Glasgow’s housing emergency was made in Edinburgh
- jacksinclair4
- 15 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Glasgow must grow its population to keep up with competitor cities and to make up for the vast depopulation that occurred during the second half of the 20th century, when the city lost half of its population.
Yet, this opportunity for growth has been throttled by the Scottish Government’s incompetent housing and homelessness policy. As usual, everyone else is to blame, apart from the SNP.
It has been over a year since a Labour motion in the Scottish Parliament forced them to admit what was already obvious to most of us after 18 years of SNP rule: there is now a housing emergency in Scotland.
Despite this admission, yet again, the number of new affordable homes completed in Scotland has fallen, with 19,988 built in 2024 compared with 21,318 the previous year.
On top of that, the number of new affordable homes started last year was down by 1,100 compared to 2023.
The SNP might well talk the talk when it comes to building homes, but since declaring a housing emergency, there has been complete inertia as housing pressure worsens.
In Glasgow, the lack of social housing supply, long delays for planning consents, weak private sector housing construction rates, along with the increase in demand for temporary homeless accommodation, have all contributed to the housing crisis in the city.
The SNP’s scandalous decision to slash the affordable housing budget by £196 million in 2024 meant that Glasgow City Council received 24% less funding to build affordable and social housing than expected. Social housing completions have fallen by a corresponding 22%.
It is wrong to pin the blame for the housing emergency on people seeking asylum or refugees. Glasgow has supported the Home Office dispersal programme since it began in 1999. During that time, the city has welcomed thousands of people who have made significant contributions to our communities.
The asylum system descended into chaos under the Tories, with people waiting years for decisions, while being denied the right to work or to access social security. The new Labour government has been working flat out to clear the massive backlog of cases.
The Refugee Council has praised Labour for “bringing the asylum system back from the brink of collapse”, saying quicker asylum decisions “means refugees can begin to rebuild their lives sooner, and the use of costly hotels can be ended faster”.
However, the Scottish Government, as usual, prioritises virtue signalling ahead of a detailed plan for housing.
After 56 days, asylum seekers who are granted refugee status and the right to work must move on from Home Office provided accommodation and find their own place.
But as housing and homelessness policy is the responsibility of the Scottish Government, their decision to suspend local connection rules in 2022 means that people who sought asylum in any local authority across the UK, once granted refugee status, can now present as homeless in Glasgow.
Last year, 1,050 homelessness applications were made by those who had been granted asylum in a UK city other than Glasgow.
The SNP’s incompetent housing and homelessness policy is the root cause of Glasgow’s current housing emergency, not Labour’s efforts to fix the asylum backlog.
Glasgow must go for growth, and a massive increase in housing supply has to be at the heart of it.
You can read my column in the Glasgow Times here:
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