Housing is crucial. We need more affordable homes Emma Roddick, SNP
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Emma Roddick decided on a life in politics after campaigning for independence in 2014.
The 23-year-old mental health activist and councillor is the SNP’s top list candidate for the Highlands and Islands.
Emma voted for the first time at the age of 16 in the independence referendum.
She said: “I was gutted by the result. I realised I still wanted to be involved in politics and to campaign about other issues. I went to a SNP meeting, a Green meeting and a Socialist to figure out where I belonged. I joined the SNP.”
She worked for the Scottish Ambulance Service before being elected to Highland Council at the age of 19.
She is the party’s spokesperson for housing on the local authority and welcomed the SNP’s manifesto pledges to give councils the power to limit second homes and to build more affordable housing. Roddick said: “So many people I went to school with have had
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Glasgow, Edinburgh or even England for a job, saving up and getting a place to live.
“It’s not entirely due to a shortage of bricks and mortar. In parts of Wester Ross, 50% of the housing is holiday, second home and short-term let accommodation.”
She has also vowed to campaign on land reform, saying: “In the manifesto there is a presumption towards community buyouts for major pieces of land that go on the market.
“That could really transform places in the Highlands. We need more transparency in landownership but also more diversity in who owns the land.”
Roddick said more young politicians were needed to shake up Holyrood: “People talk to me about experience, but 90% of the time experience means age, and that doesn’t necessarily match up. Experience in politics isn’t always a good thing. You need a new perspective coming in to challenge it and say, ‘Do we need to be doing that or is that something you’ve all just got used to?’”