Action needed on our housing crisis
Housing crisis deepened by rocketing rates
THE shocking 11 per cent rise in private rents is a perfect example of how we’ve ended up in a housing emergency.
Runaway rents while we’ve struggled and failed to build enough affordable homes and social housing to meet demand. Never-ending council house waiting lists while homelessness climbs to record levels – and the national scandal of 10,000 homeless kids living in temporary accommodation.
All this while soaring house prices means buying a property is simply not an option for hundreds of thousands of Scots. Housing and poverty campaigners are right to say that without urgent action, this problem will only get worse.
Clearly, Scottish Government attempts to tackle this issue, such as their rent freeze followed by the three per cent rent cap, haven’t been sufficient. What we need is for supply to meet demand. What we need is more affordable, warm homes – for everyone.
Unfortunately, what we got from SNP and Green MSPs last month was a £196million cut to the affordable housing budget. With the state of the public finances, along with Holyrood’s limited tax-raising and borrowing powers, few politicians would envy Scottish ministers in their bid to balance the books.
But with already-squeezed councils up and down the country declaring housing emergencies – Fife set to become the latest – it seems like one of the last things that should have faced the axe.
Every Scot should have the right to a roof over their head. No one should be left sleeping rough in the cold. That’s why we need real action and real cash to build more homes and more social housing.
Not a £200million cut to these vital schemes.
HOUSING campaigners have reacted with fury after private rents spiked by nearly 11 per cent in a year.
The average rent in Scotland was at £944 a month in February – up by £93, an inflation-busting 10.9 per cent, on 2023, the Office for National Statistics found.
Activists slammed the “runaway rents” – as a fourth local authority prepares to declare a housing emergency.
Fife councillors will meet in Glenrothes today amid “extreme pressures on housing and homelessness” and are expected to follow Edinburgh, Glasgow and Argyll and Bute by formally announcing an emergency.
Homelessness among Scots has risen to record levels of more than 30,000 – with 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation. Lack of affordable housing has shot up the political agenda after SNP and Green MSPs last month voted through a £196million cut to the housing budget.
Campaigners warned the latest data showed the cuts will “make an already desperate situation even worse”.
Shelter Scotland director Alison Watson said: “Runaway rents in the private rented sector are one of the symptoms of Scotland’s devastating housing emergency.
“The only long-term solution to tenants paying excessive rents is to make social housing accessible and available to more people.”
Ruth Boyle of the Poverty Alliance added: “Rents in Scotland have been running ahead of inflation for years.” Scotland’s rent rises are higher than the UK average of nine per cent.
Yet it comes as inflation dropped to 3.4 per cent last month – meaning rent increases stand at three times the rate of inflation.
In-tenancy rents are subject to the Scottish Government’s rent cap and eviction ban.
But critics claim the SNPGreen policy has caused landlords to massively jack up rents between tenancies.
It comes as Fife Council is set to declare a housing emergency.
A motion, tabled by Labour’s Judy Hamilton, warns rates of homelessness and children in stopgap accommodation are “worryingly high”.