Housing to 2040 Strategic Board Minutes: October 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Paul McLennan, MSP and Minister for Housing (Co-Chair)
• Councillor Maureen Chalmers, COSLA Spokesperson for Community Wellbeing (Co-Chair)
• Patrick Harvie, MSP and Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights
• Sean Neill, Director Local Government, Housing and Planning, Scottish Government (SG)
• Michael Cameron, Chief Executive, Scottish Housing Regulator
• John Blackwood, Chief Executive, Scottish Association of Landlords
• Sally Thomas, Chief Executive, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
• Tony Cain, Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) (substitute for John Mills)
• Jane Wood, Chief Executive, Homes for Scotland
• Colin Stewart, Chair, North of Scotland Regional Network
• Callum Chomczuk, National Director (Scotland), Chartered Institute of Housing
• Chris Birt, Associate Director for Scotland, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Apologies

• John Mills, Co-Chair, ALACHO

Also in attendance

• Laura Dougan, Housing to 2040 Strategy Lead, SG
• Stephen O’Connor, Housing to 2040 Strategy Team, SG
• Dorothy Ogle, Better Homes Team Leader, SG
• Joe Brown, Deputy Director, SG
• Mike Callaghan, COSLA

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

Mr McLennan (Co-Chair) welcomed members to the third meeting of the Housing to 2040 Strategic Board. The Minister noted that, since the last meeting in June, the Programme for Government had been published and reaffirmed the commitment to the vision set out in Housing to 2040, with key commitments on addressing high numbers in temporary accommodation and bringing forward a Housing Bill. The Minister also noted the recent publication of the new Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan, and the important work on addressing cost pressures in affordable supply and looked forward to the Board’s discussion on the Housing Review Group work to assess how best to address immediate pressures in our housing system.

Councillor Chalmers noted that she would be attending a Council Leaders meeting later in the week to discuss those pressures. 

Review of previous minutes and action tracker

The note of the Board meeting on 29 June 2023 was agreed and contents of the tracker noted.

Action: 

• SG officials to publish meeting note on the SG website.
• Carried over from previous meeting: John Mills to provide an update to the next meeting of the Board in relation to Private Rented Sector (PRS) properties moving into social housing supply.

Housing Review Group (HRG)

The Minister invited Joe Brown (SG) to update the Board on outcome from the work of the HRG. Joe updated that the HRG, established by Solace, COSLA, ALACHO and SG, had completed its short-term work to identify activity to address some of the immediate challenges and pressures impacting on the wider housing sector, homelessness services, as well as humanitarian protection and resettlement programmes. 

The Group’s work drew on the July 2023 Solace report ‘Housing in Scotland: Current Context and Preparing for the Future’ with ten of the short-term recommendations reframed by the HRG to be further developed, prioritised and completed, where possible, by the end of the current financial year.

Joe noted that agreement had yet to be reached on the HRG’s proposals for new governance arrangements to oversee, at official level, the operational delivery of affordable housing in the longer term. Collaborative work was continuing to agree the governance structure and the final proposal would be shared when available.

Mr MacLennan invited members to reflect on the documents shared from the HRG and to consider their strategic implications.

Councillor Chalmers highlighted how critical it will be to conclude the work on governance arrangements as soon as possible. 

Members asked about membership of the HRG and how it would engage with other parts of the sector. Joe confirmed the membership was set to focus primarily on the affordable housing supply programme and to engage as necessary but was keen to avoid duplicating other work already ongoing. Joe noted there was regular dialogue with Homes for Scotland (HfS) and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations.

Jane noted Homes for Scotland’s interest in contributing to the work on a number of the identified short-term actions.

Members were unsure if online published performance information from Scottish Water was available and Mr MacLennan agreed to follow up. 

Jane asked about thinking on output relating to the number of homes being created. Joe confirmed this was a challenge but that work was ongoing to evidence the impact and would report to the Board when they have an answer.

Action: 

• Joe Brown agreed to report to the next Board meeting on outcome of further engagement and to circulate agreed governance arrangements and terms of reference when available. 
• Mr MacLennan/Officials to contact Scottish Water regarding the publication of performance information.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) research update

Chris Birt updated the Board on the research work Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) was taking forward, in partnership with UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), on the impact of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme and taxation. The JRF had noted that high housing costs remained a key cause of poverty in Scotland and the CaCHE work sought to explore if the government investment was achieving optimal outputs in terms of impacting poverty. It was expected the report would be available towards the end of the year.

The Board welcomed the update and looked forward to the report’s publication.

Board workplan: a strategic approach

Laura Dougan provided an update to the Board on Scottish Government officials’ thinking on next steps for populating the Board’s workplan, which was discussed at the previous meeting. The Board had agreed the workplan would be based on the three pillars (prioritisation, data and research) identified by members at its first meeting.

Laura noted that the discussion at the previous meeting had highlighted the difficulty in determining the areas of focus for the Board, given the complexity of the system and the challenges it is currently facing. Officials therefore proposed that the Board utilised its next meeting to look at strategic planning to identify challenges, barriers and available data/information using tried and tested planning tools in a workshop facilitated by the Scottish Government and/or other members if they wish. 

Members agreed a methodology and workshop was needed and that there was a large amount of information/data members could share as well as data that could be sourced from outside the group.

Next meeting

Mr MacLennan suggested that an additional meeting could be arranged in the interim (perhaps January) before the next scheduled meeting of the Board to consider information, data and challenges that could assist with a strategic workshop.

Action: 

• Officials to consider and inform Board members if an earlier meeting is to be held in January 2024 and if so make the necessary preparations.