Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 20 May 2025

Paul Sweeney

I appreciate the cabinet secretary’s points. I said that 52 CPOs have been pursued by Glasgow City Council, of which 34 have been concluded, but there are more than 1,600 long-term empty homes in the city, which gives an idea of the scale of the issue and of the power and bandwidth that are needed in order to tackle it. I welcome the opportunity to continue the discussion about how we might achieve the optimum approach to giving local authorities greater powers, codifying as best practice what Glasgow is already doing and expanding Glasgow’s capacity, as well as that of other local authorities.

Where I disagree with the cabinet secretary is that I think that there could be benefit in including that in the bill. There is an analogy with listed buildings. Sections 42 and 43 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 created a mechanism known as the listed buildings repairs notice, which is analogous to a repairing works notice for any residential property. The notice creates an escalation procedure towards a compulsory purchase order.

The explanatory note that was published by Angus Council says:

“The local authority can serve a notice on the owner of a listed building specifying works it considers reasonably necessary for the proper preservation of the building. It is appropriate for consideration when a building is neglected and the need for permanent repair accumulates to the point there is potential for serious harm. If after a period of not less than two months, it appears reasonable steps are not being taken for its proper preservation, the local authority can begin compulsory purchase proceedings. The Council can acquire a listed building that is not being properly conserved if this will facilitate its repair either by the Council or through an appropriate repairing owner to which it is subsequently passed.”

I feel that there is a similarity of intent there. That is a statutory measure that councils can exercise—they do not do so often enough, but that is another story—and I think that there should be a similar mechanism for inhabited residential property, so that we can create a formalised system of escalation through the repairing works notices that are already in place, culminating in a compulsory purchase order. Perhaps that could be achieved through an amendment to the wording.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 20 May 2025

Paul Sweeney

I appreciate the cabinet secretary’s comments. There is a really good system in Glasgow—albeit not one that has worked at a scale sufficient to address the housing emergency in the city—and there could be an opportunity to codify that in the bill, giving local authorities the confidence to create a more sophisticated system. That could perhaps be underpinned by Government investment to supercharge the opportunity to use CPOs at scale. I know that the Government is looking at a law reform procedure for CPOs, and this might tie in with that. There is an opportunity to use the bill to do something positive to address the housing emergency in Glasgow and elsewhere.