Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 17 November 2011

17 Nov 2011 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Housing

Hepburn, Jamie SNP Cumbernauld and Kilsyth Watch on SPTV

If awards were given out for persistence and obstinacy, the Tory benches would be weighed down by bunting and medals. In every debate on housing, they return to the same old chestnut—their obsession with the right to buy. That position flies in the face of the situation on the ground. If the Tories are relying on their record of achievement in the 1950s—as Alex Johnstone seemed to be suggesting—it will be a long way back for the Ruth Davidson-led Tory party.

Alex Johnstone referred to “prejudice” against the right to buy on the SNP benches. I have no prejudice against the right to buy. Indeed, many people in my extended family have exercised the right to buy, although—I do not know whether my stepfather will appreciate my saying this, but I am going to say it anyway—my stepfather’s father refused to buy his council house on a point of principle.

We have to question whether the right to buy was good and sound public policy. The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations has estimated that, as a result of that creation of the Thatcher era, some 500,000 homes have been lost from rented stock in Scotland alone. Many people are languishing on waiting lists for council houses, or for social rented houses, and every member in the chamber will have seen many of them. I question whether the removal of all the houses that would otherwise have been available to them was a sensible policy. The position of the Government—of my party—in relation to the right to buy is not prejudiced but practical.

We are now having to play catch-up in relation to the availability of social rented housing, and the Scottish Government is doing a lot. Members do not have to take my word, or the minister’s word, for that. The Scottish Building Federation has said that

“Between 2007 and 2010, the value of public sector new housebuilding in Scotland has risen by 89 per cent”

and that

“the number of public sector new homes built in Scotland annually has risen by 42 per cent”.

Good work is going on. A significant number of those homes are council houses—the most council houses that have been built for a great number of years. Therefore, the Tory position on the right to buy is a nonsense; it is an absolutely ridiculous position because there would be no incentive for local authorities to continue that council-house building programme if, as soon as they built a house, it became subject to the right to buy. Again, members do not need to take just my word for that. Shelter has said that it disagrees with the Conservative position on right to buy as expressed in the motion today, and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations has said that the Government’s position is correct.

The Government’s position is coherent; it is designed to protect social rented housing, and it is backed by the people at the coalface—those who work in the housing sector. However, there is a degree of incoherence in Alex Johnstone’s position. He criticises the Government’s position on housing association grant but simultaneously calls for increases to the discount for the sale of council houses. Such a position would not only remove vitally required houses for social rent but would cut money from the public purse.

Lewis Macdonald was right when he said that the Tories have brought forward

“the right subject but ... the wrong issues”.

As Aileen McLeod said, it would have been better if we had been talking about the Welfare Reform Bill and how it will affect housing.

Search Hansard contributions

Meeting of the Parliament 17 November 2011

In the same item of business