RICS response to Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2023-24

RICS welcomes the publication of Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2023-24.

In a statement to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, Scottish First Minister, Humza Yousaf outlined how his government will make key anti-poverty and pro-growth investments to help deliver three national missions – equality, opportunity and community. Key announcements focused on childcare reform, healthcare and rent control.

For the built and natural environment, the Programme for Government provides updates relevant to housing, building safety, land reform, climate change, Just Transition and heating. We welcome many of these initiatives, including; the Heat in Buildings Strategy, which sets out reforms in line with some key recommendations in our Decarbonising UK real estate report as well as further commitments on building Safety, culminating in a Cladding Remediation Bill which is set to be launched within this Parliament. We’re keen to learn more about Scottish Government’s intention to seek the transfer of powers to create a new Building Safety Levy, equivalent to the UK Government’s Building Safety Levy for England, and we’re ready to work closely with Government colleagues in this regard.

Elsewhere, we were pleased to note the promise of an updated Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan, and we look forward to engaging with Scottish Government further on this on behalf of our members and our colleagues across the wider built environment.

Nevertheless, there are areas which have seemingly received less attention. While it’s positive to see the much-trailed Housing Bill announced, the focus seems to be predominantly on rent control. We acknowledge the pledge to invest £750 million to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 however more needs to be done to ensure there are homes across all tenures to ease housing pressures.

There is also a real need to announce the next Home Report review, which has been postponed by Scottish Government, with the last planned review, scheduled for the second half of 2021. In addition, the lack of announcements regarding EPC reform seems like an oversight, given that this will play a key role in delivering the Heat in Buildings strategy.

Underpinning all of this, we would call for a much greater clarity from Scottish Government when it comes to their plans for net zero in the built environment - while there are a number of laudable commitments and initiatives, how these relate to one another is less clear, both for industry and the general public.

For more information or to get involved in RICS’ policy work in Scotland, contact Senior Public Affairs Officer, Robbie Toomey at rtoomey@rics.org.

Key Bills for introduction in 2023/24

• Housing
  The Bill will help to deliver our New Deal for Tenants and some other aspects of Housing to 2040 by creating powers for the introduction of longer-term rent controls. The Bill will also create new tenants’ rights and introduce new duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness.
• Cladding Remediation
  The Bill will enable the Scottish Government to undertake urgent measures to remediate a building with unsafe cladding materials that present a risk to life.
• Land Reform
  The Bill will improve transparency of land ownership, further empower communities, and help ensure that large-scale landholdings are delivering in the public interest. It will also modernise tenant farming and small landholding legislation.

Key policy announcements

Below is an overview of the key policy announcements made in 2023-24 Programme for Government.

Housing

• Introduce the Housing Bill to create powers for the introduction of long-term rent controls – creating new tenants’ rights and introduce new duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness. Current rent controls will remain in place until March 2024.
• Invest £752 million this year through our Affordable Housing Supply Programme as we continue to support the delivery of affordable homes to meet housing needs and our longer-term target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be available for social rent and 10% in our rural and island communities.

Building Safety

• Seek the devolution of powers to introduce a levy equivalent to the UK Government’s Building Safety Levy for England, to allow us to work towards ensuring the residential development sector makes a fair contribution to the costs of the Scottish Government’s Cladding Remediation Programme, which, together with the Cladding Remediation Bill, will help to safeguard homeowners and residents by remediating unsafe cladding that presents a risk to life.
• Complete a stock survey of relevant medium and high-rise buildings and introduce a Cladding Remediation Bill to help safeguard homeowners and residents by creating a new power to undertake urgent measures to remediate unsafe cladding that presents a risk to life.
• Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC). We are working with the public sector and will ensure that measures are put into place where required so that people are safe and feel safe in buildings.

Agriculture, land reform, the rural economy and the islands

• Introduce a Land Reform Bill, including measures to modernise agricultural holdings.

Climate Change

• Host, with the First Minister, a meeting with key stakeholders to discuss ways forward to meet our climate ambitions ahead of COP28.

Just Transition

• Publish the final Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan and deliver Just Transition Plans for Built Environment and Construction, Land Use and Agriculture, and Transport, as well as a site Just Transition Plan for Grangemouth.
• Create more opportunities to acquire the green skills that our economy and workers need to thrive and transition to net zero, supported by an updated Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan.

Heating

• Consult on draft proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill to accelerate the transition to zero carbon homes as a significant part of a new draft climate plan.