I thank Nigel Don for raising this important issue and for his recognition of Historic Scotland’s efforts.
This month, alongside introducing to the Scottish Parliament the Historic Environment Scotland Bill, which will build resilience, sustain the functions of Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and create new opportunities for collaboration and partnership across the sector, I published “Our Place in Time – The Historic Environment Strategy for Scotland”, which is the first such strategy. It is an exciting move that will help to ensure that our historic environment is cared for, valued and protected in a sustainable way.
The strategy, which was developed following a long process of intensive stakeholder discussion and engagement, recognises the importance of traditional skills and identifies skills and capacity as one of the key cross-cutting priorities for the sector to address over the next 10 years. In particular, it makes it clear that, in order to ensure that there is appropriate care, management and promotion of our historic environment, we need to support the many professional and specialist skills that are required to carry out the work, upgrade existing skills, and develop, deliver and accredit new skills across the public, private and third sectors. I am excited by our new strategy and confident that it will deliver positive outcomes for the care and management of our historic building stock.
Scotland’s traditional buildings make an enormous contribution to our economy and our national identity. Around 20 per cent of Scotland’s buildings are traditionally constructed; although those buildings include iconic sites, the majority are the buildings that we live and work in and love. The 450,000 traditionally constructed buildings in Scotland form a rich backdrop to our lives, but they are so much a part of our environment that they sometimes go unnoticed by many and the evidence shows that too many such buildings are being taken for granted by too many people. We have long suspected—and have now identified—a clear market failure in relation to the repair and maintenance of traditional buildings. However, although that situation presents a bleak picture for the future of our traditional buildings and all they contribute to Scotland’s character, it also presents a good opportunity.
The richness of Scotland’s historic environment draws millions of tourists to our shores. The repair and maintenance of the traditional buildings that form the fabric of our streets, squares, towers, castles, tenements and houses are often seen as a specialist and expensive activity, but the fact is that the heritage construction sector supports up to 20,000 full-time equivalent employees and generates up to £1 billion gross value added for the Scottish economy. As a result, the proper maintenance and repair of our traditional buildings provide an ideal shovel-ready project as well as being of benefit in themselves, and the opportunities for stimulating demand in construction maintenance can have pay-offs in youth training opportunities and skills development and can engage a new generation in the training of essential building traditions.
We in the Scottish Government and its agencies are doing all we can within our current powers to strengthen the economy, to create and bring jobs to Scotland, to stimulate growth and to create the most supportive business environment in the UK. Measures that create demand for routine maintenance will also help to stimulate the economy and safeguard jobs. Securing the swiftest possible economic recovery is the key priority for this Government.
In the spirit of consensus, therefore, I want to take up Alex Johnstone’s offer to work with those of us who are trying to achieve a reduction in VAT on repairs. Mike MacKenzie was absolutely right to point out that George Osborne has recently gone in the opposite direction, but the economic and financial case can be made that such a cut in VAT would provide more income by stimulating growth and the economy and by ensuring that money could be recouped through different types of tax returns to the Treasury.
The issue is certainly worth looking at, and I will send Alex Johnstone information that I hope will make him decide to be part of the collective approach that is being taken to tackling the matter. As I have said, the case has been made, but there needs to be either a change in the Westminster Government or a vote in September to give powers to this Parliament.
The Scottish Government’s sustainable housing strategy, which we published last year, sets out our aim to create warm, high-quality and affordable low-carbon homes across Scotland’s housing stock. For houses in the social sector, we will work with the Scottish Housing Regulator to monitor landlords’ progress towards ensuring that social rented homes meet the Scottish housing quality standard by April 2015.
For houses in the private sector, we have introduced amendments to local authorities’ powers to address disrepair in private rented and owner-occupied homes and we are looking at how we might set minimum energy efficiency standards in existing private sector housing. We will encourage home owners to work together to improve and maintain their properties and, as part of that approach, we will publish proposals for a forum on the development of a cross-tenure housing standard.
Sustainability, energy efficiency and carbon reduction principles shape our attitudes to the upkeep of traditional buildings. Historic Scotland is breaking new ground in developing more effective insulation of traditional buildings, but there is universal agreement that there is little or no point in insulating a poorly maintained building. Most of the traditionally constructed buildings that we are talking about have been in place for more than 100 years. They have stood the test of time and popular approval; I predict that most of them will be among those that are still here in 2050, and ensuring their sustainability will be a key part of achieving our carbon goals for 2050.
In November 2012, I held a summit meeting to agree a joined-up approach to stimulating demand for people with the appropriate skills to repair and maintain our historic environment. Since the summit, Historic Scotland has continued to work with many partners to deliver hands-on skills training, support a range of projects through grant funding, and deliver education and outreach events. It has recruited an additional 30 apprentices and remains the largest trainer and employer of stonemasons in Scotland.
The experience in other countries convinces me that we do not need to accept the inevitability of deteriorating building conditions. As the motion states, Historic Scotland, in partnership with the Construction Industry Training Board Scotland, has developed a pilot project for a traditional buildings health check scheme for Scotland. Nigel Don talked about the scheme. The pilot in Stirling aims to promote proactive building repair and maintenance and stimulate demand for skilled tradespeople.
The aim is to establish a model for the rest of the country to follow, with inspections due to start this summer. The new Historic Scotland national conservation centre in Stirling will be at the forefront of the approach, creating a hub that brings together the construction and heritage sectors to inform and enthuse people from all sectors of society about the importance of conservation, repair and maintenance.
We have a long-term commitment to tackling the issue. The key to success will be a co-ordinated approach. This is a long-term endeavour; there are no quick fixes. The evidence suggests that home owners do not prioritise maintenance of what is probably their biggest asset, although maintenance makes good sense in the long term. There is evidence of a complex set of interlocking circumstances, but if we do nothing we face an ever steeper downward spiral of decay. We need to stop the rot—literally, in some cases—before it is too late.
If something is complex, that does not mean that it is impossible. There are opportunities for growing the existing market for repair and maintenance work and for partners to work together. I am delighted that the traditional buildings health check scheme is taking off this year. We are committed to the process, and if Scotland embraces the challenge and sees the opportunities, we will see benefits for many years to come.
Meeting closed at 17:31.