Hansard

It is the season of good will, but that will probably be where the good will begins and ends today.

The debate provides an opportunity to focus on our aims to achieve a fairer and more equal Scotland. In 2016, we published our fairer Scotland action plan, which outlined 50 actions for this parliamentary session that were built on five high-level ambitions to achieve a fairer Scotland by 2030.

I am proud that our third-year progress report, which was published this week, shows that all 50 actions are in progress, with 19 completed and 11 forming continuous programmes of work. Our report also sets out the progress that we have made against each of the recommendations of the independent adviser on poverty and inequality, Naomi Eisenstadt. Those recommendations have been very much embedded in our actions to build a fairer Scotland.

Although we have delivered progress and continue to work hard within the powers that we have to create that fairer Scotland, we act against a backdrop of over a million Scots—including almost one in four children—living in poverty and an increasing reliance on crisis support such as food banks.

The Scottish Government estimates that United Kingdom Government spending on welfare and social security in Scotland will reduce by up to £3.7 billion by 2020-21. At the same time, the Scottish budget has been cut in real terms by around £2 billion. It is no wonder, then, that the Trades Union Congress said recently that this has been

“a decade of failed austerity”.

We know that poverty levels are set to rise. The Resolution Foundation is the latest organisation to point to the rising tide. It says that, if another Conservative Government is returned, child poverty is at risk of reaching a record 60-year high, because the Conservatives will continue with the decade of welfare cuts that have led to the hardship, desperation and poverty that we have all seen in our constituencies.

What do the Conservatives offer in their manifesto to help families who are experiencing such hardship? Not much. Despite the words of the United Nations rapporteur, who said that Tory welfare cuts were inflicting “great misery”, there are only two mentions of poverty in the manifesto, which are in a single sentence:

“we will continue our efforts … to reduce poverty, including child poverty.”

The lack of mention of poverty is not surprising, given that the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, deflected the blame for rising poverty, despite the Conservatives having been in power for a decade, by saying:

“It’s not the Government, though, is it?”

However, the rise in poverty is down to the UK Government and its actions. The benefit freeze, the local housing allowance freeze, the benefit cap, the shocking two-child cap and rape clause, the diabolical universal credit roll-out and other changes are having a drastic impact on families throughout the country.

On top of that, we face the uncertainty of Brexit. Independent analysis has predicted that leaving the European Union will result in the economy shrinking, which will threaten jobs, incomes and Government revenues. Recent Scottish Government analysis predicts that, in a no-deal situation, 130,000 Scots could be pushed into poverty.

This Government will not sit back and spectate on poverty. Instead, we will continue to work hard to protect the people of Scotland and tackle poverty and inequality. That work was recognised by the UN special rapporteur, who said in a recent lecture that, compared with England, Scotland is

“on a very different trajectory when it comes to the social protection of its population.”

There is a chasm between the approaches that have been taken over the past decade by the Scottish Government and by the UK Government. Levels of child poverty, after housing costs, are 6 percentage points lower in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, which is down to our unique approach to housing, our investment in social housing stock and our ensuring quality, affordability and sustainability in our social rented housing.

I am proud of our achievement in delivering more than 87,000 affordable homes since 2007, nearly 60,000 of which were for social rent, including more than 12,000 council homes. Our spend per head on the affordable housing supply programme is three times higher than the UK Government spend per head on its affordable homes programme. In the four years to 2018, we delivered 50 per cent more affordable housing units per head of population than in England, and 75 per cent more per head of population than in Wales.

Beyond that, we are taking strong action to end homelessness, and our action to eradicate fuel poverty is underpinned by ambitious statutory targets.

We are helping families to access the advice and support that they need. We know that many people around the country do not claim the full benefits that they are entitled to and that they pay over the odds for electricity and gas. Our new money talk team service is helping to combat that and, since its launch in November last year, it has helped more than 5,000 households to be better off by a total of more than £10 million, at an average of just under £2,000 per household. Our benefit uptake strategy for devolved benefits will ensure that people receive the devolved benefits to which they are entitled.

Our investment in early learning and childcare will reach nearly £1 billion by 2021-22, benefiting around 80,000 households and providing greater support for families. We are almost doubling the funded provision for all three and four-year-olds, plus eligible two-year-olds, to 1,140 hours by August 2020. That universal offer, plus targeted provision, has the potential to be truly transformative for children and their parents. For children, the expansion will provide a high-quality learning environment, which will help to prepare them for school, support their development and narrow the attainment gap. For parents, it will save families £4,500 a year, on average, as well as help parents to return to work or increase their working hours.

We are exercising our full influence to make workplaces fairer, too. Scotland already has the highest levels in the UK of individuals who are paid the real living wage or above—more than 83 per cent of employees—and the lowest number of zero-hour contracts.

However, our ambition does not simply extend to exceeding the standards that are set in the rest of the country. That is why we have committed to building a living wage nation and, by 2021, lifting an additional 25,000 individuals on to the real living wage of £9.30 an hour through employer accreditation. We have set out ambitious action in our fair work action plan and have revised the Scottish business pledge to focus on the key issues that need to be addressed.

We are going further. Through our tackling child poverty delivery plan, we have committed £22 million for new parental employment support. That investment will support parents in work to increase their earnings and progress in their careers. It will build strong links with early learning and childcare by enabling parents to take advantage of the new jobs that the expansion is creating, as well as to take advantage of the funded hours of childcare.

Our new employability services are helping more people to access employment. Fair start Scotland, the cornerstone of our new approach, is voluntary and, since launching in April 2018, it has supported more than 16,000 people and helped more than 4,000 into work. However, that is only part of the story. Fair start Scotland’s first annual report showed that, in a survey of more than 1,000 people who had used the service, 92 per cent felt that they were treated with dignity and respect.

Dignity and respect are the guiding principles for the action that the Government takes. They are at the very heart of our newest public service, Social Security Scotland, which runs a system that is there to support people at the times that they need it, providing not a handout but an investment in the most important resource that our country has—our people.

For the important early years, our best start grant helps families to buy the essentials for their new child when the child is born and at key stages in their wee one’s life.

Our carers allowance supplement, which is worth an additional £452 to carers this year, goes some way to recognising the invaluable work of the thousands of carers in Scotland.

We have also pledged significant new investment of £180 million a year through our Scottish child payment, which will be fully rolled out by 2022, with early payments for under-sixes starting to be paid before next Christmas. The pace at which we are delivering that new benefit is unprecedented. The Child Poverty Action Group called the payment “game-changing” in our fight against poverty, given that it will shift the curve and lift 30,000 children out of poverty when it is fully rolled out. Importantly, the families of the 410,000 children who are set to benefit from it will also be protected against being pulled into the trap of poverty.

I have offered a glimpse of the actions that we are taking and the powers that we are using to make our country fairer. Although national action is important, our local partners have a strong role to play, too. The first local child poverty action reports demonstrate how much good work is happening across the country in linking programmes and delivering the front-line services that folk access. The Poverty and Inequality Commission welcomed that activity and has recently shared its views on how that can be built on in future years. Together with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, NHS Health Scotland, the Improvement Service and others, we will continue to support local areas to maximise their impact and support our collective action.

At birth, every child in Scotland is eligible to receive the baby box. That is an important symbol of the equality that we want for every person in Scotland throughout their life. We know, however, that a fairer Scotland will not be achieved without action and we are committed to making that happen. After all, children only get one shot at childhood, and it is important that we make sure that we get it right.

Earlier this year, we estimated that, in 2018-19, we invested more than £1.4 billion in support directed at low-income households across Scotland. However, that included more than £100 million to mitigate the worst impacts of UK Government welfare reforms. Through our spending review, we are focusing on child poverty and wellbeing as the lens that must guide our investment decisions to make Scotland a fairer place.

The actions of this Government stand in stark contrast to those of the Conservative Government at Westminster. It really is a tale of two Governments. While we mop up the mess and mitigate the callous and punitive acts of the UK Government, we are not content to sit back and accept poverty as inevitable. With the powers that we have, we are being bold and ambitious to create a fairer Scotland. On housing, childcare and employment and through the Scottish child payment, we are using our powers to build a better, fairer Scotland where food banks have been relegated to the past and child poverty has been truly eradicated. I look forward to the debate ahead.

I move,

That the Parliament welcomes the publication of the Fairer Scotland Action Plan, Shifting the Curve and the Life Chances of Young People in Scotland, Progress Report 2019; notes the steps being taken towards achieving a fairer and more prosperous Scotland, including the commitment to introduce the Scottish Child Payment, which is a brand new benefit to tackle child poverty head on; further notes the 2018 annual report on Welfare Reform’s estimate that UK Government social security spending will reduce by up to £3.7 billion in Scotland by 2020-21, and acknowledges the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights 2019 report, which stated that the UK Government’s austerity cuts and welfare reforms are a key driver of serious hardship, increased food bank use and homelessness.