Chamber and committees

I need you to get to the point, please.

I thank the witnesses for their evidence this morning. That concludes the public part of our proceedings.

The decision to close NHS Lothian’s life-saving alcohol-related brain damage unit has been paused while options are assessed. There is no other specific ARBD residential rehab unit in Scotland, and evidence shows that the treatment for people with ARBD in non-specialist units is often unsatisfactory.

On 4 July, the Scottish Government requested clarification on the function of the service to allow it to be reclassified as a specialist rehabilitation unit. That information has been provided—

Will the member take an intervention?

I am doing that.

All that could be addressed by the SNP Government but, in SNP style, it blames others and cites UK Government budget cuts and austerity as causes of the housing emergency.

As an MSP for the Lothian region and a former City of Edinburgh councillor, I welcome the chance to speak in the debate.

Miles Briggs has already highlighted the crisis that Edinburgh, as our capital, is facing. In November 2023, the City of Edinburgh Council formally declared a housing emergency. Council figures show that about 5,000 households in the capital were in temporary accommodation, which was the highest number in Scotland. Although housing is a nationwide crisis, it manifests most acutely in Edinburgh. The city has the lowest proportion of social housing in Scotland, but the demand is immense. In Edinburgh, about 200 bids are made for every social rented home that becomes available.

When I was a councillor, the SNP-Labour administration presented “Programme for the Capital: The City of Edinburgh Council Business Plan 2017-22”, which was approved in August 2017. It stated that the council wanted to

“Deliver a programme to build at least 10,000 social and affordable homes over the next 5 years”,

—that is, by now—

“with a plan to build 20,000 by 2027”.

However, since the 20,000 homes commitment was made in 2017, and was subsequently revised to 25,000 in March 2023, only 9,000 new affordable homes were expected to be approved by 31 March 2024, and only 8,000 have been completed. That was a commitment by an SNP and Labour run Edinburgh council, and it is a commitment that it has failed to deliver, despite having said in March 2022 that it was on track to fulfil it, in response to a question that was posed by Conservative councillor Jim Campbell.

Declaring a housing emergency is all well and good, but it is an emergency of the Government’s own making. As Ben Macpherson said, it has been “decades in the making” and has not happened overnight. The SNP Government and the Scottish Labour Party cannot keep blaming others while they are in power and failing to meet their own targets.

In the capital city, where we are sitting now, 3,000 council homes are, as my colleague Miles Briggs said, lying vacant that should be repurposed and brought up to scratch. People should be living in them—[Interruption.]—so why are our elected members in Edinburgh not fixing those homes? That is not scaremongering.

Statistics that have been published by the Scottish Association of Landlords have revealed that the SNP rent controls have damaged the country’s private rented sector. I am certain that members across the chamber can concur; my inbox is full of messages from people whose tenancies are being ended and whose private landlords are choosing to take their properties off the market. They are contacting me in desperation because they are about to become homeless.

Despite clear evidence that rent controls do not work and instead merely aggravate the problem, last month the City of Edinburgh Council backed a motion that was introduced by the Scottish Greens to support rent controls—the first council to do so since the introduction of the Scottish Government’s Housing (Scotland) Bill. [Interruption.]

I thought they would, too.

Common sense did not prevail, and the council did not support the councillors from the Conservative group in Edinburgh who submitted an alternative motion that really drilled down into the issues that rent controls will bring.

Furthermore, the SNP housing bill is going to add a £5.5 million burden to already overstretched councils, which have warned that the research that will be required to assess the sector for rent controls will equate to that amount. That is just throwing good money after bad. We need to start prioritising where we invest. Just think how many homes could be bought with £5.5 million—not that many in East Dunbartonshire.

We would reverse the rent freeze and the eviction moratorium. We will continue to oppose rent caps while ensuring that renters get a fair deal.

Rent controls are not the only issue that is contributing to the housing emergency, but they are driving investors away. Due to a lack of houses being built, there were 4,969 households in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh on 31 March 2024, which is a 4 per cent rise from 2023.

Twelve of the 32 councils have declared a housing emergency, and the SNP Government has presided over a Scotland-wide housing crisis, coupled with an increase in homelessness with thousands of people, including 10,000 children, now stuck in temporary accommodation. Willie Rennie made a plea to support investors, private builders and private landlords—

—but no response has been received. Minister, do you agree that the reclassification is crucial for funding, and will you seek to determine what is preventing the life-saving service from being assessed as a rehabilitation unit?

What everyone in the chamber forgets is that there are still people living in those homes: the homes that were bought have not disappeared. Families have been brought up and are having fantastic lives in those homes. They are still being lived in, which is a fact that we cannot escape from. Let me cast members’ minds back a little bit.

I have just started. If you do not mind, Ms Roddick, I will move on a bit.

Rent controls were first mentioned in the chamber by Scottish Labour and were quickly embraced by the SNP. Rent controls have been an unmitigated disaster, when it comes to their unintended consequences. We have seen rents rising in Scotland faster than they have anywhere else in the UK, including London. Industry leaders in Scotland have raised concerns about rent controls and about the Scottish Government’s proposed housing bill. More Homes More Quickly has expressed concern about the unintended consequences of rent controls, including a reduction in supply and in access to the private rented sector, which could subsequently impact on lower-income groups who are in need of housing.

That is not scaremongering. Around 21,000 flats and houses have disappeared from Scotland’s private rented sector in a single year. Statistics—[Interruption.]

I am happy to take an intervention if someone wants to intervene.