Legislation / Legal
ScotGov: First Minister Alex Salmond has unveiled the Scottish Government’s programme for the new Parliamentary year. He revealed the package of 15 bills – led by the flagship Referendum Bill, which will legislate for a vote on independence in the autumn of 2014 – during the first day of the new Parliamentary session.
DECC: Thousands more householders up & down the country will be eligible for help under the Government’s Warm Front scheme, when new regulations come into force, from 12 September 2012. .
Revisions to the scheme rules will align the income based qualifying benefits with those to be used for the forthcoming Affordable Warmth group under the Energy Company Obligation. Help will continue to be targeted at households living in properties that are poorly insulated or do not have a working heating system. However, the qualifying Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) threshold for the property will be increased from 55 to 63.
ScotGov: Housing & empty property rates reform aim to regenerate Scotland’s communities, Local Government Derek Mackay said ahead of a stage one debate on the Unoccupied Properties Bill. The Bill will allow councils to remove existing discounts and increase council tax on certain long-term empty homes, which often fall into disrepair and can become a focus for antisocial behaviour such as vandalism or fly tipping.
There are 25,000 long-term empty homes across Scotland and these new powers could assist councils to work with home owners to provide homes for people who need them. The reforms also include measures to ‘incentivise’ owners of vacant business premises to bring up to 5,500 properties back into commercial use.
HMT: The Government has published legislation (Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill) which will enable the Government to guarantee up to £40bn of investment in infrastructure, and up to £10bn in new homes. The gives statutory backing to the UK Guarantees programme announced in July and the housing guarantee schemes announced last week – See ‘Policy Statements & Initiatives’ section for more information.
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