Investment for homes in the Highlands

(Article by www.gov.scot)

A £10 million fund to build affordable homes across the Highlands has been announced by Housing Minister Kevin Stewart today (23rd June).

The Highland Infrastructure Fund is a partnership with The Highland Council and will support and accelerate the delivery of affordable housing across the region.

The government will provide £9 million of the fund with the council providing the additional £1 million.

It will allow the council to provide support in the form of either an infrastructure grant or loan to facilitate housing sites to move forward to construction.

The fund is part of the Inverness and Highland City Region Deal which also includes plans to improve transport networks, digital connectivity and the creation of a hub to encourage innovation of high growth businesses.

Mr Stewart said the fund will support the government’s ambitious commitment of delivering 50,000 affordable homes, including 35,000 for social rent by 2021.

He said:

“Increasing the supply of affordable homes is a key commitment and vital to our ambition of tackling poverty and inequality in our society.

“Recent figures show encouraging signs of activity within the sector as a whole and we want to keep that momentum going through continued investment.

“This fund will support the delivery of new housing in the Highlands and means

the council can plan for new affordable homes now.

“It’s a great example of how partnership working can deliver good quality homes in rural areas that suit the needs of local people, allowing them to remain within their communities.”

Leader of the Council, Margaret Davidson said:

“Availability of affordable housing is fundamentally important to the sustainability of communities in the Highlands. The Highland Council is committed, with our partners, through the City-Region Deal, to provide quality affordable homes which will help to retain a young and vibrant workforce and give our young people the best possible opportunities.”

Article Source: https://news.gov.scot/news/gbp-10-million-for-affordable-housing

EU withdrawal must not see reduction in devolved competence.

(Article on www.gov.scot)

The UK Government must provide greater clarity on its Brexit plans, Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland’s Place in Europe Michael Russell has said, following the publication of the Queen’s Speech.

Mr Russell added that Brexit must not see the UK Government attempt to reduce devolved competence or attempt to avoid the need for legislative consent from Holyrood. The UK Government has indicated that it intends EU withdrawal would see all repatriated EU competences initially being exercised solely by Westminster, as part of a “transitional arrangement” ahead of discussions with devolved administrations on where powers should lie.

Commenting on today’s Queen’s Speech, Mr Russell said:

“The bulk of the Queen’s speech concerns the legislation necessary for the UK to withdraw from the European Union, demonstrating that as well as being harmful to the country, Brexit is set to take up all the UK government’s resources, forcing other important issues to be sidelined.

“The Scottish Government expects to be closely involved with the UK Government on proposed legislation that affects Scotland and it is time for far more transparency and openness from the UK Government and a joint co-operative approach.

“We expect that the Repeal Bill will require a Legislative Consent Motion, meaning that the Scottish Parliament will be able to express its view on Brexit. However, despite the imminent introduction of the Repeal Bill, the Scottish Government has not seen any of its draft provisions nor do we know the detail of the UK Government’s proposals. I urge the UK Government to share the bill with the Scottish Government as soon as possible”

Mr Russell added:

“The Scottish Government has been consistently clear that repatriated EU competences must return to the Scottish Parliament in areas where it is wholly or partly responsible, such as agriculture, fisheries environmental policy and justice.

“There can be absolutely no question of the UK Government attempting to reserve powers in devolved areas and the Scottish Government would not recommend the Scottish Parliament consents to such proposals. Where it is sensible or desirable to introduce a common UK framework to replace that provided by EU law, this must be achieved through agreement and negotiation.

“It is deeply concerning that the UK Government seems to intend that repatriated powers in devolved areas like agriculture should go by default to Westminster, with no clear recognition of the need for the consent of the Scottish Parliament under the Sewel Convention for such changes. This is clearly unacceptable.”

Article Source: https://news.gov.scot/news/queens-speech-more-brexit-clarity-needed

UK’s devolved administrations should be involved in negotiations.

Article via gov.scot website

The Scottish and Welsh Governments have written jointly to the Brexit Secretary David Davis to ensure the UK’s devolved administrations are properly involved in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.

Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland’s Place in Europe, Michael Russell, and Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Mark Drakeford, set out a series of practical steps to improve engagement between the UK’s four governments.

They said the joint committee set up to provide oversight of the negotiations needed to be re-set so that meaningful discussions could take place and the committee’s remit could be met.

Text of the letter is as follows:

Dear David

JOINT MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE (EU NEGOTIATIONS)

Congratulations on your reappointment as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. We look forward to working with you over the next few years, which are critical for the future prosperity of all parts of the United Kingdom.

It was inevitable that there would be a pause in the work of the JMC (EN) during the General Election campaign. In our view, now the Election is over, it is vital that we use the opportunity to re-set the work of the Committee, using the agreed Terms of Reference.

Our respective First Ministers have written to the Prime Minister asking for an urgent meeting of the JMC. We are now writing to provide further detail on how the process could move forward without prejudice to any more radical reshaping of the UK Government’s approach to building a broad-based consensus on the approach to the Brexit negotiations.

In our view, we need to:
•Agree how the Devolved Administrations will be represented in the negotiations. As you will know, both the Scottish and Welsh Governments believe that we should be at the table when devolved issues are discussed and in the room for other sessions.
•Resume our meetings at the earliest possibility: while we understand that the unresolved issues in Northern Ireland may be a difficulty, we strongly believe this should not prevent a meeting taking place and we note that a JMC (E) meeting has been arranged for 21 June despite the situation in Northern Ireland.
•Agree a forward programme of regular meetings of JMC (EN), scheduled to fit in with the cycle of negotiating meetings agreed with the European Commission and timed in such a way as to ensure that we both have meaningful discussions on the outcome of the most recent session and can collectively shape the UK’s negotiating position in advance of the subsequent session, in line with the terms of reference. This would allow us to fulfil our remit to provide oversight of the negotiations and to agree the approach to, and objectives for the negotiations.
•Set a clear forward agenda, which, alongside the items directly related to the negotiations, would address our remit to consider issues arising from the negotiation process which may impact on the Devolved Administrations.
•This should include:
•The proposed response to the EU Negotiation Guidelines and Directives;
•Full discussion of future constitutional arrangements around any joint frameworks which may be necessary and replacement funding for streams including EU Structural Funds and those under the Common Agricultural Policy;
•Future immigration policy; and
•Analysis of the economic impact of various scenarios, including ‘no deal’ and of reverting to WTO rules (which we both believe would be disastrous); leaving the Single Market and withdrawing from the Customs Union.

Alongside the JMC (EN) process involving all four administrations it will also be important to have bilateral meetings to discuss specific issues.

We also believe there are practical steps to improve the work of the JMC (EN). These include ensuring that agendas for each meeting are agreed at the previous meeting (in accordance with the overall work programme, which again should be agreed by all four administrations) and that papers are circulated at least five days in advance; and significantly reducing the number of attendees from the UK Government.

It is essential that the UK Government trust the Devolved Administrations to respect the confidential inter-governmental space that the JMC should fill. We want to use JMC (EN) as a forum in which we can have meaningful discussions of key issues, aimed at reaching agreement rather than an opportunity to rehearse well-established public positions. Unfortunately, this was not our experience of the way the Committee operated prior to the Election.

Finally, we need to reiterate that we are deeply concerned about the lack of engagement on the proposed Great Repeal Bill: we would welcome your assurances that we will have the opportunity to see and comment on any Bill well in advance of publication and be consulted more generally in advance about the content of both this Bill and other Brexit-related Bills e.g. on Trade, Customs and Migration).

We hope that this is useful in setting out our approach to the future work of the JMC (EN). We look forward to meeting again soon, and to getting started on this crucial work.

Yours sincerely

Mark Drakeford AM/AC / Michael Russell MSP

Article Source: https://news.gov.scot/news/scottish-and-welsh-governments-writes-to-brexit-secretary-david-davis

FM: Brexit negotiating team must include devolved governments.

Six days ahead of Brexit negotiations beginning, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has written to Prime Minister Theresa May to express the Scottish Government’s concerns over the UK’s current Brexit plans.

The First Minister has called for membership of the European Single Market and the EU Customs Union to be protected and for the negotiating team to include representation from the devolved governments.

She has also called for the UK government to immediately guarantee the rights of EU nationals to remain in the UK beyond the date of the UK’s exit from the EU.

Text of the letter is as follows: