Propertymark is calling on the Scottish government to resolve the country’s ongoing housing emergency.
The news comes as Scottish Labour MSP Mark Griffin urged Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, to issue a statement on Scotland’s ‘housing emergency’ by the end of this month.
The Scottish government says it plans to invest just over £400,000 to bring many of the nation’s empty homes back into use, but a number of councils, such as Edinburgh and Glasgow, have already declared a housing emergency, with more expected to potentially follow.
It was announced last week that the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership will receive £423,000 of funding to continue its work of increasing the supply of homes by bringing empty properties back into use in 2024-25.
The Partnership works with local authorities and private homeowners to provide advice and support to help bring empty homes back into use. Since 2010, more than 9,000 homes have been brought back into active use through the project.
Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns at Propertymark, commented: “Mr Yousaf must listen and then promptly act on what is unwinding across Scotland’s housing sector. It is an unacceptable situation that we are witnessing an increasing number of local councils declaring housing emergencies. The housing budget from the Scottish Government has been cut and Propertymark are concerned that additional local authorities may also turn to calling housing emergencies across Scotland if ongoing concerns are not resolved with urgency.
“Ill-conceived legislation which formed parts of the Cost of Living Bill has proven catastrophic, and Rent Caps have made many landlords extremely cautious regarding investment against a challenging backdrop of higher inflation and interest rates. The proposed transition period within the updated legislation between 1 April 2024 to 1 April 2025 maybe too little too late to support landlords who have already exited the sector or are planning to exit.”
The Scottish government would never admit they’ve done anything wrong-it will only be time before the Welsh follow, and £400,000 in Scotland doss not buy much-maybe 4 Motorhomes.
The First Minister Yousaf (rightly known as Useless) has been accused of a conflict of interest after overriding officials to give £250,000 to a Gaza aid agency while members of his family were trapped in the warzone, bizarrely days later they were released.
The First Minister stepped in after officials recommended a £100,000-£200,000 donation to Unicef, the United Nations agency which provides humanitarian aid to children, to fund water programmes in Gaza.
He overruled their advice, declaring that £250,000 of taxpayers’ money should instead be given to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the biggest international aid agency operating in Gaza, which has been criticised over alleged links to Hamas.
Mr Yousaf told officials that, since he was about to meet with UNRWA, “we should just announce an extra £250k to them”.
Scotland is a basket case but will we learn?
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Labour support muslim terrorism
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Although he might consider himself SNP
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Hamas Useless has CAUSED the problems. I thought Krankie was bad, but he surpasses her.
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I loved the motorhome reference, but surely £400k is a typo? It would be a paltry amount.
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No typo, they really care about their subjects.
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£4m wouldn’t go far, every time they try and meddle in the housing market they make it worse. The rent cap has had the opposite effect, and banning any eviction hasn’t helped. Gove take note!
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The SNP = Simply No Plan
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