Chamber and committees

Before we begin, I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which shows that I ceased to be a landlord over the summer.

I am pleased to open the debate for Labour. We are using our business time to call on the Parliament and the Government to face up to the reality that thousands of families across the country face and declare a national housing emergency. I thank the housing sector for its support for the debate and the briefings it has provided. Scottish Land & Estates, Crisis, Homeless Network Scotland and others all recognise the urgency of the housing emergency and desperately want to see—[Interruption.]—the minister and the Government act today. Particular thanks are due to Shelter for working across parties to support the debate.

Today was meant to be about challenging the Government to take responsibility and deliver action to deal with the national emergency. As much as the minister might spend all afternoon trying to pin all the responsibility on the economic illiteracy of the Tory Government at Westminster, this emergency has been made in Scotland by his Government, and it is his responsibility to fix it. Sadly, the minister is not prepared to face up to what his Scottish National Party councillor colleagues in Edinburgh and in Argyll and Bute have faced up to.

We would build more houses. Labour’s record in Government shows that we built an average of 5,000 more houses each year in office than this Government has managed to build. The cause of Scotland’s housing crisis is a shortage in supply that has been overseen by the Government’s failure to deliver the houses that we need, which has been evidenced by bodies right across the sector. Homes for Scotland, Shelter and a whole range of organisations that specialise in the matter have said that the Government has failed consistently to deliver housing in the numbers that this country needs. Whether members speak to Shelter, Homes for Scotland or housing conveners across the country, they will hear that they have all been told that the minister is in listening mode. However, the response to the debate shows that the Government has not done a lot of listening and that it is definitely not acting.

People right across the country need and want an immediate emergency response at a scale that we have not seen before. The long-term answer to the problem is simple: it will be ended by increasing the supply and number of houses across all tenures through building more homes. The declarations of a housing emergency by both City of Edinburgh Council and Argyll and Bute Council have said that a lack of supply is the significant problem. Building more homes across all tenures is a key part of the solution.

The SNP Government’s inaction is exacerbating the emergency, and it is finding reasons not to act. It refuses to set the all-tenure house building target that Homes for Scotland has called for—a target that could focus Government and industry to co-ordinate action to tackle the crisis.

The minister’s amendment talks of work on the task-and-finish group’s recommendations, but his officials are in charge and are telling him that the Government cannot commit to an interim target for building social housing.

The Government trumpets housing completions, but the number of social homes has dropped by 24 per cent compared to last year, and its chances of picking up the pace are dire because the number of homes that have been approved has plummeted by 50 per cent.

The Government must double what it is doing now in order to have any chance of building the number of homes that it plans to build. At the same time, the number of empty homes has jumped by 1,500 in the past year but the Government has still not delivered an escalating council tax surcharge. Worse still, since it set its 110,000 target, the Government has seen an exodus of staff from the very team that it has tasked with delivering more homes.

The minister’s department has been sounding the alarm for months now. It is an open secret that there is a high risk that affordable housing targets could be missed altogether. Despite mortgage rates rocketing, we are almost two years into a review of the home owners’ support fund, and there is still no new support for people who are struggling with their mortgage payments.

Time and again, Government inaction is making this emergency worse. It is strangling the pipeline and failing to deliver the homes that we need—and look at the consequences. Given half a chance to accept that there is a need to take drastic action, the Government is looking the other way. The finance secretary said yesterday that the Government is broke, but the truth is that, with relentless cuts to council budgets, the councils are trying to tackle this crisis with one hand tied behind their back.

I have heard from constituents who are destitute in their homes because they cannot or will not be rehomed. An amputee who cannot get out of his building and a pensioner with mobility needs on the top floor are told that they are adequately housed, so they are left with little option but to present as homeless.

In East Lothian—the minister’s backyard—the council has said that it cannot take any more homes because the revenue demands to run schools and services are too high. City of Edinburgh Council and Argyll and Bute Council have faced up to reality, but every part of this country is facing a housing emergency. Everyone can see it and feel it apart from those in St Andrew’s house.

It is time for the Government to accept and admit that there is a housing emergency in Scotland and to support the motion.

I move,

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

Will the minister give way?

Social homes are clearly crucial. The figures that I gave were for all-tenure house builds. In every single year of a Labour Government, we built, on average, 5,000 more houses. The shortfall, which is set out by Homes for Scotland, has resulted in the housing crisis and the chronic lack of supply that we have today.

I appreciate that the Government wants to set out the action that it plans to take to tackle the crisis. However, I do not understand why it has proposed deleting the entire motion to add its own actions. Why not acknowledge the emergency that exists and then set out the actions that it plans to take to address it? What is the Government’s problem with accepting that the emergency exists?

My colleagues at Westminster have been highlighting that economic illiteracy and will sweep that Government out of office and make changes for the better for this country. I want to talk about the Scottish Government’s responsibility and the action—or inaction—that has led to the housing emergency that it seems the entire country, apart from the Scottish Government, accepts we are in the grip of.

We cannot accept an amendment that denies the emergency, and we cannot accept an amendment that deflects and offers nothing new, because the facts set out that we are in the grip of a housing crisis on a national scale. There are 9,500 children in temporary accommodation—many of them for up to one year—and the number of people who are homeless is the highest on record, with another household made homeless every 16 minutes. By the time that I and the minister have spoken, two more households in this country will have been made homeless. There are 60,000 households at risk of repossession and 200,000 households languishing on waiting lists, and, despite an emergency rent freeze, rents have rocketed by 12 per cent in the past year and are increasing faster in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK.

Earlier today, Anas Sarwar and I met Shelter’s helpline team, who are on the front line in supporting people who are being made homeless. Day in and day out they support people with nowhere else to turn, who have been failed by councils that are, ultimately, running out of cash as they deal with the housing emergency. We heard about a person who had been sleeping in an out-of-use caravan in a mechanic’s yard. It had no electricity, water or heating, and, when the council found out, the person was told that there was no accommodation available, until a solicitor got involved. A woman with three children was moved from hotel to hotel for months and was forced to share a bedroom with her teenage children, and no adaptations were made for one of the children, who was using a wheelchair.

Most shockingly, we heard of a woman who has been in temporary accommodation for 10 years—she has spent 10 years in temporary accommodation. What is worse is that her six-year-old child has spent their entire life in temporary accommodation. That six-year-old has no concept of what a safe, secure place to call home is. That is an appalling indictment, and the fact that the Government cannot accept that there is a housing emergency when we have people in such circumstances is beyond belief.

My inbox, like those of many others in the chamber, is stuffed full of examples of families, children, and younger and older people who are stuck without somewhere that they can call home. Such stories are repeated across every part of the country, every day of the week. In recent weeks, I have heard from a woman with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease whose home is making her ill, a young family who have cut spending to the bone but are still a matter of weeks away from losing the roof over their heads, and a teenager who was kicked out of home and who is now couch surfing. Those are all devastating and miserable examples of how desperately people in need of a home in Scotland are living today.

However, rather than dealing with the scale of the problem, the Government is systematically underestimating the country’s needs. Councils have been set the task of finding land for a minimum of 200,000 homes over the next decade. Members might think that that number of homes would make a dent in the housing emergency—but only if it was the right number. Last week, Homes for Scotland revealed new data at its conference, which the minister attended, that would terrify any responsible Government into action—but not, it seems, this Government. Homes for Scotland is concerned that local development planning guidance will drastically underestimate real housing need, so it has commissioned a primary research-led report into the true housing need in Scotland in order to support planners. Measuring the number of people in the most extreme circumstances and counting only people who are in overcrowded and concealed households, as well as those who are homeless and in temporary accommodation, ignores the full picture. The Homes for Scotland survey of 14,000 Scottish households found that 28 per cent of Scottish households—700,000—have some form of housing need, which is far higher than the Government’s official estimate of 200,000.

Good morning. I am really interested in the discussion that we have had on non-domestic rates and the small business relief scheme, and how the proposal that we are considering might—if it goes through—impact on the income that is generated for councils. All three council reps have talked about the modelling on the income that they might receive as a result of the proposed measure. Are you at all concerned about behaviour change, with second home owners switching to short-term lets so that they become eligible for small business rates relief, which would have an impact on the income that you generate? Have you done any modelling on that as part of your calculations?

Do any of our council colleagues online wish to comment?

Yes—thank you.