Homes for all

I read your article about the Social Bite housing project in Edinburgh’s Granton district (Scotsman Online) and can’t understand why our MSPS are so reluctant to make it a priority to fund a way to scale this up and make the huge dent in housing availability and price that the whole UK, not just Scotland, is crying out for.

Of all my 13 cousins, I was the only one brought up in a brick council house – the rest lived

in prefabs, which were luxurious to their parents, used to tiny houses and outside toilets. The Granton houses are palaces compared to prefabs.

Councils should reject the sham of the “affordable housing” stitch up between giant housebuilders and unaccountable social housing organisations and find a way to finance and manage the huge, cheap housing projects we need.

House prices have risen seventeenfold in real terms since 1969. This is a major reason for the decline in birthrate and education standards when both parents have to work to pay enormous rent or mortgage, transport and childcare costs and are so stressed and exhausted that they don’t have time to spend with their kids.

I reckon the party, or parties, that come up with demonstrable solutions to this would walk away with the 2021 Holyrood election.

ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven