Addressing Scotland’s housing problems

The SNP recently held its 75th Annual conference in Inverness, marking a welcome return to the capital of the Highlands five years after the last time we held a conference there. It was an excellent chance to meet party members from across Scotland, discuss policy and take part in debates, but it also saw an announcement that will be particularly welcome to many people who currently struggle to access council housing.

During Nicola Sturgeon’s excellent keynote speech on the final day of the conference, she announced proposals for the right to buy council homes to be dropped for new tenants. Since its introduction 30 years ago, almost half a million homes in Scotland have been sold at a discount under the policy.

With so many homes being taken out of the social rented sector, waiting lists for council accommodation have risen inexorably to the point where today there is a real and pressing shortage of affordable rented housing. Under the previous administration we found ourselves in the ludicrous situation where just six council houses were built in the whole of Scotland during the four years prior to the SNP taking office.

The Scottish Government is reversing this decline and saw nearly 5,000 new affordable homes built last year, the highest number in 15 years. However, there is little point in building new local authority housing if it is swiftly sold and thereby removed from the reach of people who are unable to afford home ownership. The Scottish Government has a responsibility to help those who cannot afford to buy homes and ending the right to buy for new tenants will do just that. The rights of existing council tenants would not be affected.

Housing problems are one of the most common issues that constituents in Banff & Buchan and indeed across Scotland face, and there is clearly a pressing need to kick start construction of a new generation of council accommodation across Scotland. The Scottish Government has been taking meaningful action since it was elected, and the planned end to the right to buy will help ensure that action continues. Over the next decade, it would safeguard 18,000 houses that would otherwise be sold off for future generations and ensure that their availability for affordable rent is not lost.

The housing situation that so many people face is simply unacceptable and I am glad that the Scottish Government is determined to take real action where previous administrations have failed.

Protecting Attendance Allowance

The UK Government has recently been making worrying noises about the future of Attendance Allowances, the benefit that helps severely disabled pensioners pay for the additional costs of disability. If their proposals were to go ahead some of the most vulnerable people in society would lose over £70 per week, money that they fundamentally rely upon.

There are currently 145,000 people in Scotland that receive Attendance Allowance and would be affected by the UK Government’s proposals. The UK Government is looking to fill a growing financial black hole in the care system south of the border through cutting a benefit that is also received in Scotland. It is extremely short sighted and will push a large number of vulnerable people into poverty.

The Treasury may be desperately seeking ways to cut costs and pay for the Downing Street downturn, but it cannot be right that it is disabled pensioners that they want to pay for it. These proposals are clearly not the answer and the UK Government must abandon them before they cause irreparable harm to thousands of pensioners in Scotland.