Meeting of the Parliament 16 January 2025
I thank the Scottish Human Rights Commission for producing its frank and hard-hitting report, and I thank Rhoda Grant for raising it in the chamber.
Although Highlands and Islands MSPs are all too aware of the challenges that the communities that we represent face, I trust that the report catalyses urgent action. As we have heard from members across the chamber, the report covers a range of core obligations that must be addressed. I will focus on two areas in which Scotland is not meeting minimum essential human rights requirements: housing and food.
It is shameful that our people’s survival and dignity are being threatened by Government inaction. Since being elected, my priorities have been to maintain and sustain rural and island populations, to support communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to help them to participate in restoring nature. Food and housing are key to those aims, yet a lack of Government priority and action means that Scotland is failing to meet even its most basic international obligations.
On food, the report says that high prices and poverty are depriving a significant number of people of sufficient food. Even physically accessing affordable nutrition is a challenge, with bad weather, creaking infrastructure and overtourism depriving entire communities of fresh food. Basically, people are being left to fend for themselves, with little to no support from the Government.
However, solutions to those problems exist. I have seen how effective community-led growing initiatives have been in providing nutritious food to communities. Tagsa Uibhist in the Western Isles runs market gardens that not only diversify food supply chains but support people to access a wider variety of foods. Such projects must be better funded, and I secured the passing of an amendment to the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 that aims to open new support pathways for such projects. I urge the Government to provide that support swiftly to guarantee food to our Highland and Island communities.
The report highlights the dire housing situation across the region. I frequently hear from constituents who are unable to access affordable homes in their communities. The report has rightly identified that that is a major driver of depopulation. Although the Government has recognised the issue to some extent, its housing targets are not on track to reduce homelessness. We heard earlier from Emma Roddick what that can bring about in people’s lives.
Of Scotland’s population, 17 per cent is rural, yet the Government’s target aims to build only 10 per cent of affordable homes in rural areas. The report shows that there are not enough small, cheap-to-run properties as it is and, judging by current activity, the situation will not improve any time soon.
We must see more support for capacity-building organisations so that communities have support to meet their own housing needs; we must see councils adopting facilitation and supportive approaches to help communities to meet those needs; and we must see the Scottish Government provide the right level of funding to ensure that we exceed the 10 per cent target.
Although construction is important, it must go hand in hand with turning existing empty properties into homes. We can make three restored empty properties for the price of one new build. Let us become a retrofit nation and solve this crisis.
As an MSP, I consistently raise those vital issues and offer solutions. I hope that the damning findings of the SHRC’s report focus hearts and minds at all levels of government. As Professor Angela O’Hagan says in the report, while some communities may be remote,
“their access to human rights should not be.”
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