Meeting of the Parliament 26 April 2023
I do not have enough time; I have only four minutes—sorry.
The number of open homeless applications is at its highest level since data collection began in 2002. There are 14,450 households in temporary accommodation, the number of children in temporary accommodation has reached a record high and—worst of all—more than 14 homeless people die in Scotland each month.
It is past time for action to address this crisis; everyone deserves a roof over their head. There must be affordable housing to help people who are struggling to make ends meet and there must be clear, accessible routes for people to get on to the property ladder.
The Government does everyone in the country a disservice when all that it does is try to deflect blame and dodge responsibility on this issue. The Parliament has the power to tackle the housing crisis and to help people out of homelessness. It has the budget and it has all the levers that it needs to act yet, too often, all we hear from SNP ministers are excuses and passing the buck. They make excuses and blame others because the Government’s record is one of failure after failure. Targets have been missed; the number of affordable homes started has decreased by almost a quarter in the past year; the number of affordable homes approved has fallen to its lowest since 2013; rents in Scotland are rising faster than in the rest of the UK; and a £1 billion plan designed to address the housing crisis was halted because of the short-sighted SNP-Green rent cap.
What has the SNP Government done in response to the crisis? It has cut the housing budget by £166 million in cash terms, making the problem even worse. That record should shame ministers, but the SNP Government seems to be so out of touch and detached from reality that it will not even accept that it can and must act.
As my colleagues have said, there are actions that the SNP can take to start tackling this crisis. The Scottish Conservatives have outlined what could be done. The Government could develop new extra-care housing models to provide for people with additional support needs; it could spearhead an urgent Scottish housing emergency action plan; it could introduce compulsory sales orders for long-term unoccupied properties to bring them back into use; it could relax planning laws and allow the redevelopment of unoccupied businesses into housing; and, most simply of all, it could provide the funding to build more affordable and social homes.
Emma Harper rose—