The Scottish government has been accused of “presiding over a national housing crisis” amid data revealing that almost 47,000 people are homeless and in region of 330,000 Scots are stuck on social housing waiting lists.

Conservative MSPs used a two-part Holyrood debate yesterday to point the blame at SNP and Greens ministers – highlighting the thousands of Scots facing homelessness and waiting for social housing.

The party’s housing spokesperson, Miles Briggs, has raised concerns that almost one third of homeless Scots and those on waiting lists are children, while other vulnerable groups such as disabled people and service veterans are also badly affected by homelessness.

The second debate focussed on the Scottish government’s progress in meeting a target to build 50,000 affordable homes on time while £170m has been cut from the housing budget for 2023/24.

Briggs called on the Scottish government’s housing secretary, Shona Robison, to acknowledge the scale of the problem by declaring a housing emergency and outline immediate plans to tackle homelessness and accelerate homebuilding to meet demand and reduce waiting lists for social homes.

Briggs said: “It’s no exaggeration to say the SNP government is presiding over a national housing crisis.

“While much of the media attention lately has focused, understandably, on ministers’ abject failures in health and education, the housing emergency has gone under the radar. But it’s very real – and demands urgent government action.

“It’s completely unacceptable that there are 47,000 people currently registered as homeless, and a third of a million Scots on social housing waiting lists, including close to 100,000 children and more than 24,000 disabled people.

“There are also more than 600 armed-service veterans registered as homeless, something which should embarrass us as a nation.”

He added: “The buck stops with Nicola Sturgeon’s government for this crisis. They have failed to meet their own housebuilding targets and there’s little hope of the situation improving when John Swinney’s most recent budget outlined a swingeing £170m cut in the housing budget – and that’s in cash, not real, terms.

“On top of that, we’ve had the SNP-Green rent freeze and eviction ban, which has been counter-productive and damaging for tenants – as we warned it would be – by reducing private rental stock and leading to housing developments being paused or shelved.

“It all adds up to a perfect storm – and it cannot be allowed to continue.

“Shona Robison should admit there’s a national housing emergency – as Shelter have described it – on the SNP’s watch and spell out how she intends to belatedly get a grip of it. Her first step should be persuading John Swinney to reverse his devastating cuts to the housing budget.”

Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns at Propertymark, says his organisation is concerned about the impact of a shortage of supply on the housing market, particularly for affordable housing as social housing continues to be drastically undelivered.

He commented: “As inflation, the cost of living and homelessness numbers rise, the commitment to building 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 under current plans is becoming completely unachievable, not only when meeting their ambitious targets but also meeting the growing demand for suitable homes of all tenures.

“As rightly pointed out during the debate, the private rented sector is no longer a viable option for many landlords. We know that the private rented sector plays a huge role in housing the nation however, due to increased financial and regulatory pressures placed on landlords, 68 per cent of letting agents said they had seen an increase in notices to sell.

“Ministers push the rhetoric on cost of supply, materials, Brexit, and inflation but continues to disregard how its restrictive policies are impacting the sector. We need the Scottish Government to drastically improve the way that it values the private rented sector and tackle housing issues such as these with greater urgency.”