I was pleased to see the Scottish Liberal Democrat Housing spokesperson, Jim Tolson MSP, this week raising in the Scottish Parliament the affordable housing shortage.Jim said, “The Liberal Democrats see housing as a basic human right and believe that it is incumbent on the Scottish Government to build environmentally sustainable homes, which produce cleaner and safer communities.
“The SNP’s Budget includes a six per cent real terms cut to spending on affordable housing in the first year. Additional spending on affordable housing supply is, at best, less than 20 per cent of what is needed. We are extremely concerned that the current housing budget will fail to provide enough affordable homes to rent in the run up to the 2012 deadline for abolishing all unintentional homelessness in Scotland.”
The Scottish Government seems incapable of grasping the nettle, and it is dreadfully concerning that additional spending on affordable housing supply is, at best, less than on fifth of what is actually needed. The budget cut of 6% in real terms in year one is difficult for any SNP Minister to justify.
“The SNP’s Budget includes a six per cent real terms cut to spending on affordable housing in the first year. Additional spending on affordable housing supply is, at best, less than 20 per cent of what is needed. We are extremely concerned that the current housing budget will fail to provide enough affordable homes to rent in the run up to the 2012 deadline for abolishing all unintentional homelessness in Scotland.”
The Scottish Government seems incapable of grasping the nettle, and it is dreadfully concerning that additional spending on affordable housing supply is, at best, less than on fifth of what is actually needed. The budget cut of 6% in real terms in year one is difficult for any SNP Minister to justify.
It is very clear that the SNP is clearly looking to abandon the pre election pledge to give first time buyers a £2 000 grant to buy their home. It was, frankly, a totally ill conceived policy - a reckless populist pledge - but it sort of sums up the SNP "promise everything costed or not" manifesto last May.