that I have had in speaking to some of the stakeholders, we are about how will it work in practice, and that is what we have to be very mindful of. Will it work in practice are some of the things that we consulted on in terms of tenancy. How will it work in practice? We will have to work with our stakeholders to make sure that there are no unintended consequences of it, but we believe that it can work, and it can be a better. One single tenancy in the private sector is the right way forward and one that people can well understand, but we also have to make sure that it works. That is the main thing. It is more practical things. Other than that, there has not been a lot of indication that landlords have different views on tenants, and we have to get that balance right. Other than that, it is just waiting until we get the analysis of the results, and then we have to discuss this with stakeholders about how we take it to the next stage. I know that the primary focus is about the tenancy for the private sector, but will there be further protections in this for tenants from rogue landlords? I feel like every constituency MSP gets people coming to their surgeries, complaining about the landlords. Let me get in the record, most landlords are brand new, but there always are occasions where the tenant feels that they are getting a raw deal, there is nobody to turn to, etc. Will there be any strengthening of protection for the tenant in regard to this? We have already done that in the Housing Act 2014. There is quite a lot of measures in that act that provides protection for tenants and a recourse with the housing tribunal. For example, if they are unhappy with the landlords and the regulating of letting agents, enforcing landlord registration in a lot of local authorities is now stepping in that and taking action. That is not about removing landlords, it is about getting landlords on board because we do not want empty houses, we want houses that are well managed and would absolutely determine what is there under the Housing Act 2014. We are absolutely determined that the regulation will have teeth and it will prevent some of the issues that you are raising. In terms of the single tenancy, we think that that should be easier for landlords and tenants to understand as well in terms of their rights when they are in the property. Okay, thanks for that. Can I just ask the last question, how would the legislative proposals be taken forward and when do you expect any legislation to be introduced to Parliament? I think that the proposal is, and as we have said at the outset, that we would have this legislation by the end of this Parliament. I think that the proposals were on time to bring a bill in the autumn to Parliament and by the end of this parliamentary term, we should have the legislation that should be passed by then, hopefully. Okay, thanks very much minister. Can I ask how is the work of the Homes for Scotland private rented sector champion, Jerry Muir, linking into policy development in this sector? I think that it is very much that the private rented sector champion came out of the building the private rented sector. It was a recommendation from that report, which we supported. In the back of that, we have funded the private rented sector champion. We funded Homes for Scotland to appoint the private rented sector champion. It does tie in with what I said at the outset about increasing supply across all tenures. We believe that we can increase the supply of the private rented sector at a scale that we have not currently seen. The private rented sector champion will look at investment in the private rented sector, projects and pipeline, and how we can do that. That is his job and I think that it ties in with what we are trying to do. He is working with Homes for Scotland and the Scottish Government to identify any barriers that there could be there for investing in the private sector. If there are barriers there, how can we overcome it? Can the Scottish Government assist in overcoming those barriers? All of that work is still at early stages, but it ties in with what we are trying to do in increasing the overall housing supply. In overcoming those barriers that you mentioned, is there any prospect of the Scottish Government actually making some financial investment in the private rented sector or encouraging that? At this stage, we have not been asked to do that, but what we are saying is that if there is absolute strong evidence that that is an absolute barrier, then we have to consider what is put in front of us. We have not ruled anything out or in at this stage, but we would need to see the evidence that the sector cannot be unlocked or that investment cannot be there without Government support. As I said, it is at early stages, but at this stage, we have not committed to funding at this stage, but we have not committed to saying that we are not going to either. Some of the financial transaction's monies might be available for that kind of thing. I am not going to say at this stage that it is or it is not, because, as I did say very much at the outset that that money, we are looking at that in the affordable housing supply, very much how we can use it. It is that way, but there are other ways that the Government can support the private sector and the building of houses in the private sector and other ways that we can look at that as well. Thank you, Minister. Can I ask—you had mentioned the letting agent registration and the new private sector rented sector tribunal. Can you update us on your plans for implementing the provisions in the 2014 act on those matters? We are currently, just now, in terms of the letting agent regulation. We have committed to producing the code of practice. I think that within 18 months of the legislation, we hope that that should be ready by 2016. We hope that it comes in at the same time as the private sector tribunal, which we are working on. We are working on both of those. Just now, we are consultation, we are ready to looking at the draft code of guidance or code of practice. The private sector tribunal obviously has to come in with the Tribunal Scotland Act, but we believe that it is in course to come in at the beginning of 2016. Am I right in saying that? I am just thinking that I am getting close to track for 2016, so we are on track with what we said that we would do at the time of the stage 3 debate. Thank you very much, Minister. Thank you, Deputy Cabinet Secretary. Mike, you have some questions. Thank you, convener, and good morning, minister. As you know, I am passionate about energy efficiency, and I wonder if you could explain what the Scottish Government hoped to achieve from the implementation of the energy efficiency standards for social housing. Well, I think that there are two things that we are looking at. We would hope that it can help with just people's fuel bills, because, you know, I am very passionate about fuel bills and what people have to pay in their fuel bills. That is one of the things that we would hope that it would help to reduce people's fuel bills, but it also contributes to our overall carbon reduction. That is part of greenhouse gas emissions, and it fits very much in with our sustainable housing strategy, a vision that everybody can live in a warm, sustainable home that is affordable. That is where we see the each standard fitting in that. Thank you very much. I understand that the governance and the process of developing draft regulations on energy efficiency for existing private sector homes. I know that some private sector landlords have made the point to me that, often, those homes are in what they describe as the hard-to-treat category, but there must be other issues that you have come across during the consultation. Can you perhaps talk us through some of those issues and also explain when you are likely to introduce the regulations to Parliament? I think that the first thing is that we have not actually consulted yet on the energy efficiency standards in the private sector. We realise that this is quite a momentous thing to do this, because, unlike England, we are looking at standards across all the private sector, and not just the private rented sector. We have had a group looking at this in April 2013, and the group consists of a wide variety of stakeholders, consumer groups, fuel poverty groups, climate change groups, local government, Scottish Government-interested parties, looking at what we are going to consult on and what is appropriate for us to take this forward. We have also commissioned external consultants to look at the overall housing supply and the modelling of Scottish housing, and we are going to consult in 2,000 or a few months' time when we start the consultation. Now, there are a number of things that we have to look at in terms of the consultation, what we are looking at here. Some of the things that we are looking at—what is the lead-in time before we have any regulation? What standards should be set in terms of energy performance certificates? What rating is it going to be set at to start with? When does it apply? Does it apply when a house is sold? Does it apply when a house is let out to start with? Can that be transferred to a buyer from seller to buyer? We are looking at those kinds of things, but then we have to look as well at, is there a timescale when we are saying that every house in Scotland has to meet the standard? Those are big issues that we are taking forward, so we are not giving any commitment to date of regulation because we will have to consider very carefully the results of any consultation that takes place on that. We will have to take account of that, and not until then will we be introducing the new regulations to Parliament, but it is something that is on-going. It has taken a lot of work in rightly so, but we have to get this one right because we are talking about every single house in Scotland. We also have to look at incentives, if there are any incentives from the energy companies, on how we can assist people to get their properties up to standard. We have done that with our HEAPS programmes, which also applies to some private houses in terms of the area-based schemes. That is about using energy company money as well into it. There are a lot of things that we have to consider before we are absolutely ready to take it to Parliament, but we are very committed to it. It is something that we are committed to. We have to meet our carbon emissions targets. We are aware of that, but we also want to ensure that people's homes are as energy-efficient as possible. You take me neatly on to my next question, which concerns climate change targets. During the committee's scrutiny of the draft budget for 2015-16, the committee heard the evidence that more action on home energy efficiency is required in order for the Scottish Government to meet the 2020 and 2050 climate change targets. Is your sustainable housing strategy robust enough to meet those climate change targets? Are you confident that you are providing sufficient funding to support the strategy? In terms of home energy efficiency, we are providing unprecedented amounts of funding in £94 million this year and £94 million next year. We have levered in from that in local authorities, and our partners have levered in from that further £170 million of funding, which around £260 million of funding in home energy efficiency measures in Scotland last year. That is significant. That is more than any other time. The overall trends in emissions in households are reducing in the long term. Clearly, when we are talking about houses and households, there will be peak periods, so there will be times when it is very cold winters and we all turn our heating up. We look at the long-term trend, which is reducing. It is a challenge, and we are not pretending that it is not a challenge. We are committed to spending money on that. It has been difficult because of the changes that the UK Government has made with the eco, which has constantly been changing. We have had to adapt our schemes to take account of that and make sure that our money is being used to best effect. Currently, we are attracting—even in UK terms, perhaps Stephen will come in here—a fair percentage or 11 per cent of eco national measures, which is above our average 10 per cent or 9 per cent. We are attracting eco funding in, but it is hard. It takes a lot of work, and it is working with our local authorities as well to ensure that we can do that. However, we are not pretending that this is not a challenge. It is a challenge, but we are putting unprecedented amounts of Scottish Government funding into it. I think that we have had over 700,000 measures already installed in people's homes. A third of houses are above the level of the sea level. We are going in the right track. The long term is going the right way, but a lot still needs to be done. Stephen, is there anything that you want to add to that? No, just in terms of the overall share that Scotland has achieved of the energy company obligation, it was 11.7 per cent out of the overall GB market, which compares to about 9.3 per cent of households. You can see that the work that we are putting in through the programmes is successful in terms of helping to lever in that additional support. If I could just tease out just a wee bit more information about that, because you mentioned the importance of having a long-term strategy, and I would absolutely agree with that, but it seems to me that, given that, quite rightly, the Scottish Government fuel poverty programmes are designed to interact with the UK ones and to complement them, and that seems sensible, but eco appears to have been like one of those magician's rabbits. Now you see it, now you don't. How productive are your discussions with the UK Government on the idea that we need to take a long-term, consistent approach to energy efficiency, fuel poverty and climate change issues? I think that we have been working at an official level, and both the minister and myself have made a number of representations to the UK Government about how that is impacting and what we are trying to do here in Scotland. We have made it very clear that we have argued very strongly for the rural position in Scotland as well, and we continue to do that. However, why we are doing that in the background is that we have to practically work with what we have. If that is the system that is there, we can argue with the UK Government that we do not think that it is right or that it is appropriate, but if that is what we have to work with, what we are doing is looking at our resources, what we are putting in and how we can use those to best effect to get the most out of it. As I said, we have been quite successful in terms of £260 million last year in energy efficiency across Scotland. I have just one final question with your indulgence, convener. Norie Care of Energy Action Scotland has commented that some local authorities have not been successful in spending some of the heaps of allocations that they have been given, and I think that the Scottish Government has been wisely allowed them to carry that over into the next year's budget. However, to what extent are the Scottish Government's efforts to deal with fuel poverty, impeded by the lack of readiness of councils in putting schemes in place on the ground? I think that my experience from visiting and talking to local authorities is that they are working very hard to use the money that they have been allocated. Last year, there was some money that was not allocated but some local authorities were further ahead with their schemes and then accessed that money. All the money has been spent for the purpose that was allocated, and that is what we intend to see happening this year. Local authorities are somewhere further ahead than others, and that is always the case. There was also a delay at the start by the UK Government in equal, not sure how much we were going to get and how it was going to work, but, certainly, my speaking to local authorities visiting some of the projects and some of the really good work that has gone on there, there is a real commitment to spend the money that is being spent and to improve housing in their area and to lower people's fuel bills. Everybody is focused on that. Minister, I am sure that you agree with me the importance of keeping older people out of hospital and in their own homes. Obviously, one of the key aspects is adaptations. What demands have you had from RSLs to increase budgets for adaptations to make sure that people are able to stay in their own homes as long as possible? Secondly, what are your views on building a lot more barrier-free housing, which, to some extent, is crucial in keeping people in their homes without necessarily immediate adaptations? I absolutely agree that we are all focused on keeping people in their own home and getting people into their own home as quickly as possible. I spoke a bit about that at the start. We certainly, in terms of the adaptations that you are asking about, RSLs—I will pass this to officials in a moment—I have not had any approaches made directly to me recently about increasing the RSL budget. We did increase it, I think, two years ago. We increased it to £10 million a year, and that is currently the budget for RSLs. Obviously, local authorities have a separate budget, as in terms of health boards look at the privately owned or occupied properties. The adaptation's budget is not—I have not had any to meet it, but it is important and it is absolutely critical. We had the adaptation's working group who produced a report and we accepted their recommendations that adaptations should be looked at in 10-year blind, as opposed to silos, and how that process could be made much smoother for people who are getting their OTA assessment and getting the adaptation. That has been piloted currently in five areas, and that has been looked at just now. When that pilot is complete, we would then look at producing guidance to roll out over all local authority areas. I am sure that you agree that the importance of having joined up strategic government so that we do not just ignore it in housing and find that we have huge problems in health. I know from my own experience in social work the vital importance of having it all joined up. If not, what we are going to have is bedblocking in a grand scale. That already happens. We know what the demography of Scotland is. We know that people are living longer. We know the demands for those who have a disability. It is crucially important to get that right. What are your views about doing a survey of RSLs and asking them specifically about the issues that they are facing as far as adaptations? We know the numbers are there and we know what the Scotland-wide stats are. Clearly, there must be pressure on RSLs. If they are not telling you, perhaps a survey would help. Certainly, in terms of RSLs, we have had a number of discussions with RSLs in terms of the integration of health and social care. RSLs have made a number of representations to us in terms of housing and the contribution that housing can make to integration of health and social care. We took that on board and the guidance that is now housing has to be consulted. We have also supported and funded the joint teams. I am right in saying to people from local authorities and to from RSLs to work and raise the awareness of housing within the health and social care agenda. At the start, I do not think that housing was considered as high as it should have been in terms of that, because it was focused on health and social care. There is an absolute recognition that the role that housing has to play in that. That has been very clear. We are working on the funding that was announced yesterday, on how that funding will be used and what proposals housing can work up. We do not do it alone. It is not from housing, it is not from the officials of the Scottish Government. It is with our stakeholders, which will include RSLs, on how we can assist that integration and assist in the daily discharges. Do you consider serving RSLs on that, or do you consider representations made by RSLs following our discussion today? We always consider any representations made by RSLs on whatever issue, because we recognise the very important role that they have in terms of the whole housing system. Therefore, we would always consider that. I have not had any representations made to me. We will clearly be having discussions with RSLs in terms of the funding that was announced yesterday, and we would want to hear their views on that. There are some building standard conditions, as far as barrier-free housing is concerned. Would you have a look at that again to see if that can be extended and widened? In the long term, if you get that right, it will reduce your demand for adaptations in the long term. I am certainly willing to look at anything. I know that, in a lot of—maybe someone else who knows more about building standards than me, but in a lot of the properties that we are looking at now, they are built so that they can be easily adapted properties, for example, where a wall can come down to have a walk-in shower in a room to have a carer there. If there is anything else that we can do, that can improve that situation. I am sure that we are more than happy to look at that. Following on the theme of the integration of health and social care, the strategy for housing Scotland's older people was launched in 2011. You briefly touched on the pilots that are looking at single funding pots for adaptations that were recommended by the working group. Can you give us any more clarity around when that working group is liable to report and when the strategy will be fully implemented across the country? Well, the strategy just now for age-home and community was published jointly with COSLA in 2011. That is monitored at the moment. I think that I am right in saying that. It has an outcomes framework with it. We are looking at that and monitoring that. There will be a midpoint review in 2016. Bill might want to see a bit more of where we are in terms of the actual age-home and community strategy. I think that it is worth noting that it is a 10-year strategy. Those are issues that need a bit of time to get right. Some of the things that are focusing on are provision of information to older people about housing advice and what their options are. That is a huge agenda that we have started on. There are councils that have expanded their housing options service to be providing advice to older folk. That has got a bit further to go. The adaptations thing—there is the integration of social care and health—is the work that the minister mentioned about focusing on processes and seeing if we can streamline and make all that more efficient. I would also emphasise that the local housing strategy guidance, which we published last August, pushed that pretty hard. Quite a lot of those changes take time to take through, particularly if you are talking about provision of more accommodation. That guidance said pretty clearly to councils that we have a push on thinking about that in the next round of local housing strategies. There are a number of things going on that will take time to come to full fruition, which we are monitoring very closely. One of the issues that I have contacted about probably more than anything in relation to elderly people in their homes is the time that it takes to get adaptations done. Quite often someone will be assessed and will be told what they need in their home. If that is done, then their condition deteriorates and further adaptations are needed. I suppose that it is about finding the balance of what adaptations do you do initially. It is also ensuring that any further adaptations are done quickly in order for the elderly person to remain in their home. Is that something that you are working with local authorities on? That is certainly one of the things that the five pilots are looking at explicitly. I think that that is what the pilots are looking at, the streamline in the process, and getting that done quicker and less waiting time. It also helps with the delay discharge, if adaptations are done fairly quickly. Is that the only piece of what you are doing with the housing sector, or are there other pieces of work that you are doing with the housing sector around the integration of health and social care and how you manage that? I think that going back to what I said earlier, and you may want to add to it, Bill, is that we have funded people to work with the joint teams to look at how housing is still at very early stages. Housing has now been included in the guidance on how housing can work in that. RSLs, as was mentioned by David Stewart, have been very active in promoting the role of housing. There is a lot happening there just now, but it is at early stages, and we can certainly keep the committee informed on how we are progressing with it. What about the private sector? Are you doing any work with the private sector? Is that the health board? Certainly, in terms of the delayed discharge issue, it mostly is private sector. The majority of older people are home owners. There is a huge amount of work going on about how housing connects to that integration agenda. Quite rightly, the integration agenda has had its own challenges about health and social care coming together. Housing has been mentioned all the way along in that, but we are now reaching the point where we need to put some specifics on those bones. It is things such as adaptations, advice and provision, both for people who can return to their own home and for those who need to go somewhere temporarily before they return to their own home. The housing sector has got a role to play in all that, and all that is being considered. It would be helpful if you could update the committee on that work progress. I will now move on to talk about homelessness. The committee undertook a follow-up review of the 2012 homelessness commitment, and we wrote to the minister about the findings that he has responded to us. He said at the outset that prevention of homelessness was one of his key priorities. While the statistics are moving in the right direction, they are moving quite slowly in the right direction, but there has been a decrease. Have you had any further comment to the initial response that you gave us, particularly in relation to shelters' concerns around homelessness? 34 per cent of homeless people have support needs. A large percentage of homeless applications are from young people, and a number of them will have come through the care system and may, in some cases, have multiple support needs. The five-year joint delivery plan does not mention homelessness in any huge detail. It is included in the plan, but the focus is on supply more than prevention and support work. I wonder if there was any further work that you were going to do. The homelessness task force had very clear priority and direction, and it made quite a significant difference. It seems that, if there is that direction and focus on prevention of homelessness, looking at it in the round, not just in relation to housing supply, you can make more of a difference. In temporary accommodation, the average is around 16 or 18 weeks, but I know from work that I have done that there are many homeless people who are in temporary accommodation for more than a year. That is not just about housing supply, but about the needs that the homeless person has. Unless more focus is put on that, homelessness will not reduce. The facts are that, since 2008-09, homelessness has fallen by 36 per cent, and that is something that the whole of the Parliament should welcome. However, any homeless person is a concern for me. I say that absolutely, and it is a priority for me to prevent homelessness in reducing homelessness. In response to some of the things that you mentioned, we have a duty in local authorities to provide support to homeless people who require it. That is a statutory obligation in local authorities. Part of the housing options approach is to identify, work with the individual, identify what support they require and ensure that that support is provided, whether it is by the local authority or by a dependency agency or by a variety of agencies, and that is very much the whole homelessness approach that we are taking just now focuses on the individual and the needs of the individual. It is a very person-centred approach, and that is what we are looking at. I will absolutely accept that there will be situations that you mentioned that the support is not as quick or as you talked about. In general, that support is there and is being provided, and that is why homelessness figures are falling and the repeat homelessness is falling because that support is being provided from the outset. In terms of the time spent in temporary accommodation, I think that what I would want to say is that the majority of the temporary accommodation is of a good standard, it is local authority accommodation and it is well managed. I think that I have to say that, but we still have the homeless strategy and prevention group, and that group still sits. That group came out of the homelessness task force and commitment group, and that group still meets regularly. I attend it as well, because I say again that homelessness is a priority for me. The group has a standing item on the agenda that looks at homelessness among young people and homelessness, and that is always a standing item on the agenda. The group is also looking at basic standards of temporary accommodation and actual recosting of temporary accommodation. That includes things like replacing white goods, furniture, beds and so on. That is being looked at. There is very strong awareness out there of the support that is required for homeless people in preventing repeat homelessness in particular, and that has worked. We are still striving to that and working to that. It is a priority. Does the working group feed into the five-year joint delivery plan and any changes that you would make to the delivery plan? All of the members of the group are involved in organisations that are part of the delivery plan and are looking at which actions we will take forward. That group is not just a group in the Scottish Government, but a group of stakeholders. Bill, do you want to add to that? I think just to say that the things that focus in the joint delivery plan are perhaps those that needed most refreshment of the approach. Some of the stuff around supply and so on, where difficulties with the economic situation and so on. Perhaps the reason that there is not much about homelessness in there is that the homelessness agenda is going from strength to strength. There is already a great deal of attention on it, as the minister said. I am not disagreeing with what you say, but homelessness is coming down, but it is not certainly in my view and certainly in the constituents that approach me. It is not coming down quickly enough. I think that to lose the focus from that five-year joint delivery plan, in my view and in the view of others, it is almost as if you are taking your eye off the ball and it will slip down the priority. That is the concern. I am more than happy to go back and look at that delivery plan. I said in my opening remarks that homelessness is one of the priorities in preventing homelessness of this Government. If there is a perception that in any way that delivery plan is not treating that as higher priority or as the priority is, I am more than willing to take that back to the group and through the officials to look at that to ensure that it is clear that homelessness and preventing homelessness is and remains a priority for the Government. That would be very helpful, minister. I would appreciate it if you would do that. What progress has been made to develop and implement the new housing options guidance? The guidance was introduced at the last meeting of the housing options guidance. There was a first draft produced at the guidance, and I think that the regulator made a number of recommendations. We are currently at the stage where the group is going to meet with the regulator to discuss whether the issues that the regulator raised have been properly addressed in the guidance before it has been put out for further. The final draft is there, and it is a guidance, but the draft has been put together. It has been discussed and consulted on. The group has looked at it, and it is now going to be discussed with the regulator to ensure that the recommendations that the regulator made have been addressed or if there still remains any disagreement on that. Will there be plans to review that guidance on an on-going basis? I do not know if there are plans to set in it, and perhaps somebody can help me to hear if it says that it will be reviewed on a whatever yearly basis. However, with any guidance, there is no guidance that is guidance for life. Any guidance has to start to take account of any changes in legislation, change in policy. For anyone to say that a guidance is there forever, it just is not the case. It will be looked at, and the group will continually be looking at that, and I will feed that back as well. We would anticipate that. Minister, I would like to return to the issue of supply of housing, because that is the issue that you and the Scottish Government have identified as being your overarching priority. You said that increasing the supply of affordable housing is absolutely the priority of the Government in order to meet unmet housing needs. 180,000 households are registered on local authority housing lists in Scotland. 28,500 households were assessed as homeless in Scotland in 2013-14, and more than 10,000 families are placed in temporary accommodation. I can ask you again that, are you confident that the levels of investment that has been committed by the Scottish Government are sufficient to meet those estimates of housing need? What I am saying is that, as I said earlier, we are committing considerable amounts of money and unprecedented amounts of money into affordable housing, and we are continuing to do that. We are also looking at how we can attract other investment into housing to increase the overall supply. I would like to think that we had copious amounts of money that we could fall back on anytime that we wanted. We do not have that. We are working within the budget that we have for housing just now. We are working very hard to make that budget grow in other innovative ways of building houses, as we did with the national housing trust for very little Scottish Government money. We have around 2,000 houses on board for about a £2.6 million guarantee. It is about innovative looking at that, how we can stretch the money that we have, how we can attract more funding into housing to increase the overall housing budget to increase the supply of housing, and that is what we are currently doing. The Government would argue that it is doing more than ever before and more than any previous Government, but is it sufficient to meet those estimates of housing need? There is a housing need there, and we are not arguing with that that there are people waiting for houses. We are saying that, given the resources that we have, given the cuts that we have had from Westminster to our budget, we are using the budget that we have added to the budget as well. We have increased the budget from last year with the financial transactions, which is a 62 per cent increase from 2014-15. We have £340 million of financial transactional money into housing. At every opportunity that the finance secretary has had, we have increased the housing budget and we continue to do so. We are building more houses with less money than any previous administration. The Scottish Government's projections in the system briefing from Shelter Scotland show that each new investment of £100 million in the housing sector supports around 1,000 jobs directly with an additional 600 jobs in related supplier industries. Clearly, there are sound reasons why we should be investing in housing. Meeting unmet housing needs helping to grow the economy, meeting our climate change targets and tackling fuel poverty. I am not telling you anything that you do not know, but we have given all of these compelling reasons for investment in housing. Shouldn't we be doing more? I think that what we are saying is that we are absolutely agreeing and that is why we are spending the money that we are spending in houses in terms of the construction sector, in terms of the jobs that we are supporting with the money that we are putting in. We are also in terms of the help to buy funding, assisting the construction sector in jobs and providing houses. That is out with the affordable housing supply. We are doing what we can with the funding that is available to us to build as many houses as possible, and that still remains our target. We are doing that in very difficult financial circumstances and bearing in mind that Westminster has recently signed up to further austerity, which will impact on the Scottish budget. We have to have that in mind how that will impact all the services that are provided here by the Scottish Government. Can I ask you about housing completions? Completions across all sectors fell below 20,000 in 2009-10. That figure is now below 15,000. That is according to the housing statistics for Scotland. Do you feel that we have the financial and policy framework that is necessary to maximise the level of housing completions? In terms of completions, I am not quite sure, convener, that you are talking about all sectors in terms of the private sector as well. I am just not clear where you are coming, but what— It is across all sectors. I will reiterate what I said earlier, and then I will perhaps ask Caroline to comment on the completions. I will reiterate what I said earlier, that we are building more houses, completing more houses than any previous administration in the Scottish Government in a reduced budget. It has been a challenge, it has been very challenging. We have had to adapt to that. We have done it with our stakeholders and they are working with us to increase the supply of houses. Given that the level of housing completions has fallen, have we got the policy and funding framework in place to maximise those? What I am saying is that we will meet the target that we set out to meet, which is 30,000 affordable houses, but the lifetime of this Parliament. Perhaps, Caroline, you want to talk about the completions and do you get the chart there? As the minister said, the rate of completions for affordable homes where the Government is providing grants and loans to provide these homes to councils and housing associations is holding up really well in the statistics. Over the past few years, in the private sector, it has been struggling more to catch up in terms of the previous session. Levels of building. Latest statistics have shown that things are starting to turn, so things are looking more promising. I have not got that to hand, but we can certainly provide that. The situation is looking more promising, so what is that based on? It was based on the latest quarterly statistics that were published for building completions in the private sector. There was a slight increase in terms of the previous trend, so there was some movement, some positive movement, but no any of the rates that were being built before the recession in 2007, 2008. Because of that, the Government is continuing to work with stakeholders, particularly organisations like Homes for Scotland, to look at what action the Government can take to help support that sector to help increase completions. One of the major ways that we have been doing that, as the Minister mentioned earlier, is through the loan funding that is being provided for the help-to-buy scheme. There are a number of other actions that we are looking at in terms of increasing supply. The other one that was being discussed this morning is the funding for Gerry Maw to look at increasing the supply of new homes in the private rented sector. There are a number of actions that are being looked at to try to help across a range of sectors to make sure that the completions are maximised. Can I ask you now about the Smith commission and the difference that that might make? The commission report proposed a range of welfare powers to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. A particular relevance to housing is the proposal to allow the Scottish Government to vary the housing element of universal credit. The Scottish Government has previously expressed a view that the bedroom tax should be abolished. Have you a view on how the devolution of further welfare powers proposed by the Smith commission, albeit that that still has to be enacted through legislation at Westminster, can most effectively be used to support Scotland's housing policy in meeting our housing targets? In terms of the Smith commission, we think that further powers relating to welfare, energy efficiency and fuel poverty can support the Scottish Government's vision for a housing system wherever we can access a good quality affordable home. The detail of that is too early to discuss how we can use those new powers because it is not actually clear yet what the powers are and to what extent we are going to have them. I think that the date is Thursday. We should get some of the clauses of how some of those powers may come to Scotland, particularly in relation to welfare, but we have said right from the outset that we are committed to consulting widely with all stakeholders in the wider community before we make any decision on how the powers should be used. We really think that we have to take on board the views of others. We have said clearly in things such as the bedroom tax, what our view is and that review remains, but we are not going to get that power anyway to abolish it. In terms of other powers, we need to wait and see what we get, and then we need to consult to see how we can use them. However, we do think that the powers as proposed could help us to achieve our vision for housing, but as always, the devil is in the detail. The Scotland Act 2012, prior to this debate that we are now having about Smith, allows the Scottish Government to borrow to a greater extent than at present up to, I think, around £300 million. Will your department be making a bid for some of that funding, except that that is not a target, it is a limit, up to which the Government can borrow? I think that, at this stage, we will wait until the finance secretary indicates, and there is agreement that we are going to use the borrowing powers because, obviously, with borrowing you pay back, we have to look at what we get in the overall picture. At that point, we decide whether or not it is something that will be clearly across Government. Everyone will be looking for more. I mean, like anyone else, of course, we would like to say that we would want some of that money for housing, but, at this stage, I am not going to sit here and say that I am going to go out there and ask for that money for housing, but I can assure you that housing has a loud voice, and with our new cabinet secretary as well in the Scottish Government, in any opportunity there is to increase the funding for housing, we will be certainly there. I would like to talk about the Scottish housing regulator. You will know that we have taken some evidence on the subject. Some of the RSLs have suggested that the regulator could be more proportionate and transparent and less of a micromanager. What is your assessment of that evidence? I think that what I would have to say in terms of the regulator is that Parliament made the regulator independent of Government, and there is no way that I am going to either control or direct the regulator how to operate. I have to be careful what I am saying in this. I have followed the evidence sessions that the committee has taken from the regulator. I have met the regulator on a regular basis to hear the work that they are carrying out on what is happening. As I regularly meet the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and the Glasgow and West of Scotland Association of Housing Associations, I am aware that they raise those concerns, but I also understand that they are in discussion with the regulator about how they can address it so that they can be a… I think that we all agree that a regulator is necessary and that the regulator should be independent, and there will often be disagreements between a regulator and who they are regulating. However, I think that they are beginning to talk together now to look at how they can address this and have a better understanding of what to expect when the regulator becomes involved. However, the regulator has just one main aim, and that is to safeguard the interests of tenants. Who guards the guards? Parliament guards the guards in terms of the regulator. The regulator is certainly independent of the Government and is accountable to Parliament. When you are introducing an appeals mechanism against decisions of the regulator. I am not of the view that that is something that the Government can do is introduce an appeals regulation. There is a regularity bill going through at the moment for all regularity authorities of which I understand that the regulator is part of, and the regulator will have to set out how they are going to deal with appeals and complaints. If I am perhaps wrong in this, someone can tell me so. Presumably, when they do that, they will do that in consultation with their stakeholders, who are presumably tenants and the landlords that they regulate. The committee will be able to get that information direct from the regulator. The Scottish Regulatory Code of Practice is in draft form. Government presumably has a role in that. Are you saying that there is no role for the Government in the draft code of practice? Bill, perhaps you want to come in and deal with the regulator. My understanding is that the regulator will consider, if something the Government says, but at the end of the day, if you have an independent regulator and then the Government is seen to put influence on that regulator or direct that regulator, then that independence is compromised. Obviously, if it is for Parliament to make decisions on this and, by and large, it is the Government that takes forward legislation, how else are we going to have new changes on regulation? We have not had any proposed to Government at this stage by Parliament or by any committee. Is the draft code of practice? Once the code of practice is approved by Parliament and comes into force, then, as I understand it, it says that the body is subject to it, have to have in place their own independent impartial appeal mechanisms, so that that code then puts the onus on the regulator to work out its own system. Presumably, that is part of the Government's programme for government, that kind of legislation is coming forward. Who else would you suggest we bring the legislation forward? The committee or Members' Bill? What legislation are we talking about? You are talking about the draft code of practice. Is that not going to have statutory hold on regulators? I assume that it will. It is going through Parliament just now, isn't it? That code of practice is for all regulatory bodies. Within that code of practice, once that has been approved by Parliament, then each regulatory body has to set the appeals process and a complaints process on how they will handle it. I understand that, Minister. I am making the point. What is the Government's position on that? That is what I am trying to flesh out from you. On the code of practice? I will come back to that. It is not an issue for me, specifically, but I will certainly come back to the committee on that specific point. Are there any other questions that members have on the regulator or any other matters that we have discussed this morning? Are there any further points that you would like to make, Minister? No, I do not think that I have covered everything. In that case, it remains for me to thank our witnesses this morning for their patience and for their comprehensive and thorough evidence. That concludes the committee's business in public today, and we will now move to private session, as previously agreed.