Chamber and committees

Thank you.

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported figures showing that average rents increased at a higher rate in Scotland than any other region or nation in the United Kingdom between September 2022 and March 2024. (S6T-02000)

Last week, the Government declared a housing emergency. Many in the sector welcomed that and have been expressing concern for some time that the SNP’s Housing (Scotland) Bill will only make matters worse. The rent-setting provision in the bill will only prevent investment, which the minister has said he is keen to secure in Scotland. Will the Scottish Government honestly look towards a more flexible rent regulation approach than the one that the bill outlines?

What is more important than the words, which are similar to what the minister put out in his press release at the weekend, is looking at what is happening on the ground. Scottish Conservatives warned ministers that the only outcome of the Scottish National Party and Green Party Government’s approach to rent controls would be higher rents and a loss of supply, both of which are now becoming apparent. Does the minister accept that rent controls have been a disaster for tenants, by decimating the housing market, and that they are pushing up rents in Scotland?

A freedom of information request has revealed that Scottish National Party ministers have no idea how many houses will be built in Scotland in the coming years. Under the Scottish Government’s national planning framework, record low levels of land are coming forward in the development pipeline. What urgent steps will ministers take to review the Scottish Government’s national planning framework? Why are ministers being so slow to take forward permitted development rights to build new homes in rural and island communities?

To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates the impact of the reported reduction in primary school music teacher numbers will be on children and young people. (S6O-03439)

The cabinet secretary mentioned protecting teacher numbers, but there are now only 37 specialist music teachers in primary schools across Scotland. That number is down from 98 in 2008, the first year of the Scottish National Party being in power, and down from 108 in 2011.

Does the cabinet secretary share my concern that, in a country with such rich musical traditions as Scotland, young people are not getting the access to specialist music tuition that we had when we were at primary school? What is she doing about that?

I thank the Labour Party for bringing this debate to the chamber.

“The Scottish Government’s strategies for housing and homelessness are failing and any attempt to say otherwise is starting to feel like an attempt to gaslight the Scottish public.”

Those are not my words but those of Shelter Scotland’s director.

Last week, the First Minister stated that he wanted to be honest about where the Scottish Government has been going wrong. I welcome the acceptance that ministers are failing to deliver on housing in Scotland and that Scotland is in a housing emergency.

Sadly, however—we have seen this today—the Scottish Government does not seem to be acting with humility or accepting the policy failures on its watch. Instead, we have more deflection and the usual from the SNP’s playbook—that is, blaming everyone else and not taking responsibility.

Where does the member think that the Scottish Government has gone wrong?

Housing policy in Scotland has been devolved for 25 years, and 17 of those years have been under this SNP Government. The Government’s motion desperately tries to suggest that a housing emergency is due to

“factors ... outwith the Scottish Government’s powers”.

However, there is no mention of the SNP-Green Government’s annual cuts to affordable housing budgets; no mention of the Scottish Government’s failing national planning framework, which is leading to land supply disappearing; no mention of the cuts to local government budgets; no mention that the City of Edinburgh Council, which now has some of the highest homeless rates in the country, has lost out on around £9.3 million in homelessness prevention funding under this Government; no mention of the rent controls policy, which, as ministers were warned, has led to rents soaring and landlords withdrawing properties from the market, housing associations scaling back their property investment portfolios and the complete loss of mid-market rent; and no mention of the fact that, under this SNP Government, 40,000 disabled people are on waiting lists for housing associations and council homes. That is the SNP and the Green Party’s record in office, and it is time that they accepted it. They have failed Scotland and they need to take responsibility.

Shelter Scotland has stated:

“It is a national scandal.”

I agree. Scotland is in the grip of a devastating housing emergency that damages lives every single day. Across the country, local authority homelessness services face systemic failure. Five councils have declared housing emergencies, and local authorities are routinely failing to even uphold legal housing rights. There is a failure to deliver the social homes that we urgently need, and there has been a significant slowdown in new social housing developments over the past year. The housing emergency is damaging people’s health, wellbeing and education, as well as our economy, and it leaves thousands of our fellow Scots without anywhere to call home.

Scottish Conservatives have repeatedly called for the Scottish Government to declare a national housing emergency, but those calls have fallen on deaf ears until now, so SNP ministers need to play catch-up. As Crisis says in its briefing, declaring a national housing emergency will be of benefit to Scotland only if success is clearly defined and if action targeted at the root causes is taken swiftly by the Scottish Government.

SNP ministers have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into accepting the reality that we face a housing emergency in Scotland. Ministers must now acknowledge where their policies have failed and reach out to charities and across the political divide for new ideas and fresh thinking. Ministers must act. They must urgently outline to the Parliament what will change across all Government portfolios and what fresh leadership will be brought to tackle the housing emergency, like what happened when the Government declared a public health emergency as a result of the drug deaths crisis. Scottish ministers also need to produce an urgent housing emergency plan. That is why, after this debate, I hope that there will be cross-party talks and that the Scottish Government will make an urgent statement on the national housing emergency in the coming weeks.

I move amendment S6M-13197.2, to insert at end:

“; notes that there are a record number of people in Scotland experiencing homelessness with almost 10,000 children stuck in temporary accommodation and 45 children becoming homeless in Scotland every day calls on the Scottish Ministers to bring forward an urgent housing emergency action plan to tackle the issues raised by the Scottish Government’s own expert Homelessness Prevention Task and Finish Group, including actions that will reduce the number of children stuck in temporary accommodation by the end of this parliamentary session; recognises the need to improve capacity in local government to prevent more local homelessness services falling into systemic failure, and the need to improve delivery for those with specific supported living needs, and calls on the Scottish Ministers to review how national government, local authorities and third sector partners are working together on the shared ambition to end homelessness.”