Publication - Minutes

Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group meeting: November 2018

Published: 29 November 2018
Topic: Housing
Date of meeting: 7 November 2018

Minutes and papers for the November 2018 meeting of the Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group (JHPDG), held in Edinburgh.

Introductions, apologies, declaration of conflicts of interest, minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

Paper: JHPDG 77

Lesley Fraser (LF) chairing, welcomed everyone to the 13th meeting of the Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group (JHPDG), and noted apologies and attendees as above.
Members were invited to declare any specific conflicts of interest which might arise in the course of discussions. No conflicts of interest were flagged by any members with regard to the 7 November meeting.
The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 5 June 2018, were agreed as read.
LF invited Andrew Mott (AM), Head of Housing Markets, Strategy and North Programmes, to update the JHPDG on the Scottish Government’s approach to housing beyond 2021 and the associated development of a housing vision for 2040.
AM encouraged members to continue to engage in this process, which included conducting their own B2021 discussion events as part the first wave of stakeholder engagement work and to send feedback to the Scottish Government by 30 November 2018.
Following the analysis of this feedback and the feedback produced at the launch event on 25 September, a paper would be produced setting out key themes and options for Ministers’ consideration. A second wave of engagement was planned for Spring/Summer 2019 to seek views on more concrete propositions. Members were encouraged to engage in this process too.
It was proposed that the Housing Beyond 2021 work be a substantive agenda item at each JHPDG meeting going forward.
The group welcomed the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Aileen Campbell MSP, who joined the meeting for the discussion on race equality.
Paper JHPDG 79 - LF briefly updated the group on the Scottish Government’s Race Equality Action Plan (published last December), and in particular the work done so far in relation to the housing actions.
LF welcomed Rohini Sharma Joshi (RSJ), Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager at Trust Housing Association, who spoke to the housing issues faced by ethnic minority people in Scotland, which are outlined in paper JHPDG 80.
The Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government joined members in their break-out groups to hear and discuss the views being expressed on RSJ’s five areas for action:

Understanding the changing needs of ethnic minority people.
Improving information and communication.
Increasing the number of ethnic minority people employed in the housing sector.
Equality training for decision makers and housing providers.
Sheltered or care housing developments for ethnic minority older people which meets their needs.

Representatives from the six break-out groups subsequently fed back to the Cabinet Secretary and the plenary group on their main points. (A summary of these is available on the Scottish Government website and will be circulated as an information paper).
LF emphasised the importance of identifying practical actions that the JHPDG (as a group) can take together. Members were also encouraged to consider in particular what they as individuals and/or their organisations could do to support and create employment opportunities for ethnic minority people. (Action Point 1)
LF asked members to make a personal commitment to discuss the issues raised in the race equality session within their organisations, and to bring this back to the Group at a future point. (Action Point 2)
The Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government thanked members for their contributions, and following this set out her own thoughts and reflections in response to the discussion points shared by the groups. She emphasised the need to focus on practical actions which individual JHPDG members, member organisations and the Scottish Government were able to implement going forward. She picked out the following as themes for future work:

Exploring the routes into employment in the housing sector for people from minority ethnic backgrounds, and whether there was scope to widen access to employment opportunities e.g. through college entry or internship opportunities.
Identifying leaders who represent BME communities, nurturing them and enabling them to progress. Ensuring there was better community engagement with people from minority ethnic communities.
Ensuing that housing’s role as a contributor to good health and wellbeing is recognised in a health and social care context across Scotland, and how to ensure the needs of minority ethnic communities were recognised within this.
Ensuring there was a focus on equalities at the heart of the Scottish Government’s work on Housing Beyond 2021.

RSJ also thanked members for their input and encouraged them to keep a focus on race equality considerations/issues going forward.
It was agreed that a race equality outcome should be developed and added to the existing JHPDG list of 32 outcomes. The outcome would need to be considered within the context of the Scottish Government’s Race Equality Action Plan to ensure it aligned with the Plan and there was no duplication. (Action Point 3)
It was agreed that another meeting should be held to consider whether any further work on race equality should be taken forward by the Group. Action Point 4)

Survey findings

Papers: JHPDG 81 & 82

LF thanked members for responding to the survey and highlighted some key points where members expressed satisfaction with the Group’s work. LF then welcomed Niall Davidson (ND) to elaborate.
ND highlighted the key findings and outlined proposed next steps. He drew members’ attention to the combined JHPDG outcomes, working groups and remit (paper JHPDG 82). He encouraged members to engage in social media opportunities to highlight the work of the Group, for example tweeting about the group’s work. The Scottish Government will use the twitter account @housingregen to tweet about JHPDG meetings (Action Point 5)
Members were encouraged to send any further comments or suggestions on the above to the Secretariat for the Group. (Action Point 6)

Capacity and Skills and Brexit

Paper: JHPDG 83

LF introduced to members, reiterating the Scottish Government’s position regarding EU Exit and providing an update on Scottish Government activity and preparations for different EU Exit scenarios.
She invited Prof Ken Gibb from the University of Glasgow and Prof Sean Smith from Napier University to separately present to the Group as follows:

Prof. Gibb gave an overview of CaCHE analysis on the implications of Brexit for housing in Scotland.
Prof Sean Smith provided a summary explanation of industry capacity and skills, and the possible effects of Brexit on this part of the sector in particular.

As part of the plenary discussion that followed, LF asked for members’ comments and perspective, and their views on what the Scottish Government should feed back to the UK Government as part of their discussions on the Brexit process. In summary, the points raised included:

How important it was to discuss potential capacity and skills shortages, and being aware of baseline capacity within the industry.
Possible changes to workforce demographics (and therefore to housing construction/support needs) going forward.
An appeal for rapid support for some areas of the housing sector should the economy go into recession.

Scottish Government Strategic Update

LF updated the group on Scottish Government Strategic Developments.

Any other business

There was no other business brought forward.
Date of next meeting: 20 February 2019 (morning).

Scottish Government

November 2018

Attendees and apologies

Lesley Fraser	Director for Housing and Social Justice, Scottish Government (JHPDG Co-Chair)
Tom Barclay	RICS (JHPDG Co-Chair)
David Signorini	Deputy Director, Better Homes Division, Scottish Government
Audrey MacDougall	Deputy Director Communities Analysis Division, Scottish Government
Ian Gilzean	Planning & Architecture Division, Scottish Government (subs)
Annette Finnan	Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers
Tony Cain	Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (Policy Manager)
Callum Chomczuk	Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland
David Bookbinder	Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Association (Director)
Peter Marshall	Heads of Planning Scotland. (Strategy & Policy Manager – Planning & Regeneration, Perth & Kinross Council)
George Dodds	NHS Health Scotland (Director of Health Equity)
Hugh McClung	Regional Network of Registered Tenants Organisations
Archie Rintoul	Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Scotland
Craig McLaren	Royal Town Planning Institute (Director)
Ken Ross	Scottish Property Federation (Chief Executive, Ross Developments and Renewables)
Sally Thomas	Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
Graeme Brown	Shelter Scotland (Director)
Sharon Donohoe	Tenant Information Service (Director)
Professor Ken Gibb	Professor in Housing Economics, University of Glasgow

Others Attending:
Aileen Campbell MSP	Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government
Rohini Sharma Joshi	Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, Trust Housing Association
Beltus Etchu Lara Lasisi Lobo Mingashanga Blandine Damtse	African Housing Forum
Professor Sean Smith	Professor of Construction Innovation & Director of ISC (Institute for Sustainable Construction), Napier University
Margaret Dymond Terence Kirby	Regional Network of Registered Tenants Organisations (shadowing)
Andrew Mott	Scottish Government
Linda Leslie	Scottish Government
Lisa Bullen	Scottish Government
Jon Hunter	Scottish Government
Bruce Teubes	Scottish Government
Elaine Bell	Scottish Government (Secretariat)
Niall Davidson	Scottish Government (Secretariat)
Keith Fernie	Scottish Government (Secretariat)
Bethany Wilson	Scottish Government (Secretariat)
Jesse Knowles	Scottish Government (Secretariat)

John McNairney	Chief Planner, Planning & Architecture Division, Scottish Government (subs Ian Gilzean)
George McGuinness	Regional Network of Registered Tenants Organisations
Nicola Dickie	CoSLA
Caroline Elgar	Scottish Association of Landlords
Ed Monaghan	Construction Scotland (Chair)
Lori McElroy	Existing Homes Alliance
Norman Kerr	Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum
Lesley Baird	Tenant Participation Advisory Service (Chief Executive)
John Marr	UK Finance
Nicola Barclay	Homes for Scotland (Chief Executive)
Malcolm Fraser	Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (Director of Halliday Fraser Munro Architects)

Items and actions

Action Points

Action Point 1: JHPDG members were encouraged to consider what they as individuals and/or their organisations could do to support and create employment opportunities for ethnic minority people.

Action Point 2: Each member was asked to either make a personal commitment to take forward a race equality action or to commit to a race equality action at an organisational level, and report this back to the Group.

Action Point 3: It was agreed that a race equality outcome should be developed and added to the existing JHPDG list of 32 outcomes. The outcome would need to be considered within the context of the Scottish Government’s Race Equality Action Plan to ensure it aligned with the Plan and there was no duplication.

Action Point 4: It was agreed that another meeting should be held to consider whether any further work on race equality should be taken forward by the Group.

Action Point 5: Members to consider how they use social media, including what they can tweet/retweet regarding JHPDG meetings.

Action Point 6: Members to send any further comments or suggestions regarding the JHPDG to the Secretariat, particularly regarding communication to the wider housing sector about the JHPDG work.

Action Point 7: Brexit to be a standing item on future JHPDG agendas.