Chamber and committees

Okay. I am happy to leave it there. Thank you.

It is now nearly a year since the Scottish Government accepted what the rest of us already knew, and declared a housing emergency. It has been a year of missed opportunities and increasing misery for those who do not have a permanent place to call home. What a pity that the cabinet secretary is not here today to help out her beleaguered housing minister.

No. The minister can come back in later, potentially.

Government statistics show us that 15,500 children in Scotland became homeless last year. According to Shelter Scotland, 10,360 children are currently in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 5 per cent compared with the previous year and a 150 per cent increase over the past 10 years. Those are damning figures.

None of us here is in the position of living somewhere that we know is only temporary. The Shelter report, “In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation”, spells out from the children affected a situation that should make the Government sit up. It is little wonder that Alison Watson of Shelter Scotland said:

“Their words have put into stark relief the fact that children are bearing the brunt of Scotland’s housing emergency. Our children are being denied their rights and condemned to growing up in often poor quality, entirely unsuitable, temporary accommodation.”

She is right.

Children spoke of living

“miles away from friends”

and of sleeping in

“beds covered with black mould, placed in accommodation with urine-soaked carpets, dead rats and broken windows, with no access to decent cooking and washing facilities.”

They also spoke of lack of sleep, poor nutrition and hygiene and repeated hospital visits. All that places a great emotional toll on the children and their families. It is hard to imagine the uncertainty that such a lifestyle—if we can call it that—brings.

In February, we learned that more children are trapped in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh than in the whole of Wales. That is more than 3,600 as of November 2024, compared with 2,823 children stuck in temporary accommodation across Wales in the same month. Glasgow is in the same position. As of 30 September 2024, there were 16,634 households in temporary accommodation in Scotland.

It is not just about the overall figures; it is also the length of time that families are spending in temporary accommodation. For cases that closed between April and September last year in which there was at least one temporary accommodation placement, households spent an average of 234 days in temporary accommodation. That is shocking. That compares with 222 days for the same six-month period in 2023 and 233 days for the period from October 2023 to March 2024. The situation has got worse—and it is worse in Edinburgh.

According to the Government’s own homelessness update of last September, between April and September, there were 7,500 instances of households not being offered temporary accommodation, which is breaking the law.

The minister mentioned Awaab’s law. I have seen an amendment that might deal with the issue, although I am not really sure. He mentioned that the measure would aim to fix problems “in a timely manner”. I do not know what “a timely manner” means; perhaps the minister can explain what that is.

We have known about all those problems for years, but very little has changed. The reality of life for some people in Scotland is a badge of shame, which should make any housing minister consider their position.

Will the member take an intervention?

This is so interesting. By the way, we need to be careful when talking about tenements that we do not automatically just think of old buildings. They are not. Any flatted development is legally a tenement, and we could be talking about very modern buildings.

I have thought for a while that it would be good if we had something for the private householder so that they had somewhere to go in order to get somebody into their house and report on how it works. I do not know who that would be. Let us say that someone has problems with mould or that there might be hidden mould. Who would you get in to assess your house and how it is functioning?

I am pleased to be here, convener. I was on the equivalent committee in the previous session, and I am looking forward to today’s meeting. I have no interests to declare.

Thank you very much.

That is a really good point. I will go away and read that report, now that you have mentioned it. I have made a note of it.

I will play devil’s advocate. The written submission from the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations said that an Awaab’s law for Scotland might be “counterproductive”. The organisation is concerned that it

“could result in landlords and contractors striving to meet targets at the expense of proper diagnosis of the issue and identification of root cause.”

I guess that the SFHA is saying that we could have quick fixes, such as slapping on a coat of paint without finding the cause of the problem. The following panel of witnesses are architects, who will know the details on that.

My final question follows up on that. I will bring in Sean Clerkin on this. The law in England says that social landlords must fix damp and mould within a certain period. When we have that law in Scotland, what should the period be?

Ah—so solar thermal is different. I do not think that I have heard of that.