We’ll build 12,000 new social homes for rent every year

Tackling housing crisis will help all communities, says left-winger

SCOTTISH Labour leadership contender Richard Leonard is calling for a pension-funded scheme to help build 12,000 new social homes for rent each year.

Leonard’s ambitious proposal is among wide-ranging plans to improve living standards, control rent and help people out of fuel poverty.

The left-winger wants to use a Scottish Investment Bank to invest in housing. He also proposes using public sector pension funds to establish a Scottish Public Provident Fund to invest in local infrastructure.

His 12,000 annual target is higher than the SNP’s promise to build 35,000 over the course of this five-year parliament.

Leonard’s other proposals include extending Scottish Housing Quality Standards from social homes to the private sector to help ensure properties are “warm and safe”. He wants to use compulsory purchase powers to take back unused land, telling developers: “If they don’t use it, they will definitely lose it.” Rent control has already been proposed to link with an “affordability index”. Leonard, below, said: “Tackling the housing crisis isn’t just about bricks and mortar, it’s also about creating warm, safe, quality homes. “I want people to have a place that isn’t just a house but a home to call their own – a home where residents can live healthy, fulfilling lives as part of thriving communities. But th e reality for too many people is that they are being overcharged, unable to get a foot on the ladder and left waiting on never-ending lists.

“This housing crisis cuts across every community and must end in order to not only eradicate poverty but to see Scotland thrive.”

Leonard said his proposals are radical and will need imaginative new funding methods.

He said: “I am committed to finding that investment through the new borrowing powers of the Parliament and proactively and innovatively working with trade unions and others to create a Scottish Public Provident Fund, using public sector pensions funds, to invest in infrastructure.

“This would create thousands of jobs, help solve our housing crisis while still guaranteeing a return for the pension funds.”

The use of pension funds has been suggested before, including by the union Unison.

Falkirk council used a pension fund to invest in housing in 2015.