 Mae'rwyf yn gwelwyr i gafodd arwyrgynghwyllfa ni,awsweld i ddefnyddio'r Llandrhodd ar y pwn. Mae'n gael grafion i chi fyddai'ch ddeudu'r ddweud ymddangos, i fod gydym ni'n bywch i gael ar fynd, ac yn rhoi'r rhwyloedd, yn rhoi'r rhwyloedd, byddiau i vessels o'r lledd yn y cyflau ac yn cymdeilio'r rhyfynnau anhygoel. Ar gyfer, iddynt i gennym ni wrth gyrraedd eu cyfliwyr syddion nhw i ddeudu y ddeud y dweud ac â'r gweithwyr yn ei dweud. Ysgolwch Llandon i Gŷrw, Cresys, Yngrifeswyr, Yngrifeswyr, Yngrifeswyr, Yngrifeswyr, yw'r ddweud o'r lleidwadau o'r oeddiadau, a'u gweithfodol oeddiadau i gael y dweud. Mae'n edrych yn cyflaen i gael y dweud i'r dweud i'r dweud i'r dweud i'r dweud i'r dweud. Mae oedd yn cael ei dweud i'r dweud i'r dweud. ac yn rhescytynogi ar gyfer colla gwaith, sy'n dweud hynny. Mae gwybod y byw o'n chyfl abnormalenol i gyfnodig y Government i gywir i gweithio ac i gyfrindd o'r meddwl amser mewn gwnaeth y mae'n cyfrinddau. Rwy'n credu i gweithio oherwydd i gweithio'r busau yn grifetig y Gweithfyniadau gydwyddiant a'u bwysig o'r gweithfyniadau yma yn Gweithfynsdach. Mae'r busau i amfasyn oherwydd oherwydd i gweithfyniadau i Gwladol, It is his Government, and it is his responsibility to fix it. mill sadlu the minister isn't prepared to do what his SNP colleagues in Edinburgh and Argyll and Bute have faced up to? Yr Gael yn but. I am grateful to Mr Griffin for giving way. He rather glided past the question of economic illiteracy E'n the United Kingdom government. I do not think that it really helps the debate for Mr Griffin to obscure the fact that we are all living with the consequences of some absolutely devastating macroeconomic decisions made by the United Kingdom Government over many years, but principally in the many budget last September. Letyrsau economiol yn ei ddweud o'r quriffyn? My colleagues at Westminster have been highlighting that economic literacy, and we'll sweep that Government out of office and make changes for the betterment for this country. What I want to talk about here is this Government's responsibility, action or inaction that has but it seems the entire country accepts we are in the grip of apart from this government. So we can't accept the amendment which denies that emergency. We can't accept our amendment that deflects and offers absolutely nothing new because, Presiding Officer, the facts set out that we are in the grip of a housing crisis and that is a national scale. 9,500 children in temporary accommodation, many of them for up to a year. Homeless numbers, the highest on record. Another household made homeless every 16 minutes. By the time I've spoken and the minister has spoken, there will be two more households made homeless in this country. 60,000 households at risk of repossession. 200,000 households languishing on waiting lists. Despite an emergency rent trees, rents have rocketed 12 per cent in Scotland in the last year, increasing faster than anywhere else. Earlier today, an Asarwar and I met with Shelter's helpline team. Those on the front line supporting those being made homeless. DnD out there supporting people with nowhere else to turn. Failed by councils who are ultimately running out of cash dealing with this housing emergency. We heard about the person sleeping in an out-of-use caravan in a mechanic's yard. No electricity, water or heating. When the council found out, they were told there was no accommodation available until a solicitor got involved. A woman with three children moved from a hotel to a hotel, forced to share a bedroom with her teenage children and no adaptations provided for her child who was in a wheelchair. I think most shockingly, we heard of a woman who has been in temporary accommodation for 10 years. 10 years in a temporary accommodation. What was worse, that woman has a six-year-old child. That six-year-old child has spent their entire life in temporary accommodation. That six-year-old has no concept of what a safe, secure place to call home is. That's an appalling indictment. The fact that the Government cannot accept that there's a housing emergency when we have people in circumstances like that is beyond belief. My own inbox, like many others in the chamber today, is full of examples of families, children, younger and older people stuck up without somewhere they can call home. The stories that I've got in that inbox, like I say, are repeated right across every part of the country every day of the week. In recent weeks I've heard from a woman who has a COPD, whose home was making her ill. A young family that has cut spending to the absolute bone but they are still a matter of weeks away from losing the roof over their heads. The teenager kicked out of their house now couchsurfing. Devastating and miserable examples of how desperately people are living in need of a home in Scotland today. But rather than dealing with the scale of the problem, the Government is systematically underestimating the country's needs. Councils have been set the task to find land for a minimum 200,000 homes over the next decade. You would think that 200,000 would make a dent in this housing emergency but only if that was the right number. New data revealed last week by Homes for Scotland at their conference, which the Minister attended, would terrify any responsible Government into action, but it seems not this Government. They are concerned that local development planning guidance will drastically underestimate real housing needs, so they have commissioned primary research-led report into the true housing needed in Scotland to support planners. Counting the number in the most extreme circumstances, only measuring those in overcrowded and concealed households and those in homeless temporary accommodation ignores that full picture. Their survey of 14,000 Scottish households finds that 28 per cent of Scottish households, which means that 700,000 have some form of housing need, far, far higher than the official 200,000 estimate. I thank the member for taking the intervention. As I will say later on, I have some sympathy with the scale of the challenge, but real leadership requires sound policies to resolve it. The SNP has built, I believe, 124,000 social and affordable homes since 2007. What would Labour do? We would build more. Labour's record in government. We built an average of 5,000 houses more every single year in office than this Government has managed to do. That is the culmination of Scotland's housing crisis, a shortage in supply that has been overseen by this Government's failure to deliver the houses that we need. That has been evidenced by those right across the sector, Homes for Scotland shelter. A whole range of organisations who specialise in it have consistently said that this Government has failed to deliver the housing numbers that this country needs. Whoever you speak to, whether it is shelter, Homes for Scotland, housing conveners across the country, they have all been told that the Minister is in listening mode. However, the response to this debate shows that the Government has not done a lot of listening and that it is definitely not acting. People right across the country need and want an immediate emergency response at a scale that we have not seen before. The long-term answer to this is simple. It will be ended by increasing in supply the number of houses across all tenures through building more homes. In both Edinburgh and Ergeline Butes declarations, they said that the lack of supply is the significant problem, so building more homes across all tenures is a key part of the solution. However, it is the SNP Government in action that is exacerbating the emergency, finding reasons not to act. It refuses to set the all-tenure house-building target that Homes for Scotland has called for, targets that could focus Government and industry, co-ordinate action to tackle this crisis. The Minister's amendment talks of working on the task and finish group recommendations, but it is his officials who are in charge who are telling him that the Government cannot commit to an interim social house-building target. The Government trumpets housing completions, but the number of social homes has dropped by 24 per cent compared to last year. Its chances of picking up the pace are dire because the numbers of homes that have been approved has plummeted by 50 per cent. The Government has to double what it is doing now to have any chance of maintaining the number of homes that it plans to build. At the same time, the number of empty homes has jumped by 1,500 in the past year, but it still has not delivered an escalating council tax surcharge. Worse still, since it set its 110,000 target, the Government has seen an exodus of staff from the very team tasked with delivering more homes. The Minister's own department has been sounding the alarm for months now, and it is an open secret that there is a high risk that affordable housing targets could be missed altogether. Despite mortgage rates rocketing, we are almost two years into a review into the homeowner support fund, with still no new support for people struggling with their mortgage payments. Government in action, time and time again making this emergency worse, strangling the pipeline, failing to deliver the homes that we need and looking at the consequences. Given half the chance to accept that there is a need to take drastic action, the Government is looking the other way. The finance secretary said yesterday that the Government is broke, but the truth is that, with relentless cuts to council budgets, they are trying to tackle this crisis with one hand behind their backs. I have heard from constituents destitute in their homes because they can not or will not be rehomed. An amputee who cannot get out of his building, the pensioner on the top floor with mobility needs, told that they are adequately housed but left with little option than presenting as homeless. In East Lothian, we have heard in the minister's backyard, they have said that they cannot take any more homes because the revenue demands to run schools and services are too high. The Edinburgh and Argyllin but have faced up to reality, but every part of this country is facing a housing emergency. Everyone can see it, everyone can feel it apart from those and those houses. It is time for the Government to admit that there is a housing emergency in Scotland and to support the motion that I move in my name. I remind those who are looking to participate in the debate that I have not already done so to press the request-to-speak buttons. I call Paul McGliney to speak to and move amendment 11351.2, Minister, up to eight minutes, please. I welcome this debate, this afternoon's debate on housing. This Government has three missions, equality, opportunity and community. I also thank stakeholders who have engaged with us today who I meet on a regular basis. Housing is a building block for success in all three. To tackle poverty and protect people from harm, we must have secure and affordable homes. For people to share in economic emergencies, they need the stability of a home. For communities to thrive and realise their full potential, people need a place to live in peace and indignity. Housing is at the heart of our social, emotional and economic lives. I am committed to giving housing and homelessness the support and attention that it deserves and has been doing so since it has been posted. I have met many experts in the sector. I have spoken to tenants in the private and social rented sectors. I have heard moving personal stories from people with lived experience of homelessness. I have met investors. What people tell me is that Scotland has the right housing targets, the right plan to end homelessness, but what they want is for me to use to keep those plans moving forward to maintain momentum with our targets to create the right environment for investment. I am proud of Scotland's record on housing, but we need to do much and want to do more. I want to focus on affordable homes. Our ambition is for everyone—not at the moment, but we have only got a limited time. Our ambition is for everyone to have a safe and affordable home that meets their needs. I will make progress. That is why we are making £3.5 billion available in this parliamentary term towards delivery of more affordable and social homes. Since 2007, we have worked with partners to deliver nearly 124,000 homes over which 87,000 were for social rent. I want to touch on the point that Mark Griffin made. In this period, Scotland has seen 40 per cent—not at the moment, but thanks—more affordable homes delivered by the head of population in England and over 70 per cent more than in Wales. Mark Griffin was asked about policy ideas by Kate Forbes, not at the moment, but thanks. We have delivered more. I will have a look at Labour's record. I have the figures here. Between 1999 and 2007, 43,500 affordable homes delivered and an average of 5,500. Between 2007 and 2023, 122,205 houses were delivered and an average of 7,638. An average of 40 per cent more per annum than in period 1999 to 2007. I would suggest that Mr Griffin checks his figures. Those are official figures that I have come through. I will give way to Mark Griffin. Social homes are clearly crucial. The figures that I said were all-tenure house builds. Every single year of a Labour Government, we built on average 5,000 more houses every single year. That shortfall, set out by Homes for Scotland, has resulted in the housing crisis and the chronic lack of supply that we have today. Government does not build private houses. We will help the private sector to do that, but we do not build private houses. Affordable homes, 40 per cent more delivery by the Scottish Government now than the previous Labour administration fact. I have got to make progress, thanks. Back in 2016, we also brought an end to the UK Government place policy of right to buy, which took more than half a million homes out of the social rented sector in Scotland. To my Tory colleagues, since ending the right to buy policy, we estimate that up to 15,500 homes have been protected and will remain available to renters. No, thanks. Looking forward, we are committed to delivering our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70 per cent will be available for social rent and 10 per cent will be in a rural and island communities. It is an ambitious target, but we are making progress. Since 23 March 2022, 13,500 homes have been delivered towards a target of which 10,500 are for social rent, including almost 23,000 council homes. We are taking concrete action to boost housing supply, but some matters are beyond our control. Whether we like it or not, inflationary pressures have not been speaking to developers 15 per cent to 20 per cent construction inflation. Our £752 million budget this year includes at least £60 million to support acquisitions—no, I am not going to take an acquisition—no, thanks. That will address high numbers of households in temporary accommodation. I recently published Rural on Island's House and Action Plan supports our commitment to delivering at least 10 per cent of our 110,000 target in rural and island communities. It marks an important step in tackling challenges to delivering more homes in rural and island areas. The plan includes a £25 million rural affordable housing plan for key workers over five years and a three-year package of support worth almost £1 million co-funded with a nation-wide foundation. That will go to community housing trust in south of Scotland community housing. I was up this morning investing in rural housing, a rural stilling housing association and talking about the difference that that action plan is beginning to make already. Between 2016 and 2017, we have supported delivery of more than 10,000 affordable homes in rural and island areas. We also talked about the importance of preventing homelessness. We have a world-leading approach to this. We are proud of our record on affordable housing supply, but we must also mitigate against the factors that contribute to housing precarity and homelessness. We see housing as a human right, and that is why we are taking a world-leading approach to preventing and denying homelessness. I will take it on that point. The reality is that the minister has just given us a catalogue of complacency. Why are there record levels of homelessness in Scotland? Why on earth can he not see the connection between the rent freeze that this Government imposed and the rising levels of rent and the rising levels of homelessness? He will touch on this. Just today, and thankfully just today, the chancellor obviously talked about scrapping the freeze on local housing allowance. The damage done over three years by your Government as an estimated £819 million cut to the allowance across the UK, coupled with cuts of £181 million to Scotland's capital budget. We are seeing a continuing trend in repeat homelessness. A decrease in homelessness from the private rented sector and reports of rough sleeping remain lower than at pre-pandemic levels. However, the housing and homelessness sectors are under great strain. The last year I have seen particularly difficult for them, and this was reflected in our latest homelessness statistics. We know that councils are making huge efforts to deliver services for people experiencing homelessness. However, recovery from the pandemic, a continuing list of cost-of-in crisis and over a decade of posterity from your Government, Mr Kerr, has put people, businesses and public finances in the third sector under unprecedented pressures. That is why we have to focus on the things that matter, and that is reducing the backlog in temporary accommodation. We recognise the challenges that are facing local authorities, which has been around the country meeting with thousands of conveners to how national local government can work together on solutions. We are acting on the recommendations of the expert temporary accommodation task and finish group, including investing in national acquisition plan. That is £60 million that was announced in July. We continue to support local authorities and registered social landlords to make use of their existing stock, to bring empty homes back into use and to increase allocations to homeless households. To support this activity, the Scottish Government has made an additional £2 million available to the 15 local authorities with the most significant temporary accommodation pressures. In the longer term, we know the best way to reduce the numbers and temporary accommodations to support people to stay in their homes and avoid the trauma of homelessness. We are introducing groundbreaking new homelessness prevention duties this parliamentary year, which are designed to improve the way local authorities and registered social landlords and public bodies cooperate to prevent homelessness. We all know that certain groups, including women experiencing domestic abuse, are piloting a £500,000 fund to leave to help women to leave an abusive relationship. We are also making £83 million available for condiscretionary housing payments this year. That money will be used to fully mitigate the UK Government's unfair bedroom tax, helping over 92,000 households in Scotland to stay in their homes. We have also committed to mediating the UK's benefit cap as fully as possible within the powers. That cap impacts over 2,700 families. It will be interesting to see what Labour's position is if it takes power next year while it will be on these, and I would hope that they would commit to that and hopefully hear that from Mr Griffin later on. In conclusion, many of the challenges facing Scotland's housing market today are born of disastrous decisions. The freezing of local housing allowance that we have talked about is a hard Brexit and a catastrophic mini-budget last year. That Government has been working hard to secure the uplift of local housing allowance and the advance of the UK budget statement today. I am relieved to hear that the Chancellor will be scrapping the freeze on the local housing allowance. That Government recognises the challenges faced by people like this young woman. We know that there is unmet housing need. People deserve better. We will continue to work in partnership with local authorities, with landlords and with housing developers to ensure that we have the right range and choice of homes to allow our communities to thrive. I thank Labour for bringing this debate to the chamber and I move the amendment in my name. The starting point for this debate is whether you agree that there is a housing emergency, and it appears that the Scottish Government does not think there is. This is despite overwhelming evidence and two councils declaring one in their own area, including the capital backed by SNP councillors. The Government's amendment is petty and it shows an administration that is out of touch with reality, and we will not support it. The evidence is compelling. The number of homeless applications has increased by 9% in 2022-23. 16,200 children were assessed or threatened with homelessness. Over 6,000 families have been stuck in temporary accommodation for more than a year. The longest amount of time a child has been stuck in temporary accommodation exceeds a year in most council areas. Of course, in Edinburgh City Council as this month overwhelmingly declared the housing emergency in the capital, the second council to do so, along with Argyll and Bute. At Edinburgh Council's housing convener said, by declaring a housing emergency, we hope to draw wide-scale attention to an issue that demands urgent and united action. Every single person deserves a warm, safe and affordable place to call home, and we can address this if we act now. Shelter Scotland director Alison Watson said of that declaration, Scotland is facing a housing emergency, which is at its most acute in the capital. That in itself should be enough for anyone to back the Labour motion. Not for the Government, though. Yes, I will. I thank the member for taking an intervention. Of course, one of the challenges around housing is how widespread the difficulties are, not least for owners who are in a position of struggling to afford their mortgages because, under a previous Tory leader, she crashed the economy, leaving people facing rocketing bills. What does he have to say to them? We need an all-tenure solution to the housing crisis, the housing emergency, which the Government denies. Shelter laid out the statistics in stark terms. A record 9,500 children trapped in temporary accommodation, that's up 130 per cent since 2014, 45 children becoming homeless every day, a household becoming homeless every 16 minutes, a 10 per cent increase in households becoming homeless compared to last year. Now, Presiding Officer, homelessness is at its worst when we have people sleeping rough on the streets, and that's on the rise again. It's at its worst when we have people having to use night shelters. We must commit to ending both. During the last session I was on the local government and communities committee, and we did an inquiry into homelessness. We visited Finland in October 2017 to look at that country's housing first model, and there they had virtually eliminated rough sleeping. We recommended that the Scottish Government adopted the same approach. For a time, it looked like they were on board, but now we seem to be slipping backwards. No one should have to sleep rough. No one should have to use a night shelter, but they do, and that's what makes it an emergency. So it's disappointing that the Government does not see it that way. It has its head in the sand. You can't begin to tackle a problem unless you first acknowledge the scale of it. You only have to listen to people like the Edinburgh students who I met this morning who describe an emergency for them in this city. One of the big issues for many years, of course, has been our very low rates of house building, and the Government amendment fails to recognise the need for more homes of all tenures or acknowledge that the delivery of private housing is also pivotal to delivering and unlocking affordable housing delivery. I haven't, well, you didn't take my intervention, Mr Clendon, so I won't take yours. No, we know that the SNP Government failed to meet its 50,000 affordable homes target on time in the last Parliament. We also know that the number of affordable homes approved has reached its lowest level in tenures, and social sector new build starts are 36% down on last year. The social housing sector needs to be a priority, and we should not forget the private rented sector, which has seen landlords bailing out and rents rising thanks to Patrick Harvie's ill-judged rent cap policy. Now, my amendment merely recognises that there is legislation on the way, and we simply suggest that it should be used as an opportunity to change things. And if anyone opposes the amendment, they will need to say what exactly the housing bill should be for if it is not to fix things. We've seen little in the way of detail so far about the bill, but it must tackle the issue that I've raised and it must do something to address the chronic under supply. Presiding Officer, denying the problem won't fix the problem. Is there a housing emergency? You bet there's a housing emergency. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I now call Willie Rennie up to six minutes. SNP members, including Kate Forbes, of course are right when they talk about the Liz Truss budget fund last year. It had a dramatic impact on household finances, and many people just simply couldn't afford their mortgage. Of course, construction costs have gone up, in part because of Brexit, but also because of that budget as well. There's no doubt also that demographics have changed. The demand for housing is going up quite steeply, and even though more houses, to be fair, are getting built, it's not meeting that demand. That's in part why we're seeing quite a dramatic impact on the housing situation in Scotland. We've also got the position of holiday homes, the short-term lets, which we've debated frequently, but also second homes, which is putting quite a lot of pressure on parts of the world, such as the east nuke, where I represent. Of course, student demand has changed, with more families being brought over with students from Africa in some parts of the country. All of that amounts to a really difficult situation. Huge pressures are applied, but I think that it's just unacceptable to, in the context of all that, not acknowledge that we do have a housing emergency. We've got a really difficult situation, yes, we'll take that. John Swinney. I'm grateful to Mr Rennie for giving me in. Before he leaves the circumstances and context in which we found ourselves, does he think that the prolonged austerity that was ushered in by the Liberal Democrats in 2010 has been a help or a hindrance in tackling the housing challenges that we face? Mr Swinney knows, because he was a particularly astute curator of the finances, that it was important to get the finances under control, but it's on the record that it was important to get the balance right between spend for the public purse and spend for the private citizen. Some mistakes, of course, were made during that period, but overall I don't think that Mr Swinney would deny that there were quite cataclysmic circumstances in which we found ourselves when we arrived in government. However, we are here today, and we are here dealing with a housing emergency. That has been part, and if Mr Swinney wishes to make that a partisan point, which I was seeking not to do, then I think it's important that we do recognise the failures of the Scottish Government in this regard, because they have not met the increasing and rising demand for housing. There's a couple in my constituency in their 60s that are sofa surfing. There are numerous disabled families, and they're not interested now, because we're talking about the difficulties that people are facing in their daily lives. However, there are disabled people right across my constituency who are crammed into overcrowded housing, not enough space for their equipment. It is in very difficult circumstances for them. Their quality of life has plummeted. We've got damp overcrowded houses, people surrounded by any social behaviour, disabled people living upstairs, which is completely unsuitable for their needs. We've got housing officers in Fife who are being increasingly blunt with my office, and they're saying that there just are no homes left. If that's not a housing emergency, I don't know what is. Of course it's not all the SNP's fault. Of course Liz Truss's budget is partly responsible. Of course the demographic changes are responsible as well. However, it doesn't negate the fact that we have an emergency, and we should acknowledge that, rather than complacently going on, I think that our plans are going to be enough. Just to address a point that Mr Innes has made, there have been calls today, I think, for Scotland to declare housing emergency. Whatever we decide to call it, and our respective decisions of local authorities have done that already, it's the actions that we take is the most important thing, and I think that it's keen to stress that. We do have a programme of action, and just for a point of context, we build— Minister, it needs to be brief. We build 40 per cent more heads of population in housing than in England, and 70 per cent more than Labour-controlled Wales. Willie Rennie. But it's clearly not enough. The people who are desperate of their houses don't listen to those statistics. They believe they've not got a home because they don't have a home. They've read that statistic, they'll have no more comfort. Now it may satisfy the housing minister, but it doesn't satisfy them. That's why we need to accept that there's a housing emergency. Now I think that this motion's good, but it's an opposition motion. I actually think that Cammie Day, an Edinburgh city council, and the leadership over Nargyll and Bute deserve huge credit because there's a bit of self-criticism involved in announcing a housing emergency in Edinburgh and Nargyll and Bute, because they're partly responsible for the situation that we're in. Wouldn't it be a really powerful statement today if the minister was to accept that although he claims he's doing more, it's clearly not enough and we have an emergency? That would bring some comfort to my constituents who are desperate for a home. They would get some comfort from a minister who acknowledges that more is required to be done for those 4,735 households that have children in them that are in temporary accommodation. The 29,600 homeless houses in the system, we've got 693,000 people in some kind of housing need. That's an emergency and especially when the news starts now understand the construction costs have gone up, which is making it difficult for housebuilders to build more, but they're down. The news starts are down 26 per cent when the demand is shooting right up, so we need to do so much more and we need to accept that we've got an emergency. That's what I'm hoping to hear from the minister today because I think he wants to sort this problem, but he won't sort it if he denies the reality. Thank you. We now move to the open debate. I call first Sarah Boyack to be followed by Kevin Stewart up to six minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to draw members' attention to my register of interest with my former employment. Edinburgh's housing shortage has been getting worse for years and on 2 November, as colleagues have acknowledged, the City of Edinburgh Council unanimously declared a housing emergency, recognising that we're in the depths of a housing crisis that is touching all aspects of society. It's one of the key issues where people ask me for help as a representative. I have families from all backgrounds contact to me about the powerless situation they find themselves in. We urgently need action investment because at the moment we're not getting them the homes they urgently need. As of 30 October this year, nearly 5,000 families are being housed in temporary accommodation up from 3,500 in March 2020, and that is only expected to rise as our population continues to grow. Despite Edinburgh being our capital as it has been acknowledged, we have the lowest proportion of social affordable rented homes compared to the rest of the country, only 16 per cent as opposed to the national average of 24 per cent. It's no surprise that people are struggling to find somewhere safe and affordable to live. A recent council report highlighted that for every available house that are on average there are 197 bids for every single available house. That means that time after time families are refused suitable housing because there simply are not enough homes available. The picture in the private rented sector is just as bad. We've lost homes to the short-term lit sector and Edinburgh is the highest private rented cost in Scotland, with average rentals in excess of £1,400 a month more than the Scottish average. That is only due to rise, and that's despite the rent freeze and the eviction ban passed. It's not just the financial burden that I want to crack on. It's also the missed economic opportunities to create jobs in our local communities and the supply chains. It's a massive human impact. The warm, safe, affordable accommodation is bedrock that everybody needs for their lives. The knock-on impact of not having somewhere safe and affordable to live is massive. Evidence by crisis suggests that, on average, 45 per cent of people who are homeless suffer from poor mental health, and that rises to 8 in 10 people who are rough sleeping. When someone's health begins to deteriorate their mental health within 72 hours of becoming homeless, it just illustrates how we need everyone to have access to that home. We know the impact of being homeless on a child can be catastrophic on their academic as well as their emotional well-being and their opportunities in life. With an estimated 9,000 children temporary accommodation across Edinburgh, 9,000 children, that's just Edinburgh alone where those children are being let down because the failure to deal with this housing emergency and think of being one of those kids' parents, the huge pressure they are under. We must do better and we must give everyone of those children and families the opportunity to learn, develop and have a safe home. This crisis goes way further than the number suggests. Students have been mentioned in the chamber today. That doesn't include the 14 per cent of students who have experienced homeless in Edinburgh this year at some point in their studies. We now have 100,000 students in Edinburgh. That is a significant number of young people who are either forced to sofa surf or commute from further afield, both of which scenarios are going to have a detrimental impact on their ability to learn. If we are going to solve the issue, we urgently need to act. Local authorities need additional support and resources if we are going to make the difference that we need. We need to bring more empty homes. Yes, I will on that particular point. I will try and be brief. A couple of times, the member knows that I meet the Edinburgh council on a regular basis. I was announced £60 million acquisition during the summer. Edinburgh is working with that just now. Does she acknowledge the partnership work that is required? Edinburgh acknowledged that it needs to do more around the 1500 empty homes that it has. We are working very closely with Edinburgh on that and on their allocations policy. It is not just about funding. The challenge is not people being willing to work together, whether it is the voluntary sector, councils or even talking to the minister. It is the finance. A small amount of money to bring some empty homes back into use is good, but local authorities need more resources so that we tackle that properly. We have now had several roundtables. The minister knows that in Edinburgh alone, with MSPs, tenants, students, universities, the council and key stakeholders coming together, but we need more than warm words. We need action now. I have met people on the streets. I have heard their personal stories about how they ended up homeless and the massive personal cost to them and their families. Preventing homelessness in the first place is critical. Our housing charities do an amazing job, but there are queues around the buildings where people get support. There are women who have ended up rough sleeping after domestic violence and there are families living in rooms with bedbugs and nowhere to cook food. We have a systemic crisis. This Parliament needs to come together and admit that and move to act because it is not the equality opportunity in community that the minister said he would like to see. Edinburgh saw a crisis, saw that it was facing this crisis and came across the parties to declare a housing emergency. Across Scotland, colleagues have seen significant pressures on families in their constituency, so Scotland is facing a housing emergency. We need to act and take Edinburgh's lead and look at the crisis that we are facing and start to invest, support our councils, our housing providers and end the thousands of empty homes that lie vacant for far too long. We need the Scottish Government to do the heavy lifting because without leadership our constituents are being let down and that is not acceptable. Kevin Stewart, to be followed by Pam Gozel, up to six minutes. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Housing plays a fundamental part in all of our lives. I have said this before and I will probably say it again that we must rise to the challenges that the future brings, whether that will be recovering from the pandemic, tackling climate change and achieving net zero and supporting our ageing population. We know that ensuring that every one of us has a home that meets our needs will be crucial. That means that we need to have homes that are accessible, affordable, warm and sustainable with a thriving community near the services that people rely on. Affordable housing can help to reduce poverty and inequality as people spend less of their income on housing costs and other essentials in life. That is why we have kept poverty levels down in Scotland because rents have been cheaper here. Also, living in a warm and affordable home helps health outcomes and improves educational attainment. Of course, in a warm, affordable home, we also feel more grounded in our communities. For individuals, for families that face homelessness, that is an emergency for them, that is a crisis for them, that is a reality. However, we have had a lot of discussion today about action and inaction. Some folk seem more than happy to forgive and forget some actions. Let us look at that in some depth. One of the problems that we have—I will give way to Mr Johnson. Daniel Johnson. I am very grateful to the member for giving way. He is just described as those circumstances being an emergency for those individuals. Why is it so difficult then to describe the situation for everyone facing those circumstances as being an emergency? I think that for each of those individuals, for all of those folks who are currently so far surfing or homeless, that is a crisis for them. That is what we need to do, to make sure that we get more houses in place to stop that kind of situation. However, a lot of folk are in crisis at this moment because of the cost of living, which nobody seems to be willing to talk about today. Brought on by the trust budget, which means that many folk who are now facing homelessness who never ever thought that they would face that are doing so because they can no longer pay their mortgages because of high interest rates, they cannot pay their energy bills, they cannot cope with food prices going up. However, that is something that many of us here today seem unwilling to talk about because it does not fit the agenda. In terms—I will give way to Mr Rennie. Willie Rennie. In fact, I am sure that he was listening because I did talk about that, but surely this Parliament should really be focusing on what we can do. Of course, we can send a message to Westminster, but what we should do should be our priority for today. Is he going to spend more time on that today? I am sure that he will spend more time on that and credit to Mr Rennie, because he did talk about those issues, Presiding Officers. Others did not. Let us look at action because the minister will be sitting at the front there, as I have done previously as a housing minister, and he will want to do as much as he possibly can. The reality is that the minister is bounded by the amount of finance that is available. Since I have been in this Parliament since 2011, we have seen constant capital cuts from the UK Government, which of course restricts the housing minister and other ministers who want to spend on capital projects. Let us look at what the Government has done and what the Government plans to do. If we look at the parliamentary term where I was housing minister, 2016-21, the ambition was to build 50,000 affordable homes during the course of that Parliament, and we would have done so if it had not been for Covid. The target itself was reached a year later in March 2022. 50,000 affordable homes was an immense target. I wanted to go further and faster, but the Government wanted to go further and faster. Unfortunately, the money that is available to the Government, to Mr Swinney and finance secretaries, was not there because Westminster kept cutting capital budgets. That is the reality. Even with that, we still have managed to build more affordable homes per head of population since 2007-08 than any other part of the UK. 13.9 homes per 10,000 population here in Scotland, 9.7 in England, 8 in Wales, 13 in Northern Ireland. I am sure that the minister sitting at the front would want to go much, much further than that, because I certainly would want to see that happen, too, but he is bounded by that finance. We also need to look at the reality of some of the things that have been said to the truth, because there was talk of inaction from the Labour benches and a lack of reality in terms of what they did. Inaction, there has been. There was inaction during the Labour Liberal years in terms of stopping the sale of council homes, which we did to help people, and they delivered much less affordable housing over the course of their tenure every year than this Government has done. We also have the shameful record of managing to build only six council homes in the past years in power. The housing to 24A visions and principles were shaped through extensive consultation. We need to move in that front. Hopefully, the minister will get more finance. Certainly, it has not come from the chancellor today, because, like everyone in the chamber, I think that he and I want to go further. I am pleased to be able to contribute to this debate about how we address Scotland's housing emergency, and I would also like to thank Labour for bringing such an important debate to the chamber today. I will support the Labour motion and amendment in the name of my colleague Graeme Simpson. Housing is everybody's business. Our problem with the housing system is the responsibility of all of us to fix. As we have heard already this afternoon, the evidence that Scotland is facing a housing emergency is absolutely clear. Earlier this year, Argyll and Bute Council in my region declared their own housing emergency. In recent meetings with several local authority chief execs, they were clear that housing supply was one of the biggest challenges, particularly due to the increasing number of homeless applications that they are having to deal with. Nobody in this day and age should be at risk of homelessness, but that is still something that thousands of people in Scotland are facing each year. There are currently 30,000 households in Scotland's homeless system, which is the highest level since records began. There has also been a 10 per cent increase in the number of households becoming homeless in the last year alone. As we have heard already today, there are also nearly 10,000 children currently in temporary accommodation, which has increased by 130 per cent since 2014. That is an emergency that has been developing for a long time. We know that the Scottish Government failed to meet its previous target of building 50,000 affordable homes by 2021. In 2021, the Scottish Government set a target of building 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. However, so far, progress towards the target has been mixed at its best. The number of affordable homes that have been approved has now reached the lowest level for 10 years. In the most recent quarter, social sector home starts have fallen by 36 per cent compared with the previous year. The biggest barrier at the moment is the cost of borrowing. It is high interest rates, construction inflation, which has been around 15 per cent to 20 per cent. The UK Government has to take its blame on that. It is the high cost of borrowing that is delaying that. I thank the member for that intervention. It is a global problem, but I want to say that I have been speaking to chief execs just last week. They have made it very clear that the Scottish Government is failing them. The onus lies right here in the Parliament with the Scottish Government, so I think that it would be good to listen to the rest of my speech and you will see how we can all work together. On that issue, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations has said that the strain on the supply of new affordable homes is coming at a time when the need for social homes is only becoming more acute. The SNP may be holding out hope that the introduction of additional council tax premiums for second homes will increase availability on homes for local residents, but the evidence on that is not so clear. A survey carried out by Property Mark found that most property agents did not believe that the policy would increase the sale of second homes. Property Mark also made clear that simply delivering more new homes would be a far more effective solution to housing shortages. On top of that, there have been missed opportunities within the planning system, too. When MPF4 was debated earlier this year, those benches were clear that the new planning framework failed to put Scotland's housing emergency front and centre of the planning system. Homes for Scotland have highlighted that MPF4 fails to deliver a workable plan for how a consistent pipeline of land for new housing can be provided in the long term. They also highlighted that MPF4 did not address the shortage of resources within the planning departments, which are causing huge delays for planning applications from home builders. Presiding Officer, while there are clearly problems with the supply of housing, our amendment highlights the opportunity that lies in the forthcoming housing bill. As members have set out today, there are many problems with Scotland's housing sector to which there are several possible solutions. Legislation is one such possible solution. As a member of the local government housing and planning committee, I look forward to the introduction of this bill next year, and I stand ready to take evidence from key stakeholders and scrutinise the bill constructively. I am hoping that the bill can deliver the changes that the housing sector needs, and the onus now lies upon the SNP Government to ensure that this bill delivers on this potential. In conclusion, Presiding Officer, Scotland is facing a housing emergency. Today's debate is an opportunity for the Scottish Government to accept this. By accepting today's motion and our amendment, the SNP could send a clear signal that it is treating this issue with the seriousness that it deserves, but the onus will still lie with the Scottish Government to act now. That action needs to include empowering our councils to fulfil their obligations to prevent homelessness, ensuring that councils have both the framework and resources that they need to deliver new homes in every part of Scotland, and revising the current slowdown in the supply of new housing. By taking steps such as this, this Government will be able to prevent this housing emergency from truly becoming a crisis. I need to reinforce the fact that we have no time in hand, so it is up to six minutes. I also encourage the front benches to stop carrying on discussions while somebody is on their feet speaking. Ben Macpherson, we follow by Rhoda Grant up to six minutes. At this issue, housing is the most serious issue in my constituency, and arguably for my generation and those younger. It is for them that I speak today. Presiding Officer, it is true and widely recognised that there is a housing crisis in the UK, including in parts of Scotland, which includes Edinburgh Northern and Leith, my constituency. However, what is equally true is that this crisis is decades in the making, context matters. It started way before devolution. It is true that the right to buy created problems that we are still dealing with today. It is true that, in a time of plenty and buoyant public finances, the new Labour Government could and should have done more. It is true that the coalition Government of the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives austerity agenda did impact on the housing challenges that we face in the here and now. It is true that the public finance challenge that we face at the moment does constrain what we can action in this very serious situation. The crisis across the UK is wide-reaching. It is about quantity, quality and price. It is complex, it is monetary, it is fiscal and it is all of our responsibility. Looking at that challenge in 2007, the Scottish Government rightly committed to a significant affordable house-building agenda and investment in our shared national infrastructure. That has culminated again in the context of a period of a recession and austerity agenda, a Brexit that Scotland did not vote for, a pandemic, a situation of global conflict that impacted prices in terms of materials and a disastrous Conservative trust government that plunged the public finances into turmoil. In all of that context, the Scottish National Party Government built around 124,000 new affordable homes, including the Leith Fort in my constituency and Ongoing Works in Granton. It ended the right to buy so that we are constantly topping up the quantum of affordable housing in Scotland, which is why our figures are so much higher than other parts of the UK, including in Labour-run Wales. However, we need more. That is true and that is what we are focused on today. That is why it is excellent that the Scottish Government is committed and focused despite the challenge of the financial scenario that we are in to building 110 affordable homes, at least 70 per cent for social rent. In that context, we are in a shared position of greater success in Scotland, but I need to do more. We need to recognise in those circumstances that parts of Scotland are facing a different challenge. Edinburgh is in a housing emergency, but there are also figures and there is evidence that our records on tackling poverty are better, particularly in other parts of Scotland, because of the investment that the Scottish Government has made in affordable housing. I welcome this shared time today to discuss the collective challenge of what is happening in Scotland, but as Edinburgh Northern and Leiths MSP, I am sure that she would expect me to focus on the emergency that we have in Edinburgh, because we do need specific attention to areas that have the highest level of challenge. In Edinburgh, we have one of the lowest proportions of social housing in Scotland and we have experienced one of the highest rates of population growth in recent years. That is reflected in my case work week after week. The challenge that that creates is growing higher and higher. Figures supplied by Shelter show that there are over 6,000 live homeless applications on 31 March 2023. That is a 17 per cent increase compared with the date a year before. Those figures are on the Scottish Government figures. I would not disagree with the historical analysis, but there is a crisis right across Scotland. Do you agree that we need to tackle planning? We need to give local authorities far greater powers in order to be able to get in the land, and we need to have a skills revolution. Edinburgh has specific challenges that need specific attention. I think that the Government needs to look at the strategic housing investment plan and the affordable housing supply programme on how it can target and focus on areas with the greatest need. As has been mentioned by the other member, we have an opportunity in the land reform bill coming to think about urban land reform and how we reduce the price of land for housing so that local authorities can compete when the private sector is trying to get that land because the demand is so high. That is a really high priority and it is right that Parliament's focus is on it. Particularly, the Government's focus should be on Edinburgh and I welcome the collaboration from the Government with me on that. There is a housing crisis in Scotland and many members have discussed that this afternoon, but that crisis is much more pronounced in rural areas of Scotland. Sadly, the Government does not seem to recognise the scale of the crisis given their amendment this afternoon. That is really concerning because if you do not recognise the scale of the crisis, how on earth are you going to rise to the challenge to meet that crisis and put it right. In rural Scotland, a lot of the problem is caused by second homes and holiday lets. That inflates prices of homes and that is due to people who live in those areas not being able to have the same finance or indeed ability to get a mortgage as those coming in. The member will recognise and welcome the Scottish Government's position where it will introduce the ability for local authorities to charge far more on council tax for second homes. That has long been our policy to make sure that that happens, but we have to go further because people who can afford to buy a second home have a fair amount of free cash that allows them to pay that. We have to look at other ways as well as recognising that they have a lot more money than local people. Local people cannot get a mortgage because they often work in seasonal jobs. They have also got unstable jobs and therefore banks demand a monthly salary, a stable income, and that is what they lend against. People working three or four different jobs simply cannot provide that to get a mortgage. We also need to take into account that the cost of living in rural areas is much higher. In good times that was 30 per cent higher and it will be much more than that now. That means that they are less able to compete for homes in their communities. We look at the cost of building in rural communities as well and it is hugely different. I have often and I continue to quote the unit price for a house in Barra, a socially rented house, and that was £233,000 for one unit. The Government grant to housing associations for building in those areas is less than half of that at £111,640. I have already given way and I want to make progress if I may. Not only do you have not enough grant coming from the Government, you also have the higher cost of materials. A house costs 25 per cent more before you even start to build it due to the cost of transporting materials on ferries alone. Housing associations are also bound to tender their projects and that means that the only people that can really afford to tender for that are large companies. Those large companies do not employ people on island or in rural communities and that also adds to the cost because they are bringing in workers from outside and any economic benefit that could have been given to the rural community disappears because all the profit to building that unit goes out. We have to look at how we rural proof our policies because planning is very much urbanised. Many people have welcomed that the Government has committed to 10 per cent of their affordable homes being in rural and island areas but I just want to pick that apart a little because 17 per cent of people in Scotland live in those same rural areas as defined by the Scottish Government but this definition also includes small remote towns and accessible rural as well as remote rural. The problem with that is that you have got communities like Barra competing for this 10 per cent with the leafy suburbs of Edinburgh and that cannot be right because what will happen is most of that building will happen in the central belt. The 10 per cent I think in the recent debate we had talked about a minimum in terms of competing in rural Edinburgh. I do not see that in the rural housing action plan that comes forward. This is for rural housing. It does not compete with Edinburgh. I am happy to take that up with the member after that but it does not compete with parts of Edinburgh in terms of funding. I am talking about the leafy suburbs surrounding Edinburgh and if you look at the Scottish Government's own map and own definition those areas are what is and if they are working to a different map then I would very much want to see it but certainly on the maps that they publish that is not the point. It is competing with country towns and suburbs around the central belt and other cities as well so we need to look at that to make sure that housing happens in our remote rural communities because the cost is so much greater that if they are competing with those areas they will not get any of the housing they need. There are many more issues I could speak about because there are many issues affecting our areas. Companies are being encouraged to create their own housing to fulfil their skills shortage but we in rural communities had moved away from tied housing and I do not want to see a policy that drives us back to tied housing where someone's roof over their head is dependent on their job and they are basically almost enslaved to a company because of that. Presiding officer in conclusion the whole of Scotland is in a housing crisis but that is worse for the reasons I outlined in rural communities and if the Scottish Government does not deal with that there will be presiding over a turbo charged depopulation of our remote rural communities. Thank you Ms Grant and I would remind members that there is no time in hand and the speeches are of up to six minutes and with that I call John Swinney to be followed by Douglas Lambson. Presiding Officer it's a fundamental right and absolute necessity that people in our society should be appropriately housed. Safe and secure housing is essential to ensure individuals are able to participate fully and effectively in our society with a stable base and the individuals are able to provide a good quality environment in which children can be brought up. It's clear that there are significant pressures on the supply of housing in various perhaps all parts of Scotland. My constituency in Perthshire North there are acute challenges in the availability of housing to meet the needs of individuals and families and I deal with the same types of cases that members have recounted in the debate today. Those pressures are present in most areas of the constituency with the need to ensure that suitable and appropriate accommodation to meet the needs of individuals and families is available for all, but those pressures are perhaps at their most acute in areas where there is buoyant demand for tourism accommodation and where there is an attraction for people to own second homes. The affordability of housing is a real challenge for many people who seek to live and work in those communities and the competition to obtain appropriate housing is intense. The implications do not stop there. There are significant consequences for private and public sector employers who face enormous challenges in recruiting staff quite simply due to the inability of individuals to be able to afford to live in specific parts of my constituency. I'm very grateful to the member for giving way and I think it's interesting that he says that perhaps those issues face the whole of Scotland and I think that he highlights some particular issues there. Why then is there a reservation to describe this as an emergency, would that not help to clarify focus and attention? I'll come on to address that point later in my speech. Over the course of the last eight years, major developments have taken place in different parts of my constituency as a consequence of partnership funding from the Scottish Government and the local authority. Developments of 65 homes at the Gleab School site in Scoon, 12 homes in Ardillar Road in Meagall, 20 houses at Lynn Road in Stanley, 20 flats in Birch Avenue in Scoon, 11 new homes in Springbank Road in Eileth and 10 new homes in Balbeggy, with other developments where private developers have met their affordable housing targets. While those developments are welcome, I recognise that they are not enough. That's why I welcome the good work that is being undertaken by organisations such as Aberfeldy Development Trust to have taken forward key projects to boost affordable housing supply in communities where there is intense pressure on housing stock. Enabling organisations such as the Aberfeldy Development Trust to play a part in this effort to improve housing supply is crucial. Although there are major challenges in housing supply, I am proud of what the Scottish Government has achieved since it was elected in 2007. Before we came to power and the minister has made this point, our predecessors completed on average 5,431 affordable homes each year. On average, since this Government came to power, 7,638 affordable homes were completed. 5,431 each year under the Labour and Lib Dem Administration, 7,638 affordable homes each year completed on average under the SNP. Those figures are undeniable. The Labour and Lib Dem record was delivered during a period of burgeoning public finances. There was so much money around that the Government at that time was unable to spend all the money that was available to it and thankfully left £1.6 billion unspent when this Government came to office in 2007. The record of the SNP Government has been achieved in the aftermath of the financial crash in 2008. All of it has been achieved against the backdrop of austerity. All of it has been achieved against the backdrop of Brexit and the loss of staff. All of this has been achieved as the costs of borrowing have rocketed due to the Liz Trust's quasi-quartang mini-budget disaster. So while there has been criticism of the Government today, a significant amount has been done to tackle that issue. Various members have said—this is where I come to Mr Johnson's point—that we should declare a housing emergency. I understand that aspiration. I understand the seriousness of the point. My colleague Mr McPherson has just made a compelling speech about the importance of the situation, severity of the situation facing his constituents. However, I respectfully say to Parliament that it is not enough just to do that. There must be substantial action set out about how we address that issue. That was lacking in Mr Griffin's speech. He knows how much I respect his contributions to Parliament. We cannot just wish away the conditions that we face. Today, construction costs are higher. Borrowing costs are higher. The labour market is tight because of Brexit and the implications of Brexit. If we want to build more houses, we must be prepared to address the reality of the situation that we face. If we want to allocate more money to the task of building more houses, Members of Parliament must be honest enough to say what capital projects are not going to go ahead. What are we going to stop doing to create the space for more money to be spent on housing? I spent long enough in here as the finance minister. Nine years on a trot and then one year of temporary cover for my dear friend Kate Forbes. Listening to Members of Parliament spending money twice and it is getting particularly acute over here on the Conservative benches of spending money twice, three times, four times over. If we want to declare a housing emergency, we have to be prepared to put our money where our mouth is. That is our responsibility on every single member of Parliament. I now call Douglas Lumson to be followed by Kate Forbes. I refer members to my register of interests that shows that I was a councillor at the start of this session. I thank Labour for bringing this important debate. I also thank the organisations who have sent briefings for today's debate and all those constituents who have emailed me in asking me to support the motion. That is obviously a topic that affects so many people and we will be supporting it today. Scotland is indeed facing a housing crisis, wholly due to the coalition of chaos from the devolved Government of Greens and the SNP. It has imposed ridiculous measures on what was a thriving sector that has limited its ability for growth, while at the same time cutting local government to the bone preventing investment in affordable housing. Let us be clear, Presiding Officer. We are not talking about housing. We are talking about homes, not at this point. These are places where people can find safety, security, warmth and comfort, a place where families can make a place for themselves and communities can be built. When the Government gets this wrong, everything else flows from that. When people have no sense of place and of community, they have no sense of security. Homelessness is a scourge on our country and a sad indictment of this Government who are so focused on independence that they have lost sight of what the Scottish people want. The Scottish people want a Government who are focused on their priorities, not the constitutional wranglins. They want a Government who addresses the big issues in our society around housing, health, education and economic growth, and a Government that invests in our communities. I will take the intervention. Does he acknowledge that the biggest drivers of homelessness are poverty and inequality? At the moment, we are spending £83 million a year on discussion and housing payment. We also mitigate the unfair bedroom tax and the benefit cap. Surely, if those were removed, that would benefit Scotland and have more money to spend on the issues that he is talking about. Thank the minister for his prescripted intervention. He has no word of the national insurance cut by 2 per cent. What about the UK Government paying a large proportion of everyone's energy bills last year? We have seen a catalogue of failure in some of the statistics around this issue. The number of homeless applications up by 9 per cent in the last year, 16,263 children. Children assessed or threatened by homelessness in the last year, 6,000 families and temporary accommodation. The number of affordable homes approved at its lowest level for 10 years and the Government's own targets of affordable homes missed. Unfortunately, we cannot say that this is incompetence on behalf of the green SNP Government. It is actually a willful policy making that is stifling growth and causing massive rent rises in our rented sector. The crazy rent cap policy brought in by the Greens in coalition with the SNP has brought massive rent rises in our cities, in particular with the rent growth in Edinburgh outstripping that of London. Zoopla has said that landlords are left with no choice but to increase rents between tenancies to ensure that they are covering their costs. The number of homes that were in the rented sector being sold by landlords is also at its highest level since 2009, with many simply leaving the sector as it is no longer viable for them to continue, resulting in a loss of rental accommodation throughout Scotland. However, the social rented sector has often been badly affected by the short-sightedness and willful neglect of this Government. Councils are struggling to balance their budgets in the face of SNP austerity. When I was co-leader of Aberdeen City Council, I was proud that I worked with Labour to announce the largest social house building programme in the city for a generation. Not just 2,000 homes, but 2,000 gold standard quality homes. I didn't want poor quality homes thrown up quickly. I wanted social homes matching the standard and exceeding the private sector. Because many of our social rented homes are not up to the standard, they should be, so we need to be building more homes to cope with the need but also to replace much of the stock that we have. The Conservatives would give local authorities the ability to build more homes for the people of Scotland. We have pledged to introduce a Scottish housing delivery agency that will be entirely focused on the supply of new homes for our residents. We would relax planning laws so that more properties in our town centres could be brought into residential use for hard working families. We would reverse the crazy rent freeze that has such a detrimental impact on our cities like Edinburgh. It is clear that it is a policy that was maybe introduced with good intentions but has made the issue worse. We need to do more to create homes and communities in our cities, towns and villages right across Scotland. We need to invest in housing so that families can find the security they need to build their lives in a safe and secure setting. We need certainty for house builders that we are a country committed to economic growth and we need funding for local councils to build more affordable homes in our communities. We need a planning system that has flexibility to bring disused properties into commercial use and we need a Government that is focused on the people of Scotland and not independence. This Government has taken its eye off the ball when it comes to housing in Scotland, and it needs to do better for all our communities. I want to start by saying that I certainly understand the sentiment behind the Labour motion today. I think that anyone who saw some of the news coverage after Edinburgh Council declared that its housing emergency would have been struck by the powerful stories told by those who are in temporary accommodation. As Willie Rennie rightly said, for those who are caught in temporary accommodation or at risk of homelessness or struggling in other ways to access warm housing, it feels like an emergency. John Swinney's point is the point that I was going to make, because real leadership is not just about accepting the scale of a challenge or explaining what is taking place. Real leadership is about stepping back and figuring out how to best solve it and then getting stuck in to delivering on some of those solutions. There is no dispute from me about the scale of the challenge. Rhoda Grant talked about the issues in rural Scotland, which I am particularly well aware of. Time and time again, my constituency office reflects on the fact that housing tops our caseload of issues that are of concern to local individuals. Yet, every Friday and Monday in the constituency, I have a never-ending list of new housing developments to visit in the highlands, because there is obvious evidence of the Government's funding going in to building houses and increasing supply. That is why I asked Mark Griffin about Labour's solution. Based on my years as finance minister and as a local MSP, there feels like there has never been greater investment in improving the supply of housing of all tenures. The question is why is there still a sense in the highlands, particularly, of individuals, whether they are looking to access so-called affordable housing or looking to get on the housing market themselves, why is it so challenging? I have one solution that I want to come on to, but first I want to illustrate a little bit more of the problem. Quite clearly, the challenges around accessing housing are inhibiting economic growth, undermining some of our public services, creating greater levels of homelessness in some of our communities, inhibiting economic growth. Fort William has great opportunities for businesses to grow and develop between the sawmill, the smelter and other businesses. We have the decommissioning in Kishorn. It has a sense of great prosperity and being on the cusp of something incredible in a place such as Fort William. Every business tells me that the biggest challenge is not their ambition or the opportunity that it is accessing staff, and that is linked to housing. Public services and Sky is well documented of the challenges of accessing housing for some of our key workers, whether they are nurses, doctors or teachers, which means that key vacancies cannot be filled. When it comes to homelessness, I was speaking to one of our social landlords, who was clear that we need to make sure that homelessness policies are rural-proofed, because how we might prevent it in urban areas might exacerbate it in rural areas. We have a place such as Avymor, where lots of young workers find themselves having to live in Inverness and travelling an hour to get to Avymor, because there might be a plentiful supply of, for example, one-bedroom housing, but as soon as they find a partner or start a family, they are unable to stay. That is the scale of it. I understand it. I recognise it. I think that the solution is continuing to improve supply. There is no question about that, but I think that we need to see greater flexibility around policies. I want to give you five quick policies where I want to see greater flexibility. One is on policies, because if we continue to have an overly fixed or rigid solution to that problem, we are going to run into the challenge that one size does not fit all. The solution in the middle of Edinburgh, which might be of huge interest to Ben Macpherson, will not work in Elgall in Skye. We have to be clear that policies are flexible. Secondly, it has to be community-led. In Glenelg, at the moment, the community is trying to build new housing, and it needs to be community-led. Where they find that the policy does not lend itself to what it is trying to do, I do not think that it should change. I think that it is the policy that should change. Thirdly, I think that we need to listen to those who are actually out there delivering. The community's housing trust, for example, is second to none—exemplary, brilliant in what they do. They say—without quoting them—that largely all the policies and the funding in their humble opinion are there, but it is about using that policy and ensuring that we can deliver solutions in each of those areas. Fourthly, it is planning. Why does it take between seven to 10 years to get six houses built? That does not add up. It does not make sense. I think that there needs to be some sort of default in favour of planning. Last and most important is land reform. We need to see more progress in making land available. On that, I will close. We are living through the worst cost crisis for generations with high inflation and a squeeze on household budgets, which is why I welcome this opportunity to discuss the housing challenges that Scotland faces. One of the biggest expenses that people have is housing, which is why the first piece of legislation brought through the Parliament by a Green Minister provided immediate support to tenants by capping rents. Last year, more than 10,000 homes were completed under the Affordable Housing Supply programme, roughly the equivalent to the total housing stock of Orkney or Shetland, and a 12 per cent increase on the year before. Over the course of this parliamentary term, we will be introducing the biggest expansion of tenants' rights since devolution, including better rights and protections, and better rent controls. The causes and solutions to the housing crisis in the Highlands and Islands, which I represent, are complex. A lack of supply and aging population, highland values and imbalance between local wages and house prices, and poor public transport all play a part. As my colleagues will know, I am a champion of community-led housing, and it was good to hear Kate Forbes talking about that just now, and the potential of this model to transform housing, particularly in rural communities. That is why Greens and Government secured stable funding for the rural housing enablers who empower communities to build the right homes in the right places. That is why we are working to deliver the rural and island housing action plan to ensure access to genuinely affordable homes, and that is why rural councils have rightly welcomed plans to increase council tax for empty and second homes. We must continue to work closely with all councils to develop targeted plans to address local housing needs. Homelessness in rural areas is not just a lack of a roof over someone's head. It is also the loss of community, of young people of working age, a loss of language and culture. We need more homes, we need to use the homes we have more effectively, and we need to fund services properly to treat people with dignity and respect. We need to ensure that we create homes that enable people to become rooted in their communities and provide the workers and families we need to help to keep local communities thriving. In rural areas, especially, we lose homes to the holiday and second home market, as has been discussed already. In our Garland bute and the Western Isles, 6 per cent or more of housing is second homes. In Orkney it is five. Of the more than 24,000 second homes in Scotland, 3,000 are in our Garland bute alone, and that is why the Scottish Government was right to regulate short-term lets. That is why we have introduced stricter planning rules on holiday properties, and that is why we are working with councils to bring empty homes back into use. We need systemic change to put people and housing first. The social housing and not-for-profit sector are addressing the challenge in innovative ways. In Inverness, I visited Highland Housing Alliance's incredible retrofitting work on the merchant's house, transforming a derelict building in the heart of Inverness into affordable energy-efficient homes. Meanwhile, Albin's housing's Bailey Place development has created brand-new, highly efficient homes close to active travel networks, with a real sense of community. I have also seen the pioneering work carried out by the community's housing's trust, working with community land and development trusts and estates across my region to build high-quality affordable homes that respond to local needs. From Staffin to Strontian, Tyree to Tomantel, communities are filling the gaps created by decades of under-investment starting long before devolution and using Scottish Government schemes, such as the Scottish Land Fund and the Rural and Island Housing Fund, to deliver them. What Scotland's housing sector needs is long-term solutions and a cultural change away from housing as an investment to one that creates homes for all of our people. It's deeds, not words. In conclusion, that's why Greens in Government will strive to ensure that everyone in Scotland has a safe, affordable and warm home and that our rural communities remain places to dwell, as well as places to visit. There is no doubt that there is a housing crisis in some parts of Scotland, and it is without doubt the biggest issue that my office deals with. As Ben Macpherson said, this is a UK-wide issue and he eloquently outlined the reality of what that situation is. To the motion that the Parliament agrees that Scotland is experiencing a housing emergency, that literally sums up the ambition that the Labour Party has—one line of doomsday nothingness. Where is the ambition? Where is the hope? Where is the belief that things can and must get better? Where is the fully funded, costed and detailed plan about how to change what they see as a housing crisis? Would any of that be too much to ask from a party that sees itself as the change that Scotland needs? I hope that they will answer those points in their summing up. Grandstanded prentification, with this insipid lackluster and quite simply insulting to this chamber nothing of a motion, absolutely deserves the derision that this chamber and the people of this country that Labour and Scotland tell us they have won the trust of in the coming election. Put that in stark contrast to the track record of this SNP Government, a set-out in Minister Palmer Clinton's amendment, and the people of Scotland very quickly realise exactly who it is that looks after the people of Scotland's interests. We know there are issues to deal with. We know that homelessness is a scourge in our society, and we know that we must do more and think creatively to find workable solutions. In this minister, I am certain that he has the ability, the tenacity and the willingness to find those solutions, implement them and help us to help those who need those homes the most. I have to say that there are things that are in the Scottish land and estates briefing that I agree with, like there has to be a partnership approach, particularly to rural housing. I think that there is a distinct lack of acceptance that some of those estates culpability in helping to create the issues of rural housing shortages. In my constituency and across Scotland, it has been a heartbreaking thing for someone like me who was desperate to find a rural house, witnessed the emptying and degradation of literally hundreds of old cotter houses as estates cleared staff, and those houses fell to rack and ruin. I very much welcome the £25 million rural affordable housing system that has come from the Scottish Government. By all means, let's have a better positive relationship with estates because they will have a role to play, but spare me the holier-than-thou attitude that is all the Scottish Government's fault because it isn't. There is a problem, so let's take the collective responsibility to make sure that the solutions are forthcoming. Let's have the ideas but also let's have the honesty that John Swinney talked about about what it is that we have to do in order to make this housing crisis better. I would urge caution, however, and this is another point that I agree with Scottish Land and Estates, that speed should not negate the need for quality or lack of consideration of the potential for unintended consequences. In slightly different notes, Scotland has a 15 per cent of its land as non-LFA. That means good quality grade 1 and 2 arable land. The kind of land that grows our most valuable foodstuff—tatis, wheat, barley, salad, berries, veg, neeps—is what we grow in those fields, but it is also the easiest ground for builders to build its speed on. A number of people have asked today for easier planning, but we have to make sure that that competing demand has to be reconciled and balanced out so that we maintain a viable, vibrant food production industry that can continue to feed our nation. The principle applies to planting trees. Yes, the right tree in the right place has enormous value, but we must value and protect our best arable land at all costs. If we don't, who are we going to ask to feed us? A presumption of brownfield site development is something that should be considered to protect our arable future, notwithstanding what SLNE said are the challenges that those brownfield sites bring. My final point, Presiding Officer, is that using that creative thinking to reimagine what the modern-day requirements are, and city centres with their abundant empty buildings, such as the Devoners building in Perth city centre, could be repurposed and developed to bring people back to the Covid-vocated centres and create thriving city centre communities, which in turn will give a rebirth to businesses that will grow with the population. We have numerous other derelict or empty properties throughout my constituency, ex-councillor police stations, such as in Creeff and Octor Ardern and Cynros. They could all be repurposed, removing the blade of empty properties and helping to increase the number of available homes. I can see a genuine positive vision of where our housing and house building sector can add enormous value to our economy, our skills development and our aim to eradicate homeless. I can see that necessary collaboration that SLNE and others are looking for, and I see all of that ambition and vision in this SNP Government. What I see from Labour, Presiding Officer, is a single line of nothing that should tell the people of Scotland all they need to know that Labour and the Tories will simply not deliver. This SNP Government will. Thank you, Mr Fairlie. I now call Mercedes Bialba to be followed by Stephen Kerr. I refer the chamber to my register of interests, which shows that I am a member of Scotland's tenants union, living rent and of Acorn community union. I am speaking today in support of the Labour motion that the Parliament agrees that Scotland is experiencing a housing emergency, as has been declared by Edinburgh Council, and as I urge Dundee Council to declare. There is a housing emergency in Scotland, and tenants are on the front line. Despite the rent freeze, Dundee has seen a shocking 17 per cent rise in private rent prices. That is 5 per cent more than the Scottish average because of loopholes in the legislation. In fact, property investors are describing the city as Scotland's bi-to-let capital, and property prices have shot up, driven by the potential to profit from a basic human right. This picture is mirrored across Scotland, thousands of people in temporary accommodation, thousands on social housing waiting lists, and properties at or below the local housing allowance rate are scarce, and the private rental sector is capitalising on overwhelming demand for homes. Presiding Officer, this is an emergency, and it has been building for years. Members will remember when I brought the campaign for a rent freeze to this Parliament. They'll remember the Scottish Government's fierce opposition to the proposal, and they will remember how this Government was forced to u-turn and introduce emergency legislation thanks to national public pressure from Scotland's tenants. That legislation should have seen us through to the promised national system of rent controls needed to bring rents down. Instead, more than a year later, as we approach the end of this temporary legislation, loopholes continue to be exploited, rents continue to rise, and rent control legislation is nowhere in sight. Tenants are facing persistent issues of mould, of cold, of damp, of disrepair, and of the constant possibility of being evicted so their landlord can sell, all while rents continue to rise. So how is this happening? Presiding Officer, we know that those in joint tenancies have faced unregulated rent increases when a flatmate leaves as it's often considered to be a new lease. This loophole is resulting in a de facto eviction for remaining tenants who can't afford increases of hundreds of pounds a month. Landlords are also increasing prices dramatically for new lets to supposedly future proof against the rent cap, causing spiralling rises in the market that we're seeing. This is pushing prices up, it's forcing overcrowding, worse living conditions, and increased commutes as people have to move further and further away from where their life is. We need measures that protect those in joint tenancies, that protect those in arrears, that protect those who are being priced out of their communities. Strong long-term rent and eviction controls have the potential to protect those on the lowest incomes with the least ability to absorb extra costs and the highest risk of homelessness, and we need those rent controls now. Presiding Officer, we've heard this government making promises to tenants for years. We've seen the publication of consultations and strategies and commitments on housing. What we're missing is action, so I welcome the Minister for Tenants' Rights commitment to the Housing Committee that the government will bridge the gap between the end of the emergency legislation and the introduction of longer-term rent control measures, but we've yet to hear how this will happen and without this clarity, tenants are facing a cliff edge at the end of March, at which point there seems to be nothing to stop landlords hiking rents even higher. We need a rapid response to this emergency, one that's watertight, that's permanent, that's effective and transformative, but it begins by recognising the problem. We are in a housing emergency. Tenants are on the front line. If the Scottish Government refuses today to even acknowledge that, what faith can we possibly place in their ability to address it? So I urge all Members, whatever their party, to support Labour's motion, that the Parliament agrees that Scotland is experiencing a housing emergency. I now call Stephen Kerr to be followed by Willie Coffey. It is refreshing to debate something in this chamber that is really and genuinely a priority of the Scottish people. I commend the Labour front bench for bringing this debate to this chamber. I wish the SNP-Green Government were willing to spend more time discussing matters like this rather than some of the nonsense, the fiction that they prefer to waste the time of this chamber with, because I believe that the national conversation about housing epitomises what is so wrong with the system in our country. I actually thought that one of the best speeches that we heard, other than from my colleagues on this side of the chamber, was from Kate Forbes. There are things about the system that need to be reformed and reformed quickly, because, for as long as I can remember, there has been cross-party consensus on the need to build more and better houses. The question that we should be asking ourselves today is not if we should be building more houses. We all know and agree on the answer to that, but why are we, as a nation, unable to build sufficient homes to match demand? The current levels of homelessness in this country are a national disgrace, and the increasing levels of homelessness rest solely at the feet of the minister who wishes to intervene. I am not going to give way to the minister who is trying to intervene, because I said to him earlier, and I stand by this, that homelessness in our country has been made much worse by this SNP-green Government's staggering lack of insight, their addiction to ideology, their ill-advised approach to the rental sector, because despite expert warnings, they have pressed on with measures that have brought great distress to many individuals and families. When it comes to building houses, we must properly investigate where the system is failing. The first problem is land. The process of repurposing ground-field land is too slow and too costly, to the point that it is not economically viable to build on. We must work with those in the industry to make this process more efficient. We are all aware of neglected buildings in our respective constituencies. Rather than sit back and allow us to continue leading to dereliction and local eyesores, there should be a mechanism that allows councils and private companies to repurpose those buildings or knock them down and build a new one. I am in favour of compulsory sales orders and an end to the reluctance of councils to use the authority at their disposal to improve their election or gap sites. The second problem is planning. We need to change the culture of planning officers. There is not enough of them for a kick-off—that point was made earlier. Communities and developers need planning officers to become advisers supporting building, facilitating rather than blocking development. We need to see an end to the farce of endless planning permission, which leads to the blight of vacant and derelict sites, such as one of the distillery sites at Bank Nock in my constituency, where a large-scale planning application was approved in 2009 for nearly four hectares of land, which remains on Falkirk's register of vacant and derelict land. It is not good enough, and we need to include local people. Communities know that I will give way. I am very grateful to the member for giving way. It is not just the nature of planning, it is also an excellent point about the time that it takes. That is a point that Michael Gove agrees with, too. Does he agree with it? I mean, no wonder people give up, no wonder people leave, no wonder people stop investing, because the whole process is frustratingly expensive and frustratingly elongated. However, I would like to return to the point about the need to engage with local people. Communities know their local areas best. They know the impact of developments on roads, on schools and on health services. Local people should feel empowered to voice their concerns, and developers should work with communities to mitigate those concerns. When we mock people for nimbyism, we should acknowledge that such attitudes exist partly because the system is defective. The minister has a brass neck to try and intervene on any of the speakers in this debate, because he took not a single one. Did he take any interventions at all? I do not think that he took a single one. Maybe one, maybe one, maybe one. I have taken one. We need to cut red tape, and rather than developers having to navigate war and peace regulations, there should be concise, clear guidelines. But building new housing is not enough. It is already mentioned. It is a national disgrace that many Scots live in inadequate, damp and energy inefficient spaces. As well as the drive to build houses, we need to have an equally committed national mission to improve Scotland's housing stock. Housing is not just about bricks and mortar. Poor homes can impact health and family life. I am coming to a conclusion, so I would love to have, but we do not have enough time to debate things properly in this chamber. There is further consensus that we must improve the energy efficiency of our homes. Let us find the money to do that. In conclusion, we have a national housing crisis. Not only do we not have enough homes, but we also have too many inadequate homes. We need to build and improve. Everyone in Scotland must have a home worthy of the name. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. It is always good to start off a contribution with some positives in the beat, and there are plenty to share. By 2032, only nine years from now, this SNP administration will have overseen the building of 234,000 social and affordable homes in Scotland. 124,000 have been delivered since 2007, and another 110,000 are on the way, with 70 per cent of ease to be earmarked for social rent. In Scotland, we have built nearly 14 homes per 10,000 population in that time, as was mentioned by several colleagues. That is a good record, and it outperforms any other nation in the UK, especially in Wales, where Labour has been in power for so long but has managed only around half that total. Indeed, in my authority area, Labour managed to build no council houses whatsoever during its eight years in power in this Parliament, none at all zero, but it did manage to sell off vital housing stock and hand vital cash back to the UK Government from time to time that it could have invested in housing in Scotland. The SNP Government ended the right to buy council houses in 2016 and has saved around 15,000 council houses from being lost to the public social rented pool, while Labour and councils all over Scotland were happy to sell off vital housing stock following the Tory mantra of selling anything that could make a quick buck. In fact, since 1979, up to 2015, in Scotland, an incredible 494,580 council houses and social housing stock were sold off. That is 14,000 houses lost every year for 35 years, all lost. If we are in an emergency situation in some parts of Scotland, then it has its origins there, and Labour and the Tories might want to reflect on their role in this before coming here to blame the SNP for their massive sell-off. No doubt, we are facing a number of challenges. Skyrocketing costs are brought about by inflation, and the problems associated with materials costs made worse by Brexit are driving up construction costs and making it harder for people to access the various housing markets, but we are doing what we can to overcome them and support the programme going forward. I want to turn to my own council in East Ayrshire and share some of the positive achievements and ambitions that the council has for the future. Indeed, only this morning at the council's cabinet, which includes Labour councillors, met to discuss a number of housing strategy papers, and they supported all of them with no exceptions, no mentions of an emergency at all, not a peep from Labour councillors about an emergency in East Ayrshire, a curious contrast with other messages that we are hearing here. Since 2010, East Ayrshire under the SNP has built 585 council houses, including other registered social landlord builds. The total is around 1,000. A remarkable achievement in having seen the quality of their builds, the council and its partners should be commended for this work. I will give way to Mr Johnson if he wants to come in. When you are saying what councillors are saying in some parts, would you acknowledge that SNP councillors are saying that there is a housing emergency here in Edinburgh, the capital city? Will he coffee? Absolutely do, but maybe he wants to have a word with your Labour councillors in East Ayrshire, because they have not got the message. They laugh, they did not mention it. It is not just the numbers that matter, though, Presiding Officer. It is about things like regeneration, wellbeing, climate change and energy efficiency too. The council is now building its fourth supported living complex with units adapted with warden support, meaning that one tenant in particular now has a home that was 31 years in hospital in residential care, and there are plenty of other similar examples. A major development in the north of Kilmarnock has seen 44 new council housing units completed to a high standard, winning a design award in the process. In the south of the town, a development in partnership with the local housing association is nearing completion, with every house being energy efficient with heat pump technology installed too. There is another development, which is the first carbon zero development to be completed there. Those examples from East Ayrshire show what is being done and can be done to meet our targets and to meet our other obligations. Presiding Officer, it is always a pleasure to talk about housing in the Parliament or anywhere else. I was my group's spokesperson for many years when I was a member of the council in opposition. During that term, we wrestled with the problems of darkness and mould, poor heating systems and zero insulation, often overlooked by a Labour administration that did not act fast enough to correct this, even when it had the resources to do so. In looking at where we are now, I am extremely proud of the achievements of my colleagues in local government in East Ayrshire, led by my friends and colleague councillor, Doogie Reed, who has championed this work for so many years. They have delivered for their communities and they still are, and I hope that they will continue to do so well into the future. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I am delighted to close this debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. I thank Labour for using its debating time for bringing this to the chamber. I thank Mark Griffin for highlighting at the start of his speech that this is an emergency of the Scottish Government's making. Scotland has a housing emergency. Across the chamber, there is acknowledgement of that fact. In our briefings from so many organisations, there is consensus that Scotland has a housing emergency. With this customary forensic analysis, my friend and colleague Graham Simpson cut to the chase when he highlighted that no one should have to speak sleep rough, no one should have to use an ice shelter, and in that alone they do, and that makes it an emergency. Except, of course, if you are trying to defend the Scottish Government position. We see the usual obfuscation of reality, publish a target without detailing how that target will be reached, then rolling back on that target and saying that it is not our fault, as we heard from Kevin Stewart. Nothing to see here. Of all the damning evidence stacked against the Scottish Government handling of this emergency, denying that there is an emergency, blaming it elsewhere just will not cut it. You cannot begin to tackle a problem unless you first acknowledge the scale of it, as Mr Simpson reminds us. Furthermore, Scotland's homelessness deaths numbers are shameful, and it is linked, I would suggest, in no small part to our drug and alcohol crisis. As the previous First Minister said, she took the eye off the ball and I would suggest that that is what is happening here. Douglas Lumsden highlighted the chaos that the Greens policies have brought to the Scottish housing market. The affordable renting stock has plummeted as landlords leave the sector after the Greens ideologically policies decimated the sector. Far from preventing rent rises, they have caused massive hikes in rents. I say to Ben Macpherson that many house builders looking to build affordable housing in the rent-to-buy space have decided not to proceed. Does Mr Whittle acknowledge that there is strong interest in cities such as the communities that I represent to undertake a variety of developments, including by build-to-rent? The Scottish Government is looking to implement its long-term system of rent controls. That certainty is what the market is asking for, and then the buoyancy will continue. I thank Ben Macpherson for giving that intervention because it allows me to say that the reality is that the Greens and SNP do not recognise outcomes because if they do not agree with their extreme ideologies. Here is a fact for Mr Macpherson. In 2018, for every rental property in Edinburgh, there were six applicants. There are now 24. Pam Gossel pointed out that the upcoming housing bill has a mechanism to finally give direction to a directionless Government housing strategy. She articulated that her meetings with the chief executives of local council have highlighted the increase in homeless applications and the lack of housing stock being the biggest issues facing the housing market. As my friend Stephen Kerr and an impassioned speech stated, homelessness in Scotland is such a scourge. He quite rightly says why do the SNP Greens continually fail to build enough housing to tackle this crisis? He also points out that the woeful planning laws are preventing that progress. Will the coffee raised climate change? I would like to talk about that. With a finite budget and with the stated twin goals of reducing energy bills and reducing a carbon footprint, which will help homelessness, especially for those in the lowest SIM areas, I suggest that a targeted investment to improve stock is one of the ways forward. What the minister should be doing is using funds to improve the energy efficiency of social housing, build many more energy-efficient social and affording homes that would tackle homelessness, and let's face it, Scotland has some of the worst energy-efficient homes in Europe. Furthermore, if the target is also to reduce our carbon output, investment in rural houses off-grid, including the oil-fired heating system, would make the greatest initial impact. That would also help to tackle the huge shortage of rural housing, as Kate Forbes highlighted, on which I thought was a really excellent speech. Instead of that, we have a housing minister who stands up in this Parliament and says that we are going to retrofit a million homes in Scotland. I asked the Scottish Government through PQs how many applications have been made to Home Energy Scotland grant and loans this year. The total is 6,000. The number of offers that were made is 1,900. I looked through the local authority areas and looked at some of the poorest places in Scotland, for example, inverclyde. The total number of applications is 7. That is great. 999,993 to go. Fantastic. We are well on the way, minister. I was at the Energy Efficiency Conference with some colleagues a couple of weeks ago. That is some of their asks. They said that approvals and pay-outs need to be sped up and backlogs need to be reduced. It is as simple as that. Companies cannot call HES on behalf of customers due to GDPR, and the backlog is causing salesmen to quit as they cannot wait four months to be paid because they are on commission. The demand for the sector is there, but the way the Government has the funding set up makes commercial viability poor. That is due to cash flow for the grants. Having a poor cash flow means that these companies cannot grow and recruit despite the demand, and south of the border the wait is five days. The Government needs to pay it forward so that builders can make sure that all new builds have that renewable technology. The cost cannot solely be on the builder passed on to the customer. It is not affordable and contradicts the Government's affordable home strategy. Last week, I asked the minister for higher and further education to the Scottish Government and completed a skills mapping exercise prior to setting these targets. Unsurprisingly, in the response, the minister responded that the Government is, I quote, currently engaged with ministerial colleagues across Government to map the skills shortage. Let me tell you what the skills shortage is in the building industry. Twenty-two and a half thousand tradespeople are short to hit Government targets. Twenty-two and a half thousand. It makes a mockery of the targets that this Government has set. I will close. I think that this epitomises a Scottish Government approach that delivers headlines without that route map. That Scotland has a housing crisis is beyond doubt despite any continued protestations from the Scottish Government. It is time that this fact was recognised and accepted. Until we do, how on earth can it possibly begin to practically tackle another Scottish Government crisis? I urge the chamber to support Graham Simpson's amendment. I now call on Patrick Harvie. Minister, up to seven minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thanks to all members for taking part in this debate. With a number of notable exceptions, there were some members who brought well-reasoned contributions to debate, positive constructive ideas and an understanding of the causes of the challenges that we have faced. We have been asked—we should all ask ourselves to reflect on how people who are experiencing significant housing difficulties would view our debate. People in temporary accommodation, people on housing waiting lists, people in homes that are damp or in poor repair, people who are struggling to meet housing costs. Mr Griffin and others were right that there are still far too many people in those situations, and this Government has a determination to put that right. People at the sharp end of these challenges need to hear that determination, but they also need to see action. I am most grateful to those members whose speeches were focused on solutions. Mr Griffin's speech, unlike his motion, called for a focus on action. It is actions that build more homes, make existing homes better and keep costs affordable, and that is why the Government amendment today focuses squarely on that action. Last October, I will give way. Mark Griffin. I appreciate that the Government wanted to set out the action that they planned to tackle the crisis. What I do not understand is why they have deleted the entire motion to add the Government's own actions? Why not acknowledge the emergency that exists and then set out the actions that they planned to take to address it? What is the Government's problem with accepting that it is there? We believe that the actions that need to be taken are the only things that will make a difference. Last October 2022, we did take emergency action to support people who rent their homes. The cost of living act introduced restrictions on rent rises while the tenant remains in the same tenancy and strengthened protection against evictions. It is perfectly clear that the Conservatives still would rather that we ignored the needs of tenants, but the act has continued to provide important additional protection for tenants across the rented sector. Anywhere else in the UK, private tenants have faced a double impact of unfettered rent rises both during and between tenancies. I was very pleased when this Parliament voted to approve the regulations that extend the provisions for a further and final six months period until March. Brian Whittle. I am very grateful to the Minister for giving me much as I accept that the policy was brought in with good intentions. Does he not recognise that in Scotland 14 per cent increase in the last year is greater than it is in London at the moment? The member is talking about increases in advertised rents, so that is new tenancies. Those have been increasing at comparable levels in other parts of the UK, as well as in other parts of the UK of those tenants facing increases within their tenancies. The emergency legislation is, by definition, temporary. That is why we have committed to introducing longer-term rent controls in a housing bill that we will bring to Parliament in this parliamentary year. I am continuing to engage with stakeholders and other colleagues on the shape of that bill. The scale of private rent increases across the UK demonstrates the need for action to tackle rent rises. It is clear from across Europe that, where greater regulation of renting and of rents is the norm, such regulation can and should go hand in hand with encouraging investment in improving both quality and supply. In addition to our proposals on rent control, we are currently considering eight policy areas for further rented sector reform. Some of them are aiming to improve the experience of renting and to enhance the rights of tenants in many areas where action is needed, both in Scotland and in UK policy. I am afraid that I need to make a bit of progress. We will press ahead with measures to increase housing supply and work in partnership to maximise the use of current housing stock. We will introduce new homelessness prevention duties this parliamentary year that will offer stronger protections than anywhere else in the UK. We will strengthen rights for tenants and offer greater security from eviction. We will bring forward a new housing rights bill. I need to make a little bit of progress to set out the action that we are taking. A new housing rights bill that will incorporate the right to adequate housing into Scotland's law within the limits of devolved competence. I just want to recognise that we have been pressing for some considerable time by the UK to end the freeze on local housing allowance. I am relieved today that the chancellor has finally given in to that pressure and scrapped the freeze on LHA. It is an important source of support for low-income households. It should never have been frozen in the first place. The damage done by three years of that freeze is an estimated £819 million to cut the allowance across GB, coupled with cuts of £181 million to Scotland's capital budget and its hampered efforts to increase available housing. I sincerely hope that a freeze like that is never considered again because no one should have to make the choice between paying their rent, feeding their family or heating their home. I want to be clear as well that the scale of homelessness and inadequate housing is one of the big challenges that Scotland faces by no means unique in that. For example, statistics show that a 74 per cent rise in temporary accommodation in England over the last 10 years does not absolve us by acknowledging those wider contexts, does not absolve us by any means from taking action, but we should be clear about that wider context. In 2023, we are not where we should be, but to listen to some members, some from the Conservative Party and some from the Labour Party, you would be forgiven for thinking that those housing issues exist in Scotland only. Brexit continues to cast a dark shadow over our construction industry. I know that some of them do not want to hear it over our construction industry and workforce capacity. The pandemic, followed by a cost of living crisis, is topped by a disastrous experiment with far-right economics in the trust quarteng. Many budgets have put a huge strain on our resources. All too often, it is the people with least to fall back on who are hit the hardest, the same people already hit by a decade of austerity and brutal welfare cuts, the people who are in temporary housing accommodation or in the poorest housing. That is why we here in Scotland are determined to do all that we can to turn that tide. In conclusion, I do want to say that our programme of actions to tackle those issues, if we offered that programme to colleagues in England, whether that is Labour campaigners, housing organisations, that programme of 120,000 affordable homes over the last 15 years, getting rid of the right to buy, ending no-fault revictions in the private centre, introducing an emergency rent cap, bringing empty homes back into use, enhancing homelessness rights. If you offered that package of action to those elsewhere in the UK, I think that people would bite your hand off. We will continue to be open to positive, constructive ideas, whether from Labour members or anywhere else in the chamber, about how we can continue to make greater progress. That is what people in the most difficult housing situations in Scotland need, action commitments. That is what this Government is determined to continue to deliver. I call on Daniel Johnson to wind up the debate for around eight minutes. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. There is a housing emergency. That is not really up for debate. The choice this evening is whether or not we want to acknowledge that crisis, that emergency, treat it as such, because it is only with that acknowledgement that we will treat it with the urgency and the focus that it deserves. I think that the tragedy of this afternoon has been that there was an opportunity. There was no need for the Government to disagree with what we had in front of us. It could have been an opportunity to have that frank discussion about how we tackle these problems, looking at the solutions and coming together with a degree of consensus. Indeed, I think that there has been quite a strong contrast between the front bench and the back bench contributions from the Government benches this afternoon. I think that we have had some of that thoughtful discussion from the SAB back benches. Unfortunately, we have not had it from the front bench. In fact, they want to wipe out the word emergency. Apparently, all we are facing is significant pressure and only amongst those who are homeless. Tell that to private renters in Edinburgh. Tell that to anyone looking for a house. Tell that to anyone facing homelessness. It is not significant pressure. It is an emergency. However, the other critical problem with what the Government has presented this afternoon is that it fails to really acknowledge the fundamental problem. It has talked about initiatives and conversations. Fundamentally, we have a problem of housing supply. If you slice that and dice that, you look at particular categories, you will not acknowledge the full problem. The simple reality is this. On average, the SNP has built 5,000 fewer houses than we did when we were in power. Between 1997 and 2007, between 2007 and 2022, 260,000 homes were built. In other words, under the SNP, it took them 15 years to build as many houses as we built in 10. That is the simple reality. If we had continued to build houses at the same rate when we left power, there would be 104,000 more homes in Scotland than there is today. Those are what the simple numbers tell you. I am grateful to Mr Johnson for giving me the only slight flaw in the contorted information that he has just given to Parliament. It ignores factors such as the financial crash in 2008, which led to a hemorrhage of private building that had nothing to do with the Scottish Government and everything to do with the financial mismanagement of the Labour Government in the UK. There is a serious point here. Those are the simple numbers. I did not make any attributions. You have to acknowledge that the fundamental point of supply. Unless you recognise that, you will never make progress. The simple reality—I think that Sarah Boyack put it very well—is that the heart of those numbers is a human experience. The fact that she raised that 45% of homeless people face severe and significant mental health consequences is something that we should all be reflecting on. I have to say something that I think about a lot during my surgeries. I hate the fact that, when I am faced with people living in cramped accommodation, families of five or six living in two-bedroom flats—I have to tell them because of the points on the ed index system that they are going to have to wait years—it is inhumane. Until you fix supply, that will continue to be a problem. That is why you have to face up to the emergency and face up to the fact that a family is being made homeless every 60 minutes in Scotland. I think that there was a number of excellent contributions. I thought that Ben Macpherson's contribution was absolutely spot on because we are not going to address this crisis unless we look at all the issues. There is a global context. There is a historical context. There was a move away from building social housing through the 80s and 90s, and perhaps he is right. I think that we could have done more when we were in power. It is only by facing up those things that we can deal with this crisis. What I do not understand is why so many of his colleagues will acknowledge that this will feel like an emergency to so many, and yet do not want to recognise it as an emergency in this hotel. I thank my friend for giving me that point to make an excellent speech. One of the great strengths of Labour is housing policy in Scotland during the 1970s and 80s was building the community housing association movement, which is increasingly seeing forced mergers, directed mergers, at the behest of the Scottish housing regulators. Does he share my increasing alarming concern at this trend in Scotland most recently with Reid Vale housing association in Dynaston? I do indeed. I think that housing associations have faced an absolutely invidious position recent years, finding it very difficult to invest in their housing stock. Critically, again, on the numbers, fewer housing association dwellings have been built under the SNP on average per year than were under Labour. I also thank Kate Forbes for her thoughtful contribution. She is absolutely right. We need to talk about solutions. I do not think that I disagree with a single one of the ones that she set out, but particularly on the planning point. On members across the chamber have acknowledged the fact that there are financial pressures and there is a reality there, but there are also systemic pressures that we could relieve. We have to acknowledge the fact that the number of planners has dropped by a third in recent years. Until we have throughput in the planning system, we will struggle to prove the scheme's need. I am happy to give way to Kate Forbes briefly. I just wonder in the spirit of consensus that the member would agree that one of the key concerns I have is that when a community group in particular is, for example, progressing plans for affordable housing, they often have to jump through the same hoops as a major corporate, for example, and we should ensure that it is easier for them to get through the process. Daniel Johnson I absolutely agree with that. I think thinking about the throughput in the systems, making sure that we reflect the priorities, whether that is particular groups. I would also acknowledge the point that this is about in the broader planning process, strategic infrastructure. I think that treating all planning applications is the same. I do not think that it makes sense and we need to look at that. Members across the chamber were asking what are labour solutions. Let me just gently remind them. We have made a commitment across the UK to build 1.5 million homes over five years. We will create a national infrastructure commission that will, through partnership, ensure that we lay the bedrock for that. We will ensure that house building and reform of the planning process is absolutely at the heart of ensuring that we can deliver those plans. We will bring similar plans here in Scotland. However, the simple reality is that nothing that the ministers have brought forward this afternoon acknowledges that anything needs to be done differently. The motion on what they have said basically points to what has already been put in place, the plans that are already in effect, and saying that everything is fine. However, the numbers tell you that they are not fine, but they cannot even decide on what numbers they want to choose. They disagree when we talk about private sector housing, yet the 130,000 figure that they quote includes private sector housing that they do not want us to talk about. It is a total nonsense and it is total confusion. The simple reality is that the actions taken by the Government are not enough. The housing situation and the crisis point to that. Until you fix supply, you will continue to have those problems. The simple reality is that what we have heard from the Government is a set of excuses. Government is not about excuses. It is not about dodging the problems. It is about acknowledging the problems and coming up with an action plan to deal with them. We have had none of that. Nothing new from the Government benches today. Some questions recently about the mooted rebuttal unit that the SNP needs. They have already got it. The Scottish Government's sole purpose seems to be rebuttal. The problem is that they are not very good at it. Whereas the Tories, we have the chance of getting rid of in the coming months, unfortunately we are going to have to wait two and a half years until we can get rid of this sorry Government. Until then, I am ashamed to say that Scotland is going to have to put up with the Government that it seeks excuses rather than delivery. That will be felt most when it comes to housing. That concludes the debate on Scotland's housing emergency. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. On a point of order, I seek your guidance as to how parliamentary process can be correctly followed to secure answers on the £11,000 Michael Matheson iPad scandal. On behalf of our constituents, we have tried repeatedly to get answers from this Government and this Parliament. Yet, since last Thursday, we have been frustrated at every turn. Mr Matheson has referred himself to this Parliament's corporate body, but yesterday the self-same body said that no such process actually exists. Topical questions have been rejected. Urgent questions have been refused. Debate requests have been dismissed. A request for a further statement received the response that such a statement would be inadmissible, and all the while the facts keep changing. The lesson, from all great political scandals, tells us that the cover-up is often worse than the crime. It is now abundantly clear that the SNP is in an industrial cover-up, closing ranks to avoid the truth getting out. We have it on record that the First Minister, the Deputy First Minister and the Health Secretary have all misled this chamber in recent times, and nothing has happened. No corrections, no apologies, no proper investigations. I cannot understand how this meets the obligations of our standing orders, which ensure that the code of conduct is followed by members, regardless of how senior their position in government is. To our constituents watching at home, this Parliament appears totally toothless, whether on the iPad scandal or the deleted WhatsApp messages. Words and standards apparently count for nothing for this SNP Government. The health secretary has been accused by journalists of lying to the Scottish press. This chamber and the Scottish public deserve to know the truth on this charge. Sadly, it is increasingly clear that Scottish ministers are hiding behind this Parliament's rigid rules and inflexible timetabling to evade investigation and interrogation. In summary, I seek your guidance as to how this Parliament can compel the evasive scandal hit health secretary to answer key questions on an issue that has rightly enraged our constituents and the entire country. Thank you, Mr Hoy, in response to the point that you have raised. In relation to the SPCB, it is indicated that self-repair is not possible, but it is also indicated that it is due to meet tomorrow to consider the matter further and will issue a statement following that meeting. In relation to the code of conduct, as the Member will know, that is a matter that is agreed by Parliament, but it is for the Standards, Procedure and Public Appointments Committee to consider and report the adoption amendment and application of any code of conduct for Members and any revisions to that, I think, have to be agreed by Parliament on the basis of recommendations from the committee, and, therefore, I think if Mr Hoy has concerns, he may wish to consider writing to the convener of that committee. In terms of the business of this Parliament, again, as the Member will know, that is a matter that is agreed at the Bureau, and he may wish to consider speaking to his business manager about that, and where business motion is brought before the Parliament, as will be amply demonstrated shortly, there is an opportunity to speak against that business motion.