Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2025
The Shelter report provides us with a clear message on the impact on children and young people who are experiencing life in temporary accommodation. The focus of the report on safety, health and educational development is incredibly helpful. Some of the testimonials were positive, but most were not, and they were hard to read.
The first thing that occurred to me to ask was: why does temporary accommodation generally always seem to be in such poor condition? Why is it that homeless families and kids are given housing—even temporary housing—that is not fit for purpose? There is really no excuse for that. It is as if they do not matter—that, somehow, homeless families can take second best when it comes to being rehoused. Surely that has to stop.
One of the sections in the report that caught my eye was the one on mould and dampness, which seemed to be prevalent in the temporary housing that was featured in the study. The comments from a wee six-year-old child were pretty awful, describing his or her bed as being soaking wet due to the dampness in the house. It is beyond me as to why a house in that condition can be used at all, and I ask the Government and the councils to take a serious look at preventing the use of accommodation that is not fit to be lived in. Sadly, councils have not done that for years—that includes Labour and Tory councils, let us remember.
The impacts of the issue went beyond the discomfort of the dampness itself. It had wider implications for the children, who expressed fear and anxiety to the researchers about the conditions that they were living in. Added to that was the frustration and anger of parents who were trying to solve those issues, on top of the homelessness situation that they were already facing. It presented a disturbing picture for us all.
I think back to my early days as a local councillor in the 1990s, when a big proportion of my inquiries came from tenants living in damp houses with mould. We have come a long way since then. According to the current Scottish house condition survey, 90 per cent of all housing stock is free of the stuff, but it is still there, and it is causing misery and harm in equal measure.
Only yesterday, the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee heard about testimonials from people who are suffering dampness in their homes—not temporary accommodation—and the problems that they have encountered in trying to deal with it. We know that it can be a complex issue to sort. The witnesses who gave evidence to the committee also talked about the importance of improving the specialist skills that are needed in order to diagnose and treat such problems.
Even now, 30-odd years later, there are still examples of fungicidal washing and paint being used as the sole means of keeping dampness at bay, but that does not solve the problem. My question for our councils is this: why are you continuing to allocate houses that are clearly damp and mouldy at the outset? That includes some of the temporary housing that is featured in the report. Surely we should outlaw that practice, too, as well as embracing Awaab’s law.
As ever, I am indebted to my East Ayrshire Council colleagues, who advised me that the number of kids who live in temporary accommodation down there is dropping year on year; the current figure is around 25. That figure is too high, but it is among the lowest in Scotland. The council is doing its best. It is building more council houses than ever before, and it is buying back a substantial number of properties, too. Taken together, that work shows that East Ayrshire Council is doing all that it can to tackle the problems of demand and capacity. The Government’s big investment of £768 million in affordable homes will be a significant help in dealing with the problem, and the council hopes to build more than 600 new affordable homes in the period ahead.
It is right for the main focus of my comments to be on what is in the Shelter report. I am reassured by the minister’s assurance at the outset of the debate that the Government accepts the recommendations and will act on the findings to address the issues that are presented in the report.