Hansard

I appreciate the work that Patrick Harvie has done on the issue over many years. However, I fundamentally disagree with him on that part of the proposal. We feel that it is important to have such a cap, and we will lodge amendments on that. However, it is also exceptionally important to give certainty to the private rented sector and private developers, because we need to ensure continued investment in Scotland. There is a balance that we must strike. I am absolutely committed to the delivery of rent controls, but it is also important that the Government supports private rented sector landlords and private developers that seek to invest in Scotland.

The Minister for Housing has written to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to call for the local housing allowance freeze to be scrapped in the upcoming spring statement. I hope that Labour members will join us in making that call.

The Scottish budget will help to tackle the housing emergency by supporting immediate actions that will return existing housing stock to use and will increase acquisitions. We will also invest an additional £4 million to enable local authorities, front-line services and relevant partners to prepare for the new homelessness prevention duties.

Because the best and most sustainable route out of poverty is good employment, we are investing up to £90 million in the delivery of devolved employability services. That includes specific funding to continue supporting parents towards and into employment and then sustaining it, and to embed child poverty co-ordinators in our local authorities.

We are investing more than £2.6 billion to support public transport and to make our transport systems available, affordable and accessible to all. That will help to connect parents to employment, training and skills opportunities and the services that they need to navigate their way out of poverty. It also includes £415 million for concessionary bus travel, which enables access to free bus travel for 2.3 million people across Scotland.

We are continuing to expand the provision of free school meals so that more children can benefit. Overall, we will invest about £40 million to expand meal provision to children in primaries 6 and 7 whose families are in receipt of the Scottish child payment and to trial an expansion for those in secondaries 1 to 3 in eight local authority areas. Over 25,000 more children will benefit from that support.

This year, the budget for local government provides record funding of more than £15 billion, which represents one of the largest increases in funding in recent times. Indeed, the local government settlement will have increased by more than £1 billion when compared with that for 2024-25, including funding allocated for this year’s pay deals.

The Scottish Government has acted decisively to lower household costs. In November, I announced that the Government would invest a further £20 million in the Scottish welfare fund’s budget, to be distributed to councils in the current financial year. That increase is helping councils to meet increased demand on the fund and to provide vital support to people who are in crisis.

I also confirmed that we would invest an additional £20 million in the warmer homes Scotland scheme, which is our national fuel poverty scheme, to take the total investment there to £85 million in the current financial year. The scheme focuses on long-term sustainable measures, and that additional funding will help about 1,500 additional households to install energy efficiency measures and more efficient heating systems.

In November, I announced that I will introduce regulations that, in the winter of 2025-26, will introduce a universal pension age winter heating payment of at least £100 for every Scottish pensioner household. Pensioners who are in receipt of a relevant low-income benefit will receive £200 or £300, depending on their age. That universal benefit will provide much-needed support that is not available elsewhere in the UK, and it will apply to all Scottish pensioner households, as was always the intention before the UK Government made the cruel and undignified decision to cut the winter fuel payment for those more vulnerable pensioners in our society.

Let me be clear that, once again, when Westminster chose to stand by as energy bills rocketed and chose to rip away vital support such as the winter fuel payment, the Scottish Government took action, and we have delivered. Today, we will go further. I am announcing more investment to ensure that families get the help that they need, when they need it. In the year ahead, we will continue our support for the Wise Group’s relational mentoring programme by making just over £2.1 million available. That will allow the Wise Group to provide vital wraparound support to about 2,000 families, which will help them not only to address immediate needs but to make longer-term improvements in their lives.

We know that our action is making a difference; it is helping to improve the lives and outcomes of people in households across Scotland. However, our efforts are being undermined by the policies of the UK Government—not least the two-child cap. That is why we will develop the necessary systems to deal with the impact of the two-child cap in 2026, with the Child Poverty Action Group forecasting that scrapping the two-child cap in Scotland could lift 15,000 children out of poverty. The Tory two-child cap is now the Labour two-child cap, and it is the Scottish Government that will deliver for the people of Scotland and rid them of that despicable policy. Frankly, it is unforgivable that the Labour Party is standing idly by while children are being pushed into poverty every single day because of that policy.

We are also continuing our child winter heating payment, through which we provided £7.8 million last year to support more than 33,000 children, young people and their families who had higher energy needs due to disability or a health condition. That benefit is not available elsewhere in the UK.

This coming winter, we expect to invest more than £65 million in total in our three winter heating benefits. Those programmes provide vital support with energy bills to more than 630,000 people.