Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 04 December 2013
04 Dec 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Housing
Today’s motion seeks to address what has been missing from the chamber over the past 15 months: a debate on housing addressing present and future challenges.
While Scotland experiences the biggest housing crisis since the end of world war two, the housing minister is absent and the Government is ducking its responsibilities on housing. Housing should be at the centre of Government policy, because it creates jobs and stimulates local economies. Scotland is on pause, as is evident from the Government’s housing portfolio.
In the past year, 13,478 houses have been built. That is the lowest number since 1947. Between 2008-09 and 2011-12, the capital housing budget was slashed by 29 per cent under the stewardship of the Scottish National Party. Since taking on the role of Minister for Housing and Welfare in September 2012, Margaret Burgess has failed to front a debate on housing. Paul Martin, Patrick Harvie and the Equal Opportunities Committee have been far more proactive than the housing minister in bringing serious debates to the chamber. The lack of leadership in the Government is impacting on local communities, local people and local economies as we speak. That lack of leadership and the entrenched lack of ambition have been criticised by Audit Scotland as well as by industry bodies. Phillip Hogg of Homes for Scotland said:
“Tackling this issue will require bold vision, commitment and action from all parties in order to halt the decline of what is a key national indicator.”
Scottish Labour is calling for a national housing action plan that is comprehensive, ambitious and inclusive in order to invest in our communities and reinvigorate housing in Scotland. I look forward to the minister’s response to that call.
Returning to the point about low ambition, I refer to the Scottish Government’s white paper on separation. In the section on housing in an independent Scotland, there is a total of seven paragraphs, or 10 if we feel generous enough to include those on fuel poverty and energy prices. There is also a very nice picture of a tenement building. That amounts to one and a half pages in a 670-page document—or 0.2 per cent—on housing.
While Scotland experiences the biggest housing crisis since the end of world war two, the housing minister is absent and the Government is ducking its responsibilities on housing. Housing should be at the centre of Government policy, because it creates jobs and stimulates local economies. Scotland is on pause, as is evident from the Government’s housing portfolio.
In the past year, 13,478 houses have been built. That is the lowest number since 1947. Between 2008-09 and 2011-12, the capital housing budget was slashed by 29 per cent under the stewardship of the Scottish National Party. Since taking on the role of Minister for Housing and Welfare in September 2012, Margaret Burgess has failed to front a debate on housing. Paul Martin, Patrick Harvie and the Equal Opportunities Committee have been far more proactive than the housing minister in bringing serious debates to the chamber. The lack of leadership in the Government is impacting on local communities, local people and local economies as we speak. That lack of leadership and the entrenched lack of ambition have been criticised by Audit Scotland as well as by industry bodies. Phillip Hogg of Homes for Scotland said:
“Tackling this issue will require bold vision, commitment and action from all parties in order to halt the decline of what is a key national indicator.”
Scottish Labour is calling for a national housing action plan that is comprehensive, ambitious and inclusive in order to invest in our communities and reinvigorate housing in Scotland. I look forward to the minister’s response to that call.
Returning to the point about low ambition, I refer to the Scottish Government’s white paper on separation. In the section on housing in an independent Scotland, there is a total of seven paragraphs, or 10 if we feel generous enough to include those on fuel poverty and energy prices. There is also a very nice picture of a tenement building. That amounts to one and a half pages in a 670-page document—or 0.2 per cent—on housing.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Elaine Smith)
Lab
The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-08470, in the name of Mary Fee, on housing. The member has 14 minutes, although the debate is very tight ...
Mary Fee (West Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Today’s motion seeks to address what has been missing from the chamber over the past 15 months: a debate on housing addressing present and future challenges....
John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP)
SNP
Does the member accept that one of the underlying principles in the white paper is that we would have more money if we were not subsidising nuclear weapons a...
Mary Fee
Lab
If the member wants to talk about housing, I point out that Scottish Labour would not have wasted £30 million on the Glasgow airport rail link project, which...
John Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
Does the member accept that local authorities are building more houses than they did in the final four years of the Labour-Liberal Democrat Administration?
Mary Fee
Lab
We could all bandy statistics about, but the important thing that we must remember—Interruption.
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Lab
Order, please.
Mary Fee
Lab
If we had not lodged the motion for debate, we would not be talking about housing.
Chic Brodie (South Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member take an intervention?
Mary Fee
Lab
No—I have just taken one.Where was the minister when that information was reported in July? Why has there been no Government debate to discuss the crisis in ...
Mike MacKenzie (Highlands and Islands) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member take an intervention?
Mary Fee
Lab
No, I am almost finished.We have a Scottish Government that is strategising for separation, not one that is interested in the day-to-day running of Scotland....
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Lab
We are tight for time. If members wish to be considered to be called to speak, they must press their request-to-speak buttons.14:54
The Minister for Housing and Welfare (Margaret Burgess)
SNP
Unlike other parties in the Parliament, the Scottish Government has a clear vision that every one of us in Scotland should live in a high-quality, sustainabl...
Hugh Henry (Renfrewshire South) (Lab)
Lab
Will the minister take an intervention?
Margaret Burgess
SNP
I will not take an intervention at the moment. I have been accused of not coming to the chamber to talk about housing, so I will talk about what we have done...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Lab
Order, please.
Margaret Burgess
SNP
I welcome the opportunity to affirm and demonstrate that the Scottish Government leads, listens and takes action to ensure that we can deliver that vision. I...
Mary Fee
Lab
Is the minister saying that, when Audit Scotland, Shelter and other organisations say that housing in Scotland is in crisis, they are wrong?
Margaret Burgess
SNP
What I am saying is that we are building more houses than any other Administration in the Scottish Parliament has built, despite the economic downturn. Inter...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Lab
Order.
Margaret Burgess
SNP
We cannot get away from the facts. I will give members the facts. Some 4,117 new council houses have been built by the SNP Administration—the previous Labour...
Hugh Henry
Lab
Given everything that the minister has said that she has done and that she claims that the SNP Government has a vision, why has she failed to come to the Par...
Margaret Burgess
SNP
Because I have been out there talking to the stakeholders and trying to get things moving. If leadership is judged by coming to the Parliament and speaking t...
Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (Lab)
Lab
Will the minister give way?
Margaret Burgess
SNP
No. I am not giving way any more. I have been constantly told that I have not come to the chamber to speak about housing, so I will do that now.Over the four...
Jim Hume (South Scotland) (LD)
LD
Will the minister take an intervention?
Margaret Burgess
SNP
I am taking no more interventions. I am sorry.I look forward to that scheme making a positive difference in the coming months and years and increasing the de...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Lab
Order, please.
Margaret Burgess
SNP
Opposition members were keen to comment on the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which pointed out that, under the current system, there is a disincentive for Sc...