Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to develop a wealth tax. (S6O-02873)

In September, the First Minister said that he would consider a wealth tax, but his Government has already had 16 years in power and wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a few. Can the minister confirm what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the Scottish Trades Union Congress about its wealth tax proposals and when the First Minister’s consideration will turn into real action on a wealth tax? [Interruption.]

I thank Kaukab Stewart for securing the debate to enable us, as a Parliament, to mark the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It is 75 years since the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet to this day, human rights abuses are being committed around the world. In Palestine, Israeli authorities carry out inhumane acts against Palestinians, seemingly with impunity. According to Human Rights Watch, those acts include sweeping movement restrictions such as the siege of Gaza, the erection of a separation barrier on Palestinian land and hundreds of checkpoints across the West Bank, as well as land confiscation, forcible transfer, denial of residency rights and suspension of civil rights.

However, that is not news. The reality is that Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza have been denied basic rights for decades. Now, as the eyes of the world are once more on what was Mandatory Palestine under British administration, we must take every opportunity to hold the UK Government to account for its role in the occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine from then to this day. That means supporting an immediate ceasefire, stopping the arms trade with Israel and ending the illegal occupation, the siege and the settlements.

Since Israel began its latest offensive on Gaza, 18,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 7,000 of them children. That has led to the UN secretary general describing Gaza as

“becoming a graveyard for children.”

Each life is mourned by that person’s family, each life is a loss to the world and each life is entitled to the human rights that we should be celebrating today.

However, too many lives are being swept into statistics. The organisation We Are Not Numbers was set up to pair aspiring Palestinian writers with mentors around the world. It was co-founded by Professor Alareer, a Palestinian academic and poet who was killed last week in an Israeli air strike on Gaza. I would like to take some time to share one of his poems with the chamber. This is “If I Must Die”, by Refaat Alareer:

“If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale”.

Palestinians are not numbers—no human being is a number. Palestinians are not nameless or faceless—none of us is. Their humanity is our humanity and Israel’s assault on their human rights is an assault on all of our rights.

So, when we see a people massacred, we must name it genocide; when we see a people displaced and forced from their land, we must name it ethnic cleansing; and when we see a people dominated and oppressed, we must name it apartheid. That is because if we allow a people to be stripped of their rights, to be described as “unhuman” and to be treated inhumanely, we concede our own humanity, and it is because human rights can be described as such only if they apply to all of us—every single one of us—equally.

The Kingsway in Dundee goes through several of the most deprived communities in the city, and it is used by thousands of vehicles each day. That exposes residents to high levels of air pollution. Transport Scotland’s assessment of a potential bypass suggested that the project would have a positive impact on air quality by taking away 50 per cent of the traffic on the Kingsway. Does the minister recognise the health and environmental benefits that that project could bring to Dundee?

Constituents who work in modern languages at the University of Aberdeen have contacted me about the university management’s plans to withdraw honours degrees in languages, cultures and societies. Given the Scottish Government’s commitment to improving language learning in schools and the existing shortage of language teachers in the North East Scotland region, does the First Minister agree that Scotland cannot afford Aberdeen losing those languages degrees?

I refer members to my entry in the register of interests, which shows that I am a member of Scotland’s tenants union, Living Rent, and of Acorn community union.

I speak today in support of the Labour motion—

“That the Parliament agrees that Scotland is experiencing a housing emergency”—

as has been declared by the City of Edinburgh Council, and as I urged Dundee City Council to declare.

There is a housing emergency in Scotland, and tenants are on the front line of it. Despite the rent freeze, Dundee has seen a shocking 17 per cent rise in private rent prices—5 per cent more than the Scottish average—because of loopholes in the legislation. In fact, property investors are describing the city as “Scotland’s buy-to-let capital”. Property prices have shot up, driven by the potential to profit from a basic human right.

The picture is mirrored across Scotland, with thousands of people in temporary accommodation and thousands on social housing waiting lists. Properties at or below the local housing allowance rate are scarce, and the private rental sector is capitalising on the overwhelming demand for homes.

This is an emergency, and it has been building for years. Members will remember when I brought the campaign for a rent freeze to the Parliament. They will remember the Scottish Government’s fierce opposition to the proposal, and how the Government was forced to U-turn and introduce emergency legislation, thanks to national public pressure from Scotland’s tenants.

That legislation should have seen us through to the promised national system of rent controls needed to bring down rents, but more than a year later, as we approach the end of the period of the temporary legislation, loopholes continue to be exploited. Rents continue to rise, and rent control legislation is nowhere in sight. Tenants face persistent issues of mould, cold, damp and disrepair, as well as the constant possibility of being evicted so that their landlord can sell, all while rents continue to rise.

How is this happening? We know that people in joint tenancies have faced unregulated rent increases when a flatmate leaves, as that is often considered to result in a new lease. That loophole is resulting in the de facto eviction of the remaining tenants, who cannot afford increases of hundreds of pounds a month. Also, landlords are dramatically increasing prices for new lets to supposedly future proof against the rent cap, causing the spiralling rises in the market that we are seeing. That is pushing up prices and forcing overcrowding, worse living conditions and increased commutes, as people have to move further and further away from where their life is.

We need measures that protect people in joint tenancies, those in arrears and those who are being priced out of their communities. Strong long-term rent and eviction controls have the potential to protect people on the lowest incomes, who have the least ability to absorb extra costs and are at the highest risk of homelessness. We need those rent controls now.

We have heard the Government making promises to tenants for years, and we have seen the publication of consultations and strategies and commitments on housing. What we are missing is action. I therefore welcome the commitment from the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee that the Government will bridge the gap between the end of the emergency legislation and the introduction of longer-term rent control measures. However, we have yet to hear how that will happen. Without that clarity, tenants face a cliff edge at the end of March, at which point there seems to be nothing to prevent landlords from hiking rents even higher.

We need a rapid response to this emergency—one that is watertight, permanent, effective and transformative—but it has to begin by recognising the problem. We are in a housing emergency, and tenants are on the front line. If the Scottish Government refuses today even to acknowledge that, what faith can we possibly place in its ability to address the issue?

I therefore urge all members, whatever their party, to support Labour’s motion,

“That the Parliament agrees that Scotland is experiencing a housing emergency.”

Does the Scottish Government know how many of Scotland’s 1,125 rural estates are accredited living wage employers? Will the cabinet secretary join me in calling on any estates that are not yet accredited to register today?

NatureScot’s peatland action programme grants funding to landowners to carry out peatland restoration, often by hiring private contractors. That means there is less scrutiny of working conditions, value for money and environmental impacts. Why is the Scottish Government outsourcing peatland restoration, rather than investing in democratically accountable and unionised public sector jobs?

The value of landings in Scotland last year was £617 million, and the industry employs 4,100 fishers in Scotland. Will the national marine plan 2 include spatial plans for all activities, including fisheries, for all appropriate locations in our inshore waters?

We have heard today from Sarah Boyack of the real-terms 22 per cent cut to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service budget over the past 10 years. We have also heard how 15 per cent of the workforce has been lost and another 780 jobs are currently at risk. In the face of our climate emergency, that is not sustainable. In just the first two days of storm Babet, the service received more than 750 emergency calls and attended almost 300 incidents, including rescuing people from homes and vehicles. Our fire and rescue workers put themselves on the front line for us every day, yet they are having to fight for the fundamental resources that they need in order to do their jobs.

The Scottish Government might argue that the reduction in rescue workers should not concern us, that the Government is reducing—in other ways—the risk to life from flooding, and even that those jobs are no longer necessary, but all the evidence suggests otherwise.

As the minister acknowledged in her statement last Wednesday, and as has been emphasised again today, our changing climate is bringing more extreme weather events with increasing risks of flooding. In 2015, SEPA described the event of 100 homes being flooded in the Brechin area as a once-in-200-years chance, but it happened again just eight years later. In 2021, SEPA estimated that hundreds of homes and businesses in Brechin would be evacuated by floods in the 2080s, due to climate change. Just two years later, hundreds of my constituents have had to be evacuated. Climate change is affecting our environment vastly more rapidly than we have been prepared for, and although we hear time and again about the steps that are being taken to protect communities, clearly they are not enough.

The Scottish Government might argue that it aims to tackle the risk of flooding at source—by tackling climate change. We heard from Rona Mackay that we are in the eye of the storm of climate change. We know that climate change is global and that the effects are likely to cascade, and will trigger more and more extreme events, such as storm Babet, at home and across the world.

However, dramatic action and leadership still have the potential to make a huge difference, so we cannot afford to keep missing our emissions targets. Yes—we are more than halfway to net zero, but our emissions reductions have been slower than planned, despite the significant drop in travel during the pandemic. That means that Scotland is continuing to contribute to climate disasters, both at home and globally, with little sign of them reducing any time soon. The decisions that we make here impact people everywhere, because our climate is connected. We must act now or we risk endangering more lives.

The good news is that we are not powerless to save our climate and there are lessons from nature that we can learn. We heard from Maggie Chapman about natural flood management solutions. Those can be hugely effective and offer a way to increase resilience while also meeting biodiversity, carbon capture and other environmental goals.

Willie Rennie spoke about the benefits of riparian woodlands, which can slow river flows, cool water temperatures, improve water quality and increase biodiversity. In addition, our abundant peatlands can act as a natural sponge to prevent rainfall in higher areas causing rivers downstream to overflow. That is why it is so concerning that the Scottish Government has missed its woodland creation targets for the past five years, that 80 per cent of our peatland is in a degraded state and that the Scottish Government has missed its target for peatland restoration for five years in a row.

Today, we have heard that targets to reduce climate change, create woodland and restore peatland are not being met. We have heard that the Government has failed to report on flood risk management plans and to adequately fund the Fire and Rescue Service, and that that has failed communities such as Brechin.

We know the problems that we face from climate change, because they are well documented. We know the solutions that are needed for climate adaptation—they are within reach. However, we lack a Government that is willing and able to rise to that challenge.