Joint Housing Resilience Chairs Group minutes: 24 February 2021

Attendees and apologies

• Kevin Stewart - Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning
• Nina Ballantyne - CAB
• Laura Caven, COSLA
• Stacey Dingwall, SFHA
• Ross Anderson, Post grad student Stirling University
• Scottish Government Officials
• Shirley Laing - SG
• Catriona MacKean - SG
• Margaret Irving – SG

Apologies

• Sally Thomas – SFHA
• Cllr Kelly Parry - COSLA

Items and actions

• Previous Meeting – More Homes officials have now confirmed details of the subsidy working group.
• Following the attendance of Energy UK at the SHRG meeting yesterday, members were asked to provide evidence of energy companies not attending to void property requests.
• The Minister would like a draft letter to Energy UK this week to raise the importance of working on voids to allow people to move from temporary accommodation to a settled home.

Update- Letter issued by the Minister and acknowledged by Ms Pinchbeck, Chief Executive of Energy UK.

• SG officials to follow up the quote for SFHA from the Minister for the Fuel Poverty funding announcement. This should be with the Minister for clearance by the end of the day.

Update - Complete

• SG to share the Coronavirus Act extension intentions with the Resilience group chairs as soon as the Bill documents are available.

Update -The Scottish Government’s Statement of Reasons and draft regulations to extend the Coronavirus Acts – subject to Parliamentary approval – have been shared with the Resilience Groups. An update on the regulations extending the ban on the enforcement of eviction orders and mortgage repossessions beyond 31 March, has also been shared.

• Members to consider how SG and the resilience groups can work together to share ideas for a successful transition out of the emergency arrangements, once it is possible to do so.  

Update – A series of meetings have been arranged with housing sector representatives across the sectors to consider. These meetings will follow an event – Untangling evictions - being hosted by Scotland’s Housing Network on 18 March, aiming to share views, experiences and intelligence/data. PRS Resilience Group have considered transition support for renters as we move out of the emergency arrangements and will continue to discuss this at future meetings.  Further detailed conversations have taken place between SG officials and Citizens Advice, particularly around mapping those most at risk.

• The Minister welcomed the continued support of the sector to put pressure on the UK government and encouraged members to continue to raise issues about cuts in funding for housing and Universal Credit.

Further meetings – The next meeting will be Wednesday 17 March. Time confirmed as 13:45.