Meeting of the Parliament 19 December 2023
As my colleague Paul O’Kane intimated, we rely on the briefing by the Red Cross for that information. If the cabinet secretary were to furnish us with equivalent Scotland-specific data in due course, so that we could have clarity on the relative position here, that would be welcome.
It is a shame that the Ukrainian resettlement team in Glasgow, where we have the highest number of Ukrainians settled, is winding down its operations when its work is, arguably, more important than ever. In a move that the GMB trade union has called “misguided”, the resettlement team has been told that, from 15 January, it will merge with the general asylum and refugee team. The resettlement team in Glasgow is working on the specific circumstances of Ukrainians to ensure a smooth transition from hotel accommodation. Critically, the team is dealing with a variety of complex pastoral issues that often come with the trauma of war. Part of the plan surely has to be properly funded asylum and refugee services, and the cuts to provision in Glasgow will significantly harm the efforts to resettle and integrate Ukrainians in the city.
Glasgow recently became the second city in Scotland to declare a housing emergency. With years of chronic underfunding in social housing supply, it is imperative that the declaration of a housing emergency by Glasgow leads to a swift house building plan. Therefore, it was disappointing to hear just a few minutes ago, in the budget statement, that the Government has announced, in effect, a 32 per cent cut in cash terms to the capital funding of housing over the past two years. That has been compounded by a 15 per cent rise in construction costs in 2022 and a 25 per cent rise in costs in 2021. That is a severe and significant erosion of purchasing power for housing supply in this country, which is completely unacceptable. When set against, for example, the £100 million contract for cruise ship hire, it highlights a lack of long-term planning and financial management to allow for the best effect and best utilisation of public funds to achieve the best outcomes for the people we are trying to help.
I was particularly alarmed by the plan for Balmore Road in Glasgow’s Possilpark district, where 1930s tenement homes that were originally destined for demolition, with the sitting tenants transferred to other housing stock, were suddenly saved and funds became available to renovate them to provide housing for Ukrainian refugees.