Meeting of the Parliament 18 November 2015
I want to make progress as I have only a few minutes.
In its report “A blueprint for Scotland’s future”, the commission on housing and wellbeing stated that it
“quickly came to the conclusion that there is very clearly a homes crisis. The numbers speak for themselves: there are about 150,000 households on waiting lists, 940,000 in fuel poverty ... 29,000 people are homeless.”
It is safe to say that the Scottish Government’s housing goals have little regard for the current mounting housing crisis.
Meanwhile, when the Scottish Government got financial transaction consequentials from the UK Government in the 2013 budget, the finance secretary called it “funny money”. However, within weeks, his ministers were donning high-vis jackets to show how the money was helping people on to the housing ladder.
Back in 2014, we suggested to Mr Swinney that he should use some of the money to build homes for rent, partly to offset the move away from the SNP’s 2011 manifesto commitment to providing 30,000 social rented homes in favour of homes to buy. I note that the finance secretary was positive about that suggestion and that we have started to see some of its fruits. Last week, I got confirmation from Margaret Burgess that the so-called funny money is underpinning the Local Affordable Rented Housing Trust this year. That is good, practical action that the Scottish Government has shown that it can take when it takes a break from complaining about the constitution.
What I and millions of others in Scotland expect to see is how the Scottish Government will act to increase the supply of houses across all tenancies. It is necessary to see the issue as a chain of events. Because we have limited supply and very high demand, the private rented sector is increasing; it represents 13 per cent of the entire housing market and has more than doubled in size in 10 years. Although there is no question but that the private sector is good for the economy, we want people who move into the private sector to have had a choice. No one should be forced to spend more than they can afford just to cover their rent, but almost half of all households renting in Scotland in 2013-14 received financial support to pay their rent.
The warnings are clear—unless we increase supply to match demand, the result will only be more and more people without a home. We have heard some back benchers asking where the money would come from; they just have to look at the facts. Last year, the housing budget in Scotland was underspent by £51 million. In fact, the Scottish Government underspent by £347 million, according to Audit Scotland. That is money gone to waste.
With the rate of construction of affordable housing still 40 per cent lower than it was before 2008, people are running out of options. We need a Scottish Government that will do what it says it will do and do it promptly. We need a Scottish Government that will not leave 5,000 children homeless at Christmas time.
I move amendment S4M-14859.1, to leave out from first “welcomes” to end and insert:
“notes that the SNP pledged in its 2011 election manifesto to ‘build over 6,000 new socially-rented houses each year’, which would be a total of 30,000 over the course of the current parliamentary session; is deeply disappointed that it is set to build only 20,000 socially-rented homes by March 2016; regrets that the Scottish Ministers have repeatedly refused to acknowledge that their decision to switch to a less ambitious policy of 30,000 affordable homes has had a negative impact on the ability of thousands of families to obtain permanent, safe and warm accommodation at a time when approximately 29,000 people across Scotland are homeless and 150,000 households are on council housing waiting lists, and believes that this significant policy change, and the resultant social housing shortfall, fails to help address the housing crisis in Scotland and raises serious doubts about the Scottish Government’s commitment to its future housing promises.”
15:20Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.