Meeting of the Parliament 22 November 2023
We would build more houses. Labour’s record in Government shows that we built an average of 5,000 more houses each year in office than this Government has managed to build. The cause of Scotland’s housing crisis is a shortage in supply that has been overseen by the Government’s failure to deliver the houses that we need, which has been evidenced by bodies right across the sector. Homes for Scotland, Shelter and a whole range of organisations that specialise in the matter have said that the Government has failed consistently to deliver housing in the numbers that this country needs. Whether members speak to Shelter, Homes for Scotland or housing conveners across the country, they will hear that they have all been told that the minister is in listening mode. However, the response to the debate shows that the Government has not done a lot of listening and that it is definitely not acting.
People right across the country need and want an immediate emergency response at a scale that we have not seen before. The long-term answer to the problem is simple: it will be ended by increasing the supply and number of houses across all tenures through building more homes. The declarations of a housing emergency by both City of Edinburgh Council and Argyll and Bute Council have said that a lack of supply is the significant problem. Building more homes across all tenures is a key part of the solution.
The SNP Government’s inaction is exacerbating the emergency, and it is finding reasons not to act. It refuses to set the all-tenure house building target that Homes for Scotland has called for—a target that could focus Government and industry to co-ordinate action to tackle the crisis.
The minister’s amendment talks of work on the task-and-finish group’s recommendations, but his officials are in charge and are telling him that the Government cannot commit to an interim target for building social housing.
The Government trumpets housing completions, but the number of social homes has dropped by 24 per cent compared to last year, and its chances of picking up the pace are dire because the number of homes that have been approved has plummeted by 50 per cent.
The Government must double what it is doing now in order to have any chance of building the number of homes that it plans to build. At the same time, the number of empty homes has jumped by 1,500 in the past year but the Government has still not delivered an escalating council tax surcharge. Worse still, since it set its 110,000 target, the Government has seen an exodus of staff from the very team that it has tasked with delivering more homes.
The minister’s department has been sounding the alarm for months now. It is an open secret that there is a high risk that affordable housing targets could be missed altogether. Despite mortgage rates rocketing, we are almost two years into a review of the home owners’ support fund, and there is still no new support for people who are struggling with their mortgage payments.
Time and again, Government inaction is making this emergency worse. It is strangling the pipeline and failing to deliver the homes that we need—and look at the consequences. Given half a chance to accept that there is a need to take drastic action, the Government is looking the other way. The finance secretary said yesterday that the Government is broke, but the truth is that, with relentless cuts to council budgets, the councils are trying to tackle this crisis with one hand tied behind their back.
I have heard from constituents who are destitute in their homes because they cannot or will not be rehomed. An amputee who cannot get out of his building and a pensioner with mobility needs on the top floor are told that they are adequately housed, so they are left with little option but to present as homeless.
In East Lothian—the minister’s backyard—the council has said that it cannot take any more homes because the revenue demands to run schools and services are too high. City of Edinburgh Council and Argyll and Bute Council have faced up to reality, but every part of this country is facing a housing emergency. Everyone can see it and feel it apart from those in St Andrew’s house.