Q&A with Aileen Campbell, the new Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government

What have you learned from your previous experience as a minister that you will use in this role?

As Public Health Minister I was acutely aware that health inequalities persist in Scotland and that we need to take a cross-cutting approach to tackling poverty. Reducing the gap between those in our most and least deprived areas and tackling poverty is a significant challenge, particularly in the face of continued UK Government welfare cuts, but one I will continue to work hard to tackle in my new role.  

What are your priorities for the brief?

There is no doubt it will be a challenge but tackling poverty and overcoming social injustices are two of the reasons I came into politics and I am passionate about fighting these. 

Scotland has set statutory child poverty targets – the only part of the UK to do so – and I will be taking forward all the actions in Every Child, Every Chance: our Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan which was published earlier this year. This is an area where we can make a real difference to families throughout Scotland.

Being able to access sanitary products is a fundamental right for those who need them. Following the end of our pilot in Aberdeen we announced a £500,000 initiative that will help ensure people from low income households can access these products for free. I want to make sure we are reaching those on low incomes struggling to access products. I will also be making sure that we keep our commitment to making free sanitary products available in our schools, colleges and universities from this year – a world-leading initiative. 

Having a warm, high-quality, energy-efficient home is something everyone is entitled to and I am committed to ensuring we remain on track to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes over the lifetime of this parliament, including 35,000 for social rent, backed by £3 billion investment.  I am proud of what we have achieved so far with more than 76,500 affordable homes delivered since 2007 and want to look forward to what is next for housing in Scotland.

I also have local government in my brief, so relations with COSLA and those in our local authorities across the country is important to me. We all want to deliver for the people of Scotland and so I want to work in partnership with our councils on our joint priorities.

Given that the Scottish Government is fighting for devolution of powers from Westminster, is it not time to devolve more powers downwards to local authorities?

A transformation of local democracy can be best achieved by looking at how public services work with each other, and inviting communities to identify the powers and resources they need to thrive. Last year the Scottish Government and COSLA jointly launched a Local Governance Review, which will make sure local communities have more say about how public services in their area are run. We are standing together with the community sector to consider how best the decisions are taken about the things that matter most to local people in their local communities.

Scottish local authorities are pushing for more local tax raising powers, for example, a workplace parking levy. Would you support this, and why?

The Scottish Government has not consulted on workplace parking levies, nor proposed this measure through the Transport Bill. There are a range of views on issues such as workplace parking levies and considerations regarding implementation, and the parliamentary scrutiny process will allow these to be aired as the bill progresses. Stakeholder engagement is also currently taking place on the review of the National Transport Strategy, culminating in a formal public consultation on the new draft strategy in early 2019.

We are committed to making local taxation more progressive whilst improving the financial accountability of local government and are always open to further dialogue on options for reform.  Our reforms to Council Tax, in place since April 2017, protect household incomes, make local taxation fairer and ensure local authorities continue to be properly funded while becoming more accountable.

by Tom Freeman

Grown up politics - an interview with Aileen Campbell

All the taxes the Scottish Government have introduced have had to meet the four principles of ‘certainty, convenience, efficiency and proportionality to the ability to pay’.  Although these principles were articulated in the 18th century by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, they remain as relevant today as they did then.

Critics say that cities like Edinburgh are losing their heart because of short-term lets, is there a need for local authorities to have more control over short-term lets and to impose restrictions?

This is an issue that is important to the Scottish Government too. We want to ensure council areas can take advantage of the opportunities presented by short-term lets in terms of tourism and economic growth but there is no doubt this must be balanced with the needs of the settled local community. We have established a Short Term Lets Delivery Group to examine the issues around short-term letting to identify what powers local authorities have and could use, whether further measures are required, and explore ways of piloting solutions. We are also considering the report from City of Edinburgh Council on this issue.

Despite action to eradicate homelessness, the number of children in temporary accommodation has actually increased. Does the Scottish Government need to do more?

Yes, that is why we established our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group to end rough sleeping and transform temporary accommodation. I am clear that one person being made homeless is too many, particularly in households that include children. That is why we introduced a cap of one week for families and pregnant women living in unsuitable temporary accommodation. 

The action group have now presented their recommendations and we are now working with local authorities and a range of partners to put these into action, supported by the £50 million Ending Homelessness Together Fund.  This work will include driving up temporary accommodation standards and ensuring time spent there is as short as possible, as well as strengthening measures to prevent homelessness in the first place by focusing on rapid rehousing and a housing first approach for people with multiple, complex needs. Our homelessness laws are very strong so the safety net of temporary accommodation is important for those at risk of homelessness but we want people to be in a settled home as quickly as possible.

The Planning Bill has been criticised for centralising power in Holyrood. How will you ensure communities have control over decisions that affect them?

The planning system needs to work for all interests. Our reforms aim to strengthen planning’s contribution to inclusive economic growth, the delivery of development and in empowering communities to have a meaningful influence in the future of their places. 

Ministers have always had a necessary role in the planning system, to ensure there is a level of co-ordination and that issues of national importance are considered. But there are plenty of proposals in the bill which will move power to a more local level. For example, the introduction of local place plans will give communities a greater say in how their places might change. We have always encouraged local authorities to engage with communities on planning, but communities have not had a formal way of putting their own ideas forward before. 

The bill will also lead to stronger engagement for communities in the development plan process and to co-production of Scotland’s national spatial plan, the National Planning Framework. And it will strengthen alignment between spatial planning and community planning to ensure a better connection to the priorities of local communities.  There are also proposals to strengthen the resourcing and performance of the system and so help ensure that we can deliver the quality service people deserve, so it would be wrong to suggest the bill is about centralising power. The day-to-day planning service remains essentially a local one – led by local government with greater input from local people.

Have you ever complained to the council as a private citizen and if so, what about?

Ach, if I have it’s never been anything significant. That’s because, on the whole, I think the services provided by our councils are good. Of course, there are challenges, that’s why I relish the opportunity to work in partnership with local government to bring about the improvements and excellence to services that both pillars of governance in Scotland seek to achieve and which our public deserves. Campbell Christie challenged us on this with his reform recommendations when he noted that in order to deliver good public services with positive outcomes for people and communities, that we must reform how we work, empower when we can, maximise the impact of our resource and be strategic in how we achieve our goal of reducing inequalities. That seems like a pretty solid set of actions that I am keen to be guided by in this portfolio to make a difference to the lives of the people of Scotland and our communities.