Social Justice and Housing
Good afternoon. The first item of business this afternoon is portfolio question time, and, on this occasion, the portfolio is social justice and housing. I invite members who wish to ask a supplementary question to press their request-to-speak buttons during the relevant question.
Welfare Payments (Projection)
To ask the Scottish Government what projection it has made of the cost of welfare payments after 2030. (S6O-05114)
Social security spending is an investment in the people of Scotland, as it provides vital support to disabled people, unpaid carers and children and families in poverty. The current forecast for social security expenditure in 2030-31 is £9.3 billion. That is about £2 billion more than the funding that we will receive from the United Kingdom Government through the social security block grant adjustment. The additional investment is less than 3.5 per cent of the overall Scottish Government resource budget.
In April 2025, the Scottish Fiscal Commission published its “Fiscal Sustainability Report”, in which it set out long-term projections for devolved public spending through to 2074–75. By the very nature of those projections, which extend over almost 50 years, there are inherent uncertainties.
The inherent uncertainties are down to the Government’s whole approach, which was highlighted last week by the Auditor General for Scotland, when he warned that the Scottish National Party Government is papering over the cracks with one-off savings and underspends and is taking a short-term approach that is not supporting fiscal sustainability.
Audit Scotland has reported that, by 2029-30, there will be a £4.7 billion funding gap, £2 billion of which will come from rising welfare costs, and that the Government does not even have a clear plan to manage the £770 million overspend on adult disability payment. Scotland cannot afford that benefits bill. Does the cabinet secretary agree with the Scottish Conservatives that the only sustainable route out of poverty is work, not ever-higher welfare spending?
Not for the first time, Stephen Kerr fails to grasp the basic foundations of the social security system. Adult disability payments are provided to support people with the additional costs of having a disability or a long-term condition. A person’s being in receipt of adult disability payments is not reliant on their being in or out of work. Indeed, adult disability payments support people by enabling them to afford to have transport to or support for their employment—that is what disabled people’s organisations have told me.
Stephen Kerr referred to an overspend on adult disability payment. As the Auditor General has pointed out, that is because we have a system that supports people to apply for what they are eligible for and that provides for people who were too timid to come forward to the Department for Work and Pensions because they feared the DWP system. If Mr Kerr thinks that we should not spend that money on disabled people, it is up to him to explain that to voters. However, this Government will continue to support Scotland’s disabled people.
I am proud that, while Westminster Conservative Governments and Westminster Labour Governments clearly believe that cutting benefits for disabled people and carers is a vote winner, the SNP Scottish Government is leading by example and delivering a social security system that is based on dignity, fairness and respect. The delivery of such a system was supported unanimously by the Parliament.
Ahead of the UK budget, will the cabinet secretary commit to continuing to do all that she can to protect the most vulnerable from further Westminster austerity?
I again point out that Stephen Kerr’s questions suggest that he and the Tories believe that we should take money away from disabled people, given that he seems to want cuts to be made to adult disability payment. That process is continuing under the current UK Government, which has already put in place cuts for disabled people through universal credit, which, of course, continues to be reserved. In addition, there is talk about threats of changing the tax on Motability cars in the UK budget, which would impact people in Scotland.
Disabled people in Scotland are greatly concerned that funding for the reserved section that remains in our social security system will be cut, which would put them at a disadvantage and could cause them extreme difficulties.
I call Rachael Hamilton.
I am sorry, Deputy Presiding Officer—my question is number 6.
Two-child Benefit Cap (Impact on Children)
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its plans for mitigation, how the United Kingdom Government’s two-child benefit cap is impacting children in Clydebank and Milngavie. (S6O-05115)
The latest data from the Department for Work and Pensions, in May 2025, suggests that about 1,500 children in Clydebank and Milngavie live in households that are affected by the two-child cap.
The Scottish Government’s national mission is to eradicate child poverty, but the two-child cap has been a key driver of poverty among children and their families in Scotland. That is why, subject to parliamentary approval, applications for our two-child limit payment will be taken from March 2026. Our payment will help to keep thousands of children out of poverty and reduce the depths of poverty faced by many more.
It is appalling that so many children in my constituency have been scarred by that brutal policy, so it is no wonder that our plans to mitigate it have been welcomed by so many. The Child Poverty Action Group estimates that 30,000 children have been pushed into poverty because of the UK Government’s continuation of that approach. Put simply, it is Labour’s policy that those children should never have been born.
Will the cabinet secretary continue to make representations to the UK Government in advance of the budget and call for it to find some compassion and end that policy, which is harming children and hindering their long-term opportunities and life chances?
Indeed. It should not be for the Scottish Government to have to, once more, mitigate the worst excesses of Westminster austerity—which is what we are seeing again under the Labour Government. The Scottish Government is not alone in asking the UK Government to end the two-child cap. We stand with the United Nations, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Save the Children UK and the Child Poverty Action Group, all of which are making that call to ensure that the UK Government hears loud and clear that the two-child limit should be scrapped immediately. It must be remembered that, although we can mitigate, we cannot scrap the cap here and that, under Labour, the rape clause will continue to exist.
Glasgow Housing Supply
To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that housing supply in Glasgow will keep up with the predicted 10 per cent rise in population by 2032. (S6O-05116)
As the statutory housing authority, Glasgow City Council is responsible for assessing the local housing requirements of all tenures as part of its local housing strategy, as well as for keeping its strategy under review. The local housing strategy should be informed by a robust housing need and demand assessment that takes into account key evidence, such as existing need and supply, and future household projections.
Glasgow declared a housing emergency and has been in that emergency since 2023. Unfortunately, the Government’s decision in 2024-25 to cut funding for the affordable housing supply programme by a quarter has had a significant effect on the pipeline of housing in the city.
Today, Glasgow City Council has approved a five-year plan for the construction of almost 6,400 new affordable homes, 75 per cent of which will be for social rent. It has also identified an additional series of sites that will allow for a further 4,648 homes to be developed. At a stretch, the cost of that will be £1.6 billion in capital investment, but the core plan will cost about £890 million. Will the cabinet secretary confirm that she will support that baseline plan and do what she can to push further towards the stretch target of £1.6 billion of funding to get those additional homes? As a baseline, we need 11,559 homes to be built in Glasgow.
I am pleased to hear that that approach has been confirmed by Glasgow City Council. It builds on Scotland’s reputation for, and experience of, the delivery of affordable homes—for example, the Government has supported the delivery of more than 140,000 affordable homes since we came into office. Everything that the Government has been doing, particularly in relation to the housing emergency action plan, has been about understanding the need to step up that delivery and to put in place the funding to do that.
We have boosted Glasgow City Council’s budget this year by more than £24 million so that it can acquire properties and bring them into use. That brings the council’s total budget allocation for the affordable housing supply programme to more than £127 million in this financial year.
Pensioner Poverty (Social Security)
To ask the Scottish Government how it is using the Scottish social security system to alleviate poverty among pensioners. (S6O-05117)
We are delivering real support to pensioners across Scotland by investing about £157 million to help approximately 880,000 pensioners stay warm during the coldest months. Unlike in the rest of the United Kingdom, eligible low-income households across Scotland, including pensioner households, are also guaranteed support through our winter heating payment.
We have issued more than £33 million since launching the pension-age disability payment to help to mitigate the additional costs that are incurred by older disabled people and by those with long-term health conditions. Meanwhile, take-up rates for pension credit remain low, and I urge the UK Government to do more to promote that reserved benefit.
I am glad that the cabinet secretary mentioned pension credit, which is key to supporting low-income households, including those with pensioners, but which often goes unclaimed, as she indicated. Benefit criteria are also too restrictive at times.
What can the Scottish Government do to assist with the take-up of pension credit, although it is a reserved benefit? Will the cabinet secretary say how the commitments on pension credit that are included in the Scottish Government paper “A Fresh Start with Independence” could ensure that pensioners get the support that they need?
Although the responsibility for pension credit ultimately lies with the UK Government and the Department for Work and Pensions, we will continue to explore the opportunities to raise the awareness of people in Scotland of that payment—once again, we are doing the UK Government’s job for it.
The Scottish Government is delivering a benefit take-up strategy, and I hope that the DWP could have a similar strategy, to include pension credit. As Mr Doris has highlighted, our paper “A Fresh Start with Independence” demonstrated how the social security system could be improved. For example, steps could be taken in the early years to ensure that people receive the pension credit that they are entitled to, and those steps could include issuing invitations to apply for pension credit to everyone who is approaching state pension age, which would be a proactive role to increase the take-up of benefits by those who are eligible.
Housing (Fife Council)
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the director of housing at Fife Council and what was discussed. (S6O-05118)
Following my appointment as Cabinet Secretary for Housing, I met representatives of the five councils that face the most sustained housing pressures, which included meeting Fife Council on 10 July. We discussed Fife’s local housing emergency, its affordable home supply programme, temporary accommodation and homelessness pressures. Following the development of the housing emergency action plan, I will now meet local authority leaders quarterly, and those meetings will run alongside regular engagement by my officials.
I am pleased to note that there is indeed regular engagement, which is necessary at this time. However, although the Scottish Government has recently carried out a local adaptations policy delivery review and has more than doubled the funding that is available to local authorities, I fear that my constituents see no improvement whatsoever in Fife. In the recent case of a constituent who had been diagnosed with and treated for cancer, it took Fife Council more than a year even to carry out a survey, far less to install a wet room and shower. That is surely unacceptable. What can the cabinet secretary do to impress on Fife Council the need to bring its failing processes up to scratch, to ensure that people can live safely, and with dignity, in their own homes?
I am sorry to hear of the difficulty that Ms Ewing’s constituent has experienced and I personally send them my best wishes. The Government wants everyone who requires an adaptation to be able to access that quickly, easily and in a way that meets their needs, which is why we increased the adaptations budget for registered social landlords to £20.9 million this year, as Ms Ewing mentioned, and why we have committed to a general review of the adaptations system.
I would be pleased if Ms Ewing and I could discuss the details of her constituent’s case, so that I can make representations to Fife Council to find out how that can be progressed.
There are a couple of supplementary questions.
One key solution to the housing crisis is to empower councils to purchase homes to create more social housing. A report last year found that Fife Council had purchased only four homes in the Dunfermline area and that the council’s buy-back scheme was underspent by £3.5 million. What more can the Scottish Government do to ensure that councils buy up more housing stock to create more affordable homes for their areas?
Although we focus on creating the right conditions for the further development of affordable homes, we understand that we must deliver more now, while those homes are being built. Therefore, our focus in the past few years has been on directly funding councils to assist them both in turning round social housing voids and in acquiring homes on the open market, as Mr Stewart described.
We made £40 million available for that in the previous financial year, which delivered around 1,000 more affordable homes, and in the housing emergency action plan in September we doubled that to a further £80 million. If my figures are correct, that has translated into a further £2.2 million for Fife Council alone, and I would expect it to put the money to that use.
I agree with Annabelle Ewing about the adaptations process. It takes a very long time for some people to get the adaptations that they need. When the cabinet secretary met Fife Council to discuss the affordable housing programme and other matters, did she give the council more foresight about how much money will be available to it, so that it can plan for the future? I have never seen the housing situation in Fife as bad as it is now, and Fife Council is keen to get on with the work. I hope that the cabinet secretary was able to give it some foresight.
One of the main representations that have been made to me is that multi-annual certainty is needed on funding, because that is essential for people to plan things that are by their nature multi-annual, such as house building. In the housing emergency action plan that the Government produced over the summer, we committed to just that, coupled with a commitment of up to £4.9 billion over the next four years.
The affordable housing supply programme is funded to the tune of £808 million this year, and we have committed on a multi-annual basis up to £4.9 billion over the coming four years. I will be working very closely with councils to ensure that that added certainty results in increased delivery, because I know that our communities need that.
Permitted Development Rights Consultation (New Homes)
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Housing has had with the Minister for Public Finance regarding the consultation on permitted development rights to support the provision of new homes. (S6O-05119)
Scottish ministers have regular discussions regarding matters that affect our shared portfolio interests. There is clearly considerable crossover between the Minister for Public Finance and me. We meet regularly to discuss the planning system in respect of housing, and we did so most recently at the meeting of the housing emergency action plan oversight board on Thursday 30 October.
House-building rates have plummeted under the Scottish National Party. To reverse the decline, I have long campaigned for the extension of permitted development rights to unlock opportunities to grow the rural economy in places such as my constituency in the Scottish Borders by allowing redundant buildings, barns and steadings to be developed and transformed into much-needed homes. Has the cabinet secretary or the Minister for Public Finance assessed how many homes across Scotland could be created to address the SNP’s woeful emergency crisis?
On the contrary, the SNP Government has a very strong record on the delivery of affordable homes. I mentioned in an earlier answer that we have delivered more than 140,000 affordable homes since we came into government, 100,000 of which have been for social rent. That is 47 per cent more per head of population than in England and 73 per cent more than in Wales.
However, that is not to say that there is not work to be done. That is why, in my answer to Willie Rennie, I pointed out that we have, for the first time, offered multi-annual funding certainty. We have committed to an uptick in funding and to a suite of developments, including on planning and permitted development rights, which I hope will help to deliver the homes that we need.
I recognise that the recently announced housing emergency action plan commits to additional planning actions to accelerate housing delivery. Can the cabinet secretary speak to the positive impact that that is expected to have on the delivery of new homes in Scotland, including in Dumfries and Galloway?
We need our planning system to ensure that the right houses are developed in the right places and to be a facilitator of progress and not a hindrance to it. As well as speaking with the planning minister, I have been having extensive conversations with house builders about their experiences of the planning system.
The Government’s actions are being delivered—not least the 23 actions in the planning and the housing emergency delivery plan, which are all now under way or completed. There are also a number of actions in the housing emergency action plan, which was published on 2 September—not least, my communicating to the heads of planning that I expect an emergency-led approach to be taken and proportionality when dealing with small and medium-sized enterprises, and an important ministerial oversight direction whereby I will observe the application of the national planning framework 4 and will be able to intervene where needed.
Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Community Support)
To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to communities to promote cohesion and develop sustainable support networks for refugees and asylum seekers, to help ensure their full participation in civic and community life. (S6O-05120)
We are committed to supporting the integration of refugees and people seeking asylum into our communities through our new Scots strategy, which was developed in partnership with the Scottish Refugee Council and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. We are funding the refugee support service to provide advice, information and resources to new Scots to help them to build networks and social connections.
In addition, the £300,000 of funding that I announced earlier will be used by organisations working across Scotland to strengthen community cohesion and ensure that our communities stand together to reject division and build solidarity by forging coalitions across a wide range of communities in Scotland.
Falkirk has seen sustained anti-refugee protests and counter-protests, resulting in on-going tensions, disruption and division in the wider community. What actions is the Scottish Government taking to tackle the spread of misinformation? Will it work in partnership with Falkirk Council, Police Scotland and any other relevant agencies to mitigate the disruption that is caused by the persistent cycle of protests and counter-protests?
I am deeply concerned about the harmful rhetoric that we see across the United Kingdom, which has no place in our society. It is vital that we remain united in the face of division and uncertainty so that that narrative has absolutely no place and gathers no traction.
When our communities tell us that they feel unsafe and that they are under pressure, it is our collective responsibility to listen and respond. I outlined earlier the work that we are doing through our new Scots refugee integration strategy, which has been held up far and wide as a very good example.
We are investing in strengthening our communities, but I call on members—and everyone else—to ensure that we all stand firm against falling for misinformation, check our facts, are mindful of our language and use our platform to ensure that we unite our communities.
House Building (Baseline)
To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates to be the baseline figure for its ambition towards all-tenure housing delivery of a 10 per cent increase in house building each year over the next three years. (S6O-05121)
The Government has instituted a new all-tenure delivery ambition. Working with the house building sector through close collaboration, we will seek to increase delivery across all sectors by at least 10 per cent each year during the next three years. As I stated at the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on 7 October, the figure on which the delivery ambition will be based is that for all-sector new build completions for the year to the end of June 2025. The figure was published on 30 September and is 18,869.
That is a welcome change in Government policy. We need to dramatically increase the amount of house building across all tenures. The Government could and should have been more ambitious than that 10 per cent to address the need. However, the key point is the baseline that the cabinet secretary sets out, because numbers in recent years have been so low.
As well as the completion figures, will the Government have targets on approvals and starts to give an all-round target to the housing sector? Can the cabinet secretary set out explicitly how many more houses the Government expects will be built as a result of the three-year target?
I will take the latter point first. We expect 10 per cent increases on the figure each year during the course of the three years. The target is for completions. I will not set one for starts, although we monitor starts, and they will be a strong indication of the number that will ultimately be completed.
Mr Griffin must surely recognise that one of the biggest barriers to delivering Scotland’s housing fund is the dire economic mismanagement by his Labour colleagues at Westminster, which is about to be laid bare in the next few weeks. Will the cabinet secretary advise how damaging United Kingdom Government policies, such as increases to employer national insurance and limits to legitimate immigration, are directly impacting on our housing and construction sectors?
UK policies are indeed hindering progress. Immigration is absolutely vital to sustain multiple sectors of the Scottish economy, including construction, and the UK Government’s approach has completely failed to recognise Scotland’s needs. The same applies to the hike in national insurance contributions—I am sure that all members, when they make visits across Scotland, are being told how damaging that is to businesses and organisations, because it permanently uplifts labour costs.
All that comes atop the incredible economic self-harm of Brexit and the inflationary pressures that have led to construction costs being some 40 per cent higher this year than they were five years ago. I am afraid that that is, as has been set out, just another in the suite of reasons why it will always be to Scotland’s detriment to be governed by remote politicians in London.
That concludes portfolio questions. There will be a brief pause to allow the front bench members to change over.
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