SNP and Labour in denial of reality on homelessness - Sue Webber

Homelessness is all around us, says Sue Webber

Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, there has been a staggering 90 per cent increase in the number of households in temporary accommodation, from 2010 to 3817 in March this year. Literally thousands of families living on the edge of uncertainty.

It’s a similar story in West Lothian where 694 households were waiting for a permanent home, a 56 per cent rise from March 2020.

In the midst of this crisis, there was much handwringing in a Scottish Parliament debate this week about the cause. But from the SNP, whose responsibility this is, there was precious little by way of practical solutions except holding out the begging bowl to Westminster.

And it was bitterly ironic that the debate was led by Scottish Labour, which has been in administration in Edinburgh for the past 12 years and must shoulder the responsibility for failing to honour the promises it made, and for a local plan which relies on unaffordable compulsory purchase orders to meet housing targets.

In 2017 the SNP-Labour administration in Edinburgh said it would, “Deliver a programme to build at least 10,000 social and affordable homes over the next five years, with a plan to build 20,000 by 2027,” which was pie-in-the-sky from the start. But when they could no longer deny it was unachievable, they claimed it was only a commitment to deliver a programme, not actually build the homes.

This kind denial of reality is evident just now with the SNP’s Housing Bill, a refusal to accept their plans for more rent controls, tougher energy efficiency requirements and repair regulations are persuading investors to take their money elsewhere.

Everyone agrees the core problem is insufficient supply to meet demand, and there are four basic requirements to tackle the crisis – enough land, faster planning, enough skilled labour, and the money – but without the latter, nothing is possible. The government or councils should just build the houses themselves, say left-wingers, but where does the money come from?

Even putting taxes up again wouldn’t cover it, so the money would need to be borrowed, but from whom and at what rate? There is simply no getting away from the need for investment and with unfavourable legislation, the vital capital simply goes elsewhere.

For example, in an interview last weekend, Drum Property Group chief Graeme Bone, whose company is involved with plans for the new West Town at Ingliston, pointed out they are investing in Manchester and Leeds, money which he admitted is badly needed here.

The answers to the housing shortage are available to the SNP in Holyrood and Labour in the City Chambers, but if they cannot resist the temptation to interfere, dictate and tinker, there will never be enough money to do what’s necessary.

Most laughable of all was the Green Party claim that the problem was the “financialisation” of the housing market, as if somehow money and cost could be taken out of the equation. As long as that sort of argument is taken seriously, thousands of families will never be able to call somewhere their permanent home.

Sue Webber is a Scottish Conservative Lothian MSP