Ready for change

The Scottish Labour Party conference took place at the weekend, and it was very successful event which now frames Labour as the only party in Scotland willing to offer real, radical and bold change.

This was witnessed in Richard Leonard’s first speech as leader of the party.

One of his key commitments is to tackle and end the housing crisis which blights Scotland, resulting in far too many people paying extortionate rents in the private sector or leaving hundreds of thousand on social housing waiting lists.

The Scottish Labour leader announced that the party will bring forward legislation at Holyrood to reform the private rented sector.

The proposed ‘Mary Barbour law’, named after the heroic Glasgow woman who led rent strikes for better housing, will link rent to average wages to ensure they are affordable, give tenants the power to challenge unfair rents or submit rent reduction claims and ensure that all private rented sector properties meet proper standard for health and safety and energy efficiency.

It is also fundamental that more social houses are built to reduce waiting lists, as almost one in 10 households in Scotland are currently waiting for public housing.

When Scottish Labour was last in power we built 61,000 homes for social rent in Scotland.

When we gain power again, we will build again.

Not only by funding local Housing Associations not only by stimulating housing co-operatives which we will do, but by restoring powers to local councils as well.

It is only with Labour that Scotland’s housing crisis will end, meeting the housing needs for the many, not the few.