Meeting of the Parliament 02 October 2024
I welcome the debate. First, I will address one of Mr Sarwar’s main points. He talked about new ideas, but he did not have any new ideas whatsoever, and he did not talk about how to pay for them, which is fundamental. If the member is going to talk about new ideas, he should bring them forward, as well as ideas for how we should pay for them in the budget. I am happy to have discussions with the member or Mr Griffin on that point.
There has been a great deal of activity since the previous debate on housing in May, in recognition of the challenges that our housing sector faces. I continue to take full responsibility for the Government’s response and I will not shy away from that. That is why I was pleased to update the Parliament on some of the activity in my statement yesterday, including the announcement of new investment of £22 million for affordable housing. I do not doubt in any way, shape or form that the challenges that we face are significant, but we are responding with a clear and urgent plan across three pillars: first, the need for high quality, permanent homes; secondly, ensuring that we have the right homes in the right places; and thirdly, addressing homelessness.
I will talk about the delivery of affordable housing. Of course, the cornerstone of our efforts is our commitment to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, with 70 per cent of those for social rent. That is a direct response to the growing demand for secure and affordable housing.
Achieving the target was made more difficult by rising inflation and by Brexit, which has been mentioned. I know that the member is talking about a reset for Brexit, but we need to rejoin the European Union to make sure that we get those benefits. Labour will not do that—it has already come out and said that. A reset will not be enough.
That has driven up the cost of materials. If the member speaks to developers, they will tell him that. They are still facing the same problems, but those problems are getting worse, and Brexit has an impact on that.
Although I recognise that Opposition members might prefer us not to draw attention to the impact of Tory or Labour UK Government decisions, there is an area that the UK Government must take responsibility for, which I will come on to in a little second.
There is no hiding the serious impact that those aspects are having on housing and homelessness levels not just in Scotland but across the UK. Some of the biggest issues in that regard are Brexit, the cost of living and inflation. In fact, Barratt Developments, which is the biggest home builder in the UK, said that Brexit and the cost of living were the main reasons why its home starts and completions had dropped.