 Good morning and welcome to the first meeting of session 6 of the local government housing and planning committee. I'm Willie Coffey, MSP and as the most senior member of the committee, I have the pleasure of convening this meeting for the first two items of our business. I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome all members and I look forward to working with everyone on the committee. Before we move to the first item in the agenda, I would like to remind everyone present to please switch to your mobile phones to be silent. As we understand it, no apologies have been received for this morning's meeting. Agenda item 1 is our declaration of interests for each of us to declare any interests that we may have that are relevant to the work of the committee. Background information was provided for members in paper 1. Initially, I would like to say that I don't have any additional interests to declare other than those that are already on my register and that I would like to invite members in turn to declare their interests. I'll turn first to Miles Burriggs, please. Thank you, convener. Good morning to the committee and I have no interests to declare. Thank you, Miles. I turn to Ariane Burgess now, please. Good morning, everyone. I have no interests to declare. Thank you, Ariane. I turn to Megan Gallagher, please. Good morning, committee. I do have a declaration of interests. I am a councillor in North Lanarkshire. Thank you, Megan. I turn to Mark Griffin. Thanks, convener. I draw members' attention to my register of interests and declare that I am at an owner and landlord of a property in the North Lanarkshire council area. Thank you, Mark. Can you ask Paul Cleaven to declare any relevant interests? Yes, thank you, chair. I am like Megan. I am a councillor in East Lothian council and, like Mark, I own a property in East Lothian council area. Thank you, Paul. Last but not least, I turn to Elena Whitham. Thanks, Eileen. Good morning, committee. Like some of my other fellow members, my declaration of interests is that I am a local elected member in East Lothian council area. Thank you very much, Elena. We can now turn members to agenda item 2, our choice of convener. The procedure also explained in committee paper 2 that members should have with them. The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish Green Party are eligible for nomination as convener of this committee. I understand that Ariane Burgess is that party's nominee, so do we agree to choose Ariane Burgess as our convener? I am seeing lots of nodding heads. With that congratulations, Ariane, you are the new convener of our committee, and I will hand over the chair to you. Thank you very much, Willie. I am delighted to hear all the declarations of interests from councillors who are on the committee. I believe that you are a former councillor, so I think that we have some great perspectives to start out with. The next agenda item 3 is our choice of deputy convener. The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as deputy convener of this committee. Do we agree to choose Elena Whitham as our deputy convener? It looks like I am getting a positive response there. I would like to congratulate Elena Whitham on her appointment as deputy convener to our committee. Welcome, Elena. I am looking forward to working with you. Thank you very much, Ariane. I think that we have one of the most dynamic and interesting committees to be part of, so I look forward to the next five years working with all of you. Great, thank you. The next agenda item is item number 4. What we want to do is consider taking item number 6, which is the discussion of our work programme in private. Are we all agreed? I am seeing lots of thumbs up and positives, so I want to confirm the agreement to consider item 6 in private. Agenda item number 5, the committee is asked to thank the session 5 local government and communities committee for its legacy report, which was brilliantly done. I want to note it for now and agree to consider the report as part of our work plan discussions. Are members agreed to note the legacy report of the local government and communities committee? Looks like we are all agreed. Now that we have agreed to take the next item in private, I now suspend the meeting.