Local Government Finance (Unoccupied Properties etc) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 31 October 2012.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Tavish Scott Tavish Scott Liberal Democrat

The Government has accepted only one of 18 amendments; let me give it the opportunity to turn that record into two.

Amendment 2 seeks to extend a transitional agreement between the Scottish Government and the Shetland Islands Council—the only local authority in Scotland that receives housing support grant—before the grant is abolished, which is what the bill intends.

I accept—the minister will no doubt remind me of this—that a similar amendment was not supported at the Local Government and Regeneration Committee. However, to a large extent, the committee’s decision was based on a ministerial assurance to the committee that negotiations with the council about the housing debt incurred in the 1970s would continue.

Every Scottish Government up until 2007 retained a budget to write off that debt—Shetland Islands Council’s past and present finance directors have confirmed that to me. At committee, I asked the minister to work on a transitional scheme to help the 1,800 tenants who otherwise face a rent increase of £8 a week. I did not ask the minister—nor should I—to specify what that transitional agreement would be. I did not, and nor does amendment 2, lay down the conditions of that agreement. Those issues are very much for the Government to negotiate with the council.

Sadly, I must report to members that no such effective negotiations on a transitional scheme have taken place. The Government appears to have decided that it is a matter for the council to resolve without any assistance whatsoever.