Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
COUNCIL COMMENT Housing priority pays off
As a councillor, one of the saddest parts of the job for me is the time it takes local people to be offered a council house.
This is not the fault of the area housing office, where the staff work very hard to help everyone.
Almost 40 years ago, Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government brought in legislation which enabled council tenants to buy their own council homes.
This policy remained until the Scottish Government removed it last year. I am aware not everyone agreed with the selling of council housing , but it was very popular.
It was only when the SNP came to power that they started to do something about the lack of council housing; they set about building the first council dwellings in Scotland for many years.
It was a shame in the intervening years, successive Tory, Labour, and Lib-Labour governments couldn’t have done more to help.
Over a year ago, you may remember North Lanarkshire Council announced an expansion of its housebuilding programme.
This will mean nearly 2150 homes will be built by 2026. As I say, this is information you may already be aware of, what you may not know is the SNP Government will provide almost £115 million toward these homes, which is 35 per cent of the total spend.
Among other Scottish Government funding for the council, is the Heeps scheme to provide insulation for houses in greatest financial need.
Scotland now has the highest housebuilding rate for the UK and over the current Scottish Parliamentary term, the Scottish Government will be investing £3 billion to deliver at least 50,000 new affordable homes, and at least 30,000 of these will be for social rent.
If the rest of the parties had been able to do this sooner, we would have been in a better position today.
As you may be aware, there is currently a Labour leadership contest in Scotland. Recently one of the two leadership rivals had the cheek to call on the Scottish Government to clear the Labour PFI debt.
Although this payment scheme was introduced by the Tories in the 90s, it was Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown who embraced it big time, and left us with a huge amount of PFI debt in Scotland which, according to a Sunday newspaper last year, could end up as high as £30 billion.
I know we will get Labour politicians talking about all the new schools in North Lanarkshire, saying we wouldn’t have these buildings without PFI, and “it was the only game in town” was a common phrase used at the time by Labour.
Surely there had to be a better way, after all under the Scottish Government (SFT) scheme, health boards will pay a great deal less interest than the enormous PFI debt they will have to pay back because of Labour.
Another point worth making about PFI is every year Labour complain about cuts by the Scottish Government, but just think what could have been saved without PFI interest to pay. This has been a major expense for the various health boards and councils, and again just think what could have been done if we did not have the Labour PFI debt.
In my last column, I mentioned I was looking forward to attending the commemoration of John Carmichael’s Victoria Cross, which he was awarded in Belgium in 1917.
I was delighted to be in New Monkland Church that morning, hearing about his achievements and the reasons behind his award. He was a very brave man indeed.
Recently I attended a Macmillan Cancer Support coffee morning in Tollbrae Primary. The head teacher, her staff and pupils made us feel very welcome, and children from one of the classes spoke about the background and history of Macmillan. Just like last year, there will be a great deal of much-needed money sent to the charity from Tollbrae.
Scotland now has the highest housebuilding rate for the United Kingdom