Hansard

Anyone who is out knocking on doors in this general election—and that is probably all of us, although not today—cannot have failed to notice the striking gap between the haves and have-nots; it has certainly struck me. That can vary from community to community and from street to street, but it is clear to me that we have a very long way to go in creating a fairer Scotland, and until we can say that we have significantly closed the gap. Over the past year, according to Shelter, one child in Scotland has been made homeless every 37 minutes. That is 14,000 children in total. Statistics such as that show how far we have to go to achieve the goal of a fairer Scotland.

I believe that the Scottish Government must lead ambitiously, and our amendment calls for it to be more ambitious in its aims. The fairer Scotland progress report shows that, in too many areas, it has not gone far enough. It is important to note that this cannot be done without the involvement of partners, including people in the third sector, and even the Opposition parties playing a constructive role where we can.

However, like the cabinet secretary, I must acknowledge—this has been said many times—that the 2019 report by the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights clearly stated that the UK Government’s austerity cuts and welfare reforms have been a key driver of serious hardship, increased food bank use and homelessness. I say to the Tories that I do not think that we can have an all-round constructive approach until their party at least acknowledges the role that universal credit and welfare reforms have played in creating hardship in Scotland.

Creating a fairer Scotland is about more than just tackling poverty and improving incomes. It is also about tackling the lack of opportunity and the fact that some people do not get the same chances as others or the right help when they need it. Poorer people tend not to move in the same networks as wealthier people.

Creating fairness is wide ranging and includes climate change, fairness for future generations and the urgent need to be inclusive to ensure that people on low incomes are not left behind as we make changes towards a low-carbon future. That is a discussion that we will need to have in depth at another time.

I am also struck by the number of young people with disadvantage in their lives these days. Other MSPs cannot have failed to notice that. We have discussed young carers, and many young people suffer ill health. I chair the cross-party group that addresses Crohn’s and colitis and I am staggered that Scotland is presiding over a rising number of young people who are ill, including those who are suffering mental ill health. We must equip our schools and colleges with the resources to help those young people who falter to get back on course with their lives when they may have lost out in school.

Naomi Eisenstadt, whom I think is the best appointment that the Scottish Government has made to date, is eloquent on that subject. She points out that we need to value non-academic routes more and says:

“in most areas a significant proportion of young people will not be aiming for a degree on leaving school. These young people should get comparable care and attention to their futures that is regularly devoted to more academic young people.”

We have all said that, but more focus needs to be put on it.

A fairer Scotland is one that welcomes refugees, and one that sets the bar for a real living wage among Government and Government contractors. There must be fair pay and fair employment rights. We know of precarious employment among young people and the stories of those who do not have any rights in their employment. That is why we will support the devolution of employment rights. We believe that there is a better chance of protecting young people from precarious employment and zero-hours contracts, giving them protection at work, if we have those powers closer to home. I recognise that we must also work with trade unions in a fairer Scotland.

In January, the Poverty and Inequality Commission reported that one of the most worrying trends is the increase in the number of households with a disabled person who are living in poverty; Jeremy Balfour is right about that. While it was only a 1 per cent increase, that represents 40,000 people, which is an important figure to bear in mind. It is a huge topic to address in a short speech and there are other things that I want to focus on.

Last year, KPMG reported that the proportion of jobs paying less than the living wage was 19 per cent. I acknowledge what the cabinet secretary said about Scotland’s figures, but that figure represents 435,000 people. The Poverty and Inequality Commission says that the Government’s target is not ambitious enough and it is looking for a push in the hospitality sector, which has the highest proportion of people earning less than the living wage.

In October, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported:

“Poverty in Scotland is rising, from an already unacceptably high level. ... Almost one in five people in Scotland live in poverty, and for children the situation is worse, with one in four in poverty.”

That looks set to get even worse as we face the prospect of Brexit. A lot depends on the outcome of the general election—I will say no more.

One of the issues that compromises the Scottish Government’s attempt to tackle poverty to some degree is the uptake of the new top-up benefits. We welcome the Scottish child payment but the full roll-out will not come until 2022, although I acknowledge that roll-out will start in 2020. I also acknowledge the best start grant and the carers allowance supplement, which has an extremely positive effect. The Government must be commended for the way in which that has been rolled out by the new social security agency.

However, the question is how we can ensure that uptake is as high as possible; that issue has been addressed by Shirley-Anne Somerville on many occasions. We need to examine in serious depth how benefits could be automated to relieve the problem of poor uptake, although I know how difficult that is. Perhaps the conversion of the Scottish child payment from a top-up to a stand-alone benefit might allow more scope for it to be automated. I put that out for consideration. The Poverty and Inequality Commission says that the Government should make more use of new powers to create new benefits rather than supplementing current ones, so that seems to be its view, too.

Housing costs continue to push people into poverty. In Scotland, the number of working-age adults in the poorest one fifth of the population who spend more than one third of their income on housing has risen over the past 20 years. The number of families living in the private rented sector has risen and for many people that is not a choice—it is their only option. Recent statistics indicate that the average cost of renting in the private sector has risen in 15 out of 18 Scottish local authority areas. That is addressed by the Living Rent union, which warns that the situation will only get worse. We need action to curb high rents, and I hope to talk on another day about my bill to curb high rents. Serious effort must be made to get rents down in the private rented sector or we will not be able to tackle child poverty.

If I had more time, I would mention the gender pay gap, as well as helping vulnerable customers in the energy market, who are not getting a great deal of the rights that they deserve. My colleagues Sarah Boyack and Claudia Beamish will address those issues.

It is important that we do not underestimate the scale of the task in creating a fairer Scotland. We believe that the Government needs to be more ambitious. We will support the Greens’ amendment; we will not support the Conservatives’ amendment. I hope that the Government will support our amendment; in the event that it does not, we will support the Government’s motion in good faith.

I move amendment S5M-20110.3 to insert at end:

“; regrets the rise in poverty in Scotland and believes that more ambition is required across government to tackle inequality and improve people’s quality of life; calls on the Scottish Government to address the barriers to benefit uptake and reduce housing costs; agrees that universal credit, the two-child cap and pernicious UK welfare reforms must be scrapped, and believes that tackling the climate emergency must be done in a fair way, recognising the growing inequalities and insecurities facing people across Scotland.”