Background

Similar to the King’s Speech at Westminster, the Programme for Government is one of the big political events at Holyrood, announcing the legislative priorities for the coming year. For the First Minister, Humza Yousaf MSP, this posed an opportunity to relaunch his vision for the leadership of the country after a rocky first few months in post.

Programme for Government 2023

In a significant break with the Sturgeon era, the First Minister put a firm focus on economic growth at the heart of his speech. Indeed, Mr Yousaf started his speech by talking about his grandfather’s convenience store business and how this helped transform the outcomes for his family.

Most relevant to the built environment sector, the Scottish Government announced a raft of bills including announcing a Housing Bill, Cladding Remediation Bill, Land Reform Bill and a Scottish Aggregates Tax Bill. The First Minister also announced an intention to consult on a Heat in Buildings Bill.

There was also a focus on using economic growth to tackle poverty with more support for childcare, social security, and affordable housing.

Housing Bill

• Previously announced in last year’s Programme for Government, the Housing Bill is expected to be published in the next few weeks. The main focus of the bill is ‘supporting tenants’

• One of the flagship policies of this new legislation will be the introduction of powers for long term rent controls, expanding on the short term rent controls introduced during the cost of living crisis. This will be part of a package of measures to deliver ‘new tenant’s rights’

• The bill will also introduce new duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness

Cladding Remediation Bill

• Following the Grenfell disaster, this Bill will allow the Scottish Government to undertake urgent measures to ‘remediate a building with unsafe cladding materials’ that present a risk to life

• This will introduce an equivalent to the UK Government’s Building Safety Levy for properties in England. It will see the Scottish residential development sector make ‘a fair contribution to the costs of the Scottish Government’s Cladding Remediation Programme’

• As part of this Bill, the government said it will complete a stock survey of relevant medium and high rise buildings and introduce measures to remediate those deemed a risk to life

Land Reform Bill

• The Bill will aim to improve transparency of land ownership, give more powers to local communities, and ensure that large-scale landholdings are ‘delivering in the public interest.’

• During his speech the First Minister said that ‘it is clear too much of our land is in the hands of too few’ and that the government will be ‘bold and radical’

• Although this has potential to affect all landowners, it is more likely it will target the very largest in the country

Scottish Aggregates Tax

• The Scottish Government will introduce this Bill to replace the UK Aggregate Levy which is currently paid in Scotland. This will now be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

• Very little has been announced on what this replacement tax will look like or indeed what the levy will be.

Other relevant policies announced for the built environment 

• Councils will be given the power to introduce a ‘premium’ on council tax rates for second homes

• The government re-committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, 10% of which will be in rural areas, by spending £752 million this year

• There was the re-announcement of a Remote, Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan which will be published this autumn to help retain and attract people in rural and island communities

• Humza Yousaf said that he will consider the recommendations of the short life Housing Review Group which will be published in the coming weeks This review was set up to identify those actions that can be taken by local authorities to address existing housing pressures within their current powers and budget

• The First Minister has also said that the government will consult on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill, supporting their commitments on reducing emissions from housing and buildings

• The government will develop a Green Industrial Strategy setting out how they will help businesses realise the economic opportunities of the global transition to net zero, with a focus on offshore wind and hydrogen

• There will also be a sector deal for the onshore wind industry and an ‘ambition’ to halve the average determination time for section 36 applications

All bills announced by the Scottish Government

• Agriculture

• Budget 

• Cladding Remediation

• Education

• Electoral Reform

• Gender Representation on Public Boards (Remedial Action)

• Housing

• Human Rights

• Judicial Factors

• Land Reform

• Misogyny

• Scottish Aggregates Tax

• Scottish Languages

• Social Security (Amendment)

More details can be found here on the Scottish Government website.

For more insight, analysis and advice on how your business can benefit from political engagement, get in touch with the public affairs experts at Perceptive Communicators by contacting jack.hope@perceptivecommunicators.co.uk