Meeting of the Parliament 13 September 2017
Thank you very much, Presiding Officer.
It is somehow ironic that on the day on which the Tories have chosen housing as the topic for their debate, the National Audit Office has pointed to Tory welfare cuts as being the main driver of a significant rise in homelessness. Citing the benefit cap and local housing allowance as examples, the National Audit Office criticised the UK Government for failing to evaluate the impact of its benefit changes on homelessness. Will Ruth Davidson’s new towns be suitable for all those families who have borne the brunt of harsh and punitive welfare cuts?
We all know that good-quality, warm and affordable homes are absolutely vital to securing economic growth, to supporting and creating jobs and to ensuring a Scotland that is fair for current and future generations. Therefore we are determined to increase and accelerate housing supply of all tenures.
That is why this Scottish Government, through times of austerity that have been imposed by the UK Government, has invested more than £4 billion to deliver more than 69,000 affordable homes.
We not only ended the right to buy, thereby preventing the sale of up to 15,500 houses over a 10-year period, but reintroduced council house building—the first central Government to do so in a generation.