An SNP MSP has written to Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar, challenging him to “oppose Labour’s austerity agenda” and “call for the reversal of the 9% cut to Scotland’s capital budget, a permanent uplift to the Local Housing Allowance and scrapping of the bedroom tax – which the Scottish Government currently mitigates.”
This comes during the Challenge Poverty Week, with themed days throughout the week to highlight policies that provide the security and freedom needed to build a life beyond poverty.
The theme on Monday was Housing and comes as the Scottish Government announced an additional £22 million to build more affordable homes.
This builds on £100 million which was announced in the Programme for Government and £80 million allocated to acquisitions.
Since 2007 the SNP have delivered 133,000 affordable homes, 10,000 rural homes and abolished the right to buy scheme while returning 11,000 empty homes to use since 2010.
In his letter, Fulton MacGregor MSP writes:
“Dear Anas,
“As we enter Challenge Poverty Week 2024, it is incumbent on us all to reflect on what more can be done to tackle poverty – which continues to impact too many Scots.
“With the First Minister determined to end child poverty, the SNP will continue to build on the progress made and transformative policies which have been introduced to tackle poverty.
“Crucial to these efforts is the matter of housing.
“The First Minister’s mission will help to tackle a root cause of homelessness, with 100,000 children estimated to be kept out of poverty as a result of SNP policies, including the Scottish Child Payment.
“We are also boosting our housing stock by delivering 40% more housing per head of population than in England, and 70% more than in Labour-run Wales; while making housing more affordable by delivering 110,000 more affordable homes by 2032 – on top of the 133,000 already delivered.
“However, while the SNP Scottish Government is doing all it can to tackle the housing emergency, it is still restricted by UK budgetary decisions and we look set to enter another era of austerity with Labour now in power.
“Scotland is experiencing a 9% cut to our capital budget under current plans drawn up by the Tory government while the Scottish Government continues to mitigate the Bedroom Tax.
“Your Labour colleagues in government at Westminster are also suggesting that £22 billion worth of cuts is coming our way after 14 years of austerity, however you and your colleagues in Scottish Labour have been noticeably silent on the potentially devastating impact this could have on tackling poverty.
“There is a real life impact of such a damaging approach to government, and your party is exacerbating these pressures with the choices they’re making after mere months in office.
“The Labour Government must therefore reverse the cut to Scotland’s capital budget, scrap the bedroom tax and permanently uplift the Local Housing Allowance.
“If we look at just the latter of those policy changes, research published this week by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that 41,078 children would be lifted out of poverty if LHA was raised to the 50th percentile.
“Therefore, I sincerely hope you will join me and my SNP colleagues in our calls for policy changes that would be truly transformational for families across Scotland.
“It is those families after all who will bear the brunt of Labour austerity, and as one of their elected representatives in the Scottish Parliament it is your duty to oppose decisions which will worsen what is already a crisis.
“I look forward to your response.
“Yours sincerely,
Fulton MacGregor MSP
SNP MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston and Member of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee”
