Social Justice and Social Security Committee 20 March 2025 [Draft]
I certainly recognise what Mr Doris said about local authorities having wider duties to consider the size and scale of housing development and people’s needs, but giving the duty a legislative footing is important because it would put it clearly at the front of people’s minds when considerations were made.
As Mr Doris alluded to, there are a lot of competing demands. In particular, there is a need for smaller-sized housing for older people and for adapted housing of various sizes. However, the significant crisis in relation to housing for larger families and the UNCRC duties mean that it is important that we put the duty in the bill itself, to ensure that councils and other developers are thinking about that need very clearly and so that there is a legal mechanism to enable them to fulfil the duty. Overcrowded housing does not live up to the rights in the UNCRC that we have committed to, and there is an opportunity to address failures through the bill.
09:15As I said, the purpose of the amendment is to ensure from the beginning, when new social housing stock is being developed, that there are homes of a suitable size and that those who need access to social housing are not forced into the sort of cramped and unsuitable accommodation that I referred to.
I am pleased that the amendment has the support of organisations such as Aberlour, which has worked to develop the thinking and the debate around the issue. It does vital work in supporting at-risk and in-need families, and it has furnished all members with much of the difficult to hear testimony of families who are unable to access appropriately sized homes.
I am keen to listen carefully to the minister about the actions and methods that exist to address the wider problem. It is important to put that on the agenda. I go back to Mr Doris’s point that we can have a broader conversation about housing need, but it is important that we look to address these issues through the bill. There might be an opportunity, at this stage or at a future stage, to do that in a clear and precise way.
On the other amendments in the group, I welcome the proposal from my colleague Mark Griffin, which also seeks to ensure that children’s interests and rights are fully addressed through the bill. I do not think that the bill can be allowed to pass without making at least some progress on the pathway to tackling what I am sure that we all agree are the scandalous conditions that many children in Scotland find themselves living in.
I move amendment 1078.