Meeting of the Parliament 25 January 2023
We would have thought from Miles Briggs’s speech that the Tory cost of living crisis has no impact on people’s ability to afford their home or, indeed, on the increase in homelessness. The fact that there was no reference to the cost of living crisis really tells members everything they need to know about the motivation for the debate.
It is a national priority of the Scottish Government to tackle homelessness, end rough sleeping and transform temporary housing. Our ambition is to ensure that everyone has a safe and warm place to call home. I am proud that this country has some of the strongest homelessness legislation in the world for people who are experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, homelessness, and we are going further. Local authorities already have a legal duty to provide advice and assistance to anyone who is at risk of homelessness, and people have access to permanent accommodation in law. We also announced last week that we will introduce prevention duties in our forthcoming housing bill, and we will introduce a right to housing in our planned human rights legislation.
Our proposals for a human rights bill will seek to incorporate the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, including the right to adequate housing, as far as that is possible within devolved competence. Ensuring that people are aware of their rights and when to exercise them is an important part of building the Scotland that we want.
We also propose new duties on public bodies to ask and act to prevent homelessness so that the prevention of homelessness is key and the risk of homelessness is acted on regardless of the service first approached. That is key to our no-wrong-door approach. Taking a joined-up and early intervention approach aims to strengthen existing practice, improve consistency and deliver long-term savings and benefits to services, as well as to reduce instances of homelessness.
Let me turn to temporary accommodation. Although the latest statistics show that the use of temporary accommodation has gone down in 20 local authority areas, I am well aware that there are far too many households in temporary accommodation at the moment. The majority of such households are in council or housing association homes, while two thirds of families with children who are in temporary accommodation are in social rented homes. I am particularly concerned at the increase in the number of children in temporary accommodation. However, the Scottish Government is firmly committed to reducing that number.
That is why we established an expert task and finish group, chaired by Shelter Scotland—to whose work I also pay tribute—and the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers. The group is expected to deliver its final report next month. The report will make recommendations on homelessness services, social housing and managing the current stock. The group will propose innovative ways in which to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation and the length of time that households spend in it. That will enable us to support the areas that have challenges and ensure that they can learn from others that have made progress.