Meeting of the Parliament 26 April 2023
The number of children in temporary accommodation is at its highest level since records began. The number of households in temporary accommodation has gone up by a third in the past 10 years, and such households are stuck in that accommodation for a month longer than they were just five years ago. That means that more families have their lives in limbo for much longer.
However, the Government is failing to meet its own interim target to provide 38,500 social homes, and the Government’s response has been to cut the capital housing budget. That is all that we get from the SNP Government after 15 years. It is an absolutely woeful record.
None of that is my analysis. All of it comes from the Government’s wonderfully titled task and finish group, which was appointed by the minister. Its findings were published on the Government’s official website and were damned by its own advisers. The report’s recommendations are equally sound: more social housing, better use of existing stock and more support to help people to move on.
The new housing minister needs to have a laser-like focus on building more social housing. He needs to look at the whole pipeline, including skills, workforce supply, planning blockages, access to land, unit prices and so much more. It is a lot of hard graft, but that hard graft could make a difference.
I am a strong supporter of social housing, but that will not solve the crisis on its own. We also need a healthy private rented sector with new builds, and we need to create the right business environment for investment in that to happen. I want a mix of properties including mid-market rents. Creative housing associations can be part of that mix as well. Let us create that positive partnership with house builders, the private rented sector and housing associations to tackle the challenges together.
I was pleased to see yesterday’s announcement on housing for workers in rural areas. There are acute problems in areas such as mine, in the east neuk. We supported the introduction of control areas for short-term lets, even though we opposed the heavy-handed licensing system, but we are really frustrated at the snail’s pace of implementation of those control areas. We also support the council tax proposals for second homes, but they simply do not go far enough. I want to explore the use of licensing and planning to control the numbers.
My constituents on modest incomes do not get a look-in when it comes to buying those properties, which are also up for sale as holiday lets or second homes. They are simply priced out of the market—and they have no chance of getting on the council house waiting list, where demand is through the roof. They are forced to live in overcrowded and often damp housing, which is often miles away. Or, worse, they simply have to move out of the area altogether. That deprives local employers of good employees and hollows out the community, threatening the future of shops, schools, libraries and other public services.
I want second homes and holiday lets—I am clear about that—because they bring economic wellbeing. However, too much of a good thing is a bad thing, which is why we need controls. It is why I am desperate for control areas, more social housing and a healthy private rented sector.
My final plea is for the use of rural housing burdens and the Communities Housing Trust, which allows people to get on the housing ladder but anchors those homes for local people. The trust needs support from enlightened landowners but also from an enabling Government.
With all of that together, we might have a hope of tackling the housing crisis that exists in Scotland. I hope that the minister is up to the challenge.