Meeting of the Parliament 31 October 2023
Before I begin, I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which shows that I ceased to be a landlord this summer.
Today’s debate is as much about housing as it is about the future prosperity and existence of rural communities. Although the debate is welcome, the fact that it has taken the SNP Government 16 years to produce a rural housing action plan speaks for itself. People in rural communities have waited for far too long for workable solutions to the Government’s housing crisis, and yet the Government’s motion offers little that is new. We cannot support a motion that does not face up to reality or an action plan that is short on action. It is a missed opportunity.
It is no overstatement to say that housing is a lifeline to rural communities. The shortage of rural, remote and island housing is having a devastating impact on local economies. Just like the ferries fiascos and creaking transport infrastructure, the housing shortage is both a symptom and a cause of depopulation. It is driving people away from their local areas, their families, their support networks and the jobs that they want to do.
I appreciate what the minister had to say in his opening speech, but I want to ask him whether the Government will admit that, as the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership has put it, we have a rural housing emergency. I ask that because there seems to be little urgency to address rural Scotland’s needs or the package of policies and funding that is fundamentally needed to stem the decline.
The rural housing strategy is built on a crumbling foundation. It is tacked to housing targets that the Government’s own risk register warns might be at a high risk of being missed altogether.