Meeting of the Parliament 13 September 2017
It is indeed and I will say something about it in a minute.
Greens advocate a target to eliminate the speculative volume house-building industry within 10 years. Unlike the Tories, we think that that model is redundant. It is time for a new model that reflects well-established practices in much of Europe, including Germany and the Netherlands, which Ruth Davidson noted.
The new model would be based on public-led development with high-quality, community-based planning. It would put consumers in control of procurement—including housing associations—restore the professional role of planners and architects and boost the skills, opportunities and talents of small and medium-sized enterprises in the building sector.
We advocate a new approach to land acquisition based on restoring local authorities’ right to acquire land at existing-use value. We advocate taking a new approach to housing taxation by abolishing the council tax, which the Scottish Government’s own economic adviser, Sir James Mirrlees, described as “indefensibly regressive”. We also support the abolition of land and buildings transaction tax, another tax that Sir James Mirrlees argued there is no sound case for retaining.
We want to see a radically different approach to housing care, repair and refurbishment, with log books, sinking funds and mandatory efficiency measures at point of sale in the private sector. More than 80 per cent of Scotland’s existing homes will still be in use in 2050, so only with serious action to improve the quality and energy efficiency of existing homes will we ensure that everyone in Scotland has a comfortable, warm and affordable home to live in.
To address Elaine Smith’s point, above all we advocate having a substantially expanded programme of genuinely affordable housing, using co-operatives, councils, housing associations and others to provide genuinely affordable homes to all who wish them, not simply those who meet defined income criteria.
Along with most other parties in the chamber we are committed to ending the stigma of homelessness, but past solutions are clearly not working. The work of the Local Government and Communities Committee, which has a forthcoming inquiry on that, and the indications in the programme for government reassure me that that stance is agreed.
We are particularly encouraged by schemes such as housing first, which we believe should be extended to support services to individuals who face a variety of challenging circumstances in their personal lives.
We are in the strange position of having a previous housing minister, Margaret Burgess, who stated in January 2016 that the Government expected the private housing market to operate wherever it can without Government intervention, while, just over a week ago, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives argued for direct Government intervention to procure land. As it happens, I see signs that this Government is sympathetic to that, too, but if that is the case, it needs to be much more explicit and demonstrate a greater urgency in coming forward with ideas.
As I said in my opening remarks, we stand ready to work with all parties in the chamber to pursue radical new measures through planning, land acquisition and fiscal and other policies to deliver a very different housing future for the people of Scotland.
I move amendment S5M-07613.3, to leave out from first “recognises” to end and insert:
“believes that the current model of housing delivery has failed, and that a generation of young people face greater uncertainty and inequality as a result; further believes that a bold package of land reform measures is needed to provide sufficient affordable quality and warm homes, and that housing policy should aim to make housing more affordable across all tenures; supports taxing vacant and derelict land to reduce speculative land banking, rent controls that reflect the quality of the property and limit future rent rises, professionalising the private rented sector for the benefit of tenants and divesting public pension funds from fossil fuels and investing them in housing; opposes social security reform that puts people at risk of homelessness, and calls on the Scottish Government to set an interim target for all homes, where technically feasible and appropriate, to achieve an Energy Performance Certificate of Band C by 2025 to tackle fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency.”
15:19Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.
- S5M-07613.3 Housing Motion