In Parliament

I support the Scottish Government’s Housing (Scotland) Bill. Below you can read my full speech which highlights the bills focus on homelessness prevention and support for domestic abuse victims. The original Conservative motion ignorred these important issues.

Here's a quick summary:

1. Preventive Measures: The bill introduces an "ask and act" duty for public services to identify and support individuals at risk of homelessness before it occurs.
2. Support for Domestic Abuse Victims: Sections 44 and 45 address the need for social landlords to consider domestic abuse issues before evicting tenants for rent arrears and link domestic abuse policies to eviction policies.
3. Additional Bodies: I would like to see the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office, and Social Security Scotland in the bill’s provisions.
4. House-Building Programs: As a parliament, we all need to come together on the budget bill to build more houses for Scotland.

I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the Scottish Government’s Housing (Scotland) Bill, because there is much to value in it. It is worth noting parts 5 and 6, on homelessness prevention duties and duties in relation to domestic abuse victims. Those provisions are about doing all that we can to prevent an individual or family from getting into crisis in the first place and potentially ending up under pressure and putting strain on the homelessness system. In other words, the bill is about stopping people feeding into the housing emergency pressures in the first place and stemming the human cost where we can.

I feel that the Conservative motion is wholly ignorant of those important issues. That is because the Conservatives are playing politics and are not looking at the practical policies in the legislation before Parliament that can make a real difference. The bill is not a silver bullet, but it can make a real practical and on-the-ground difference.

I am now pleased to turn to those policies. At the heart of the preventive nature of the bill is the ask and act duty, which will be placed on those in public services such as Police Scotland, the national health service, housing associations and various local authority departments. Should someone be concerned that there are vulnerabilities that could, down the line, lead to homelessness, they will have to ask and they will have to act. Risk is identified, and support offered, before homelessness looms.

I acknowledge that such a duty could put additional pressures on the bodies concerned, and we must look at that in the budget process. There has to be trauma-informed training for staff; that, too, has to be looked at. We also have to make sure that this is not simply a signposting process back to local authority homelessness departments. The bill has real potential to do something meaningful about changing the flow of people from precarious tenancies into the homelessness system.

I would add to the list of bodies set out in the legislation the Department for Work and Pensions. We cannot force it to do anything, but we can have a concordat. Likewise, I would add the Home Office, given its role in asylum seeker accommodation in Scotland, and possibly Social Security Scotland, too.

Turning to areas relating to domestic abuse, I note that section 44 has a new pre-action requirement for social landlords who are seeking to evict for rent arrears to take such issues into consideration. Section 45 would link the domestic abuse policy of social landlords to their policies on evictions.

A wonderful group that I have worked with called financially excluded, which is based in Glasgow, has told me about many women—it is nearly always women—who have ran up significant debt as a result of credit cards, store cards, other bills or rent arrears, because they are suffering financial abuse as part of a domestic abuse scenario. They can still be evicted for rent arrears—and that should not be allowed to happen. Often, the abuser keeps the tenancy, and the woman has to flee. Where there is no risk of physical violence, why does the woman have to flee the family home? Can the bill do more in relation to that?

The bill that will deal with house-building programmes—an issue that we have heard a lot about this afternoon—is the budget bill, is it not? We will have to come together as a Parliament and ensure that more money is provided for the bricks and mortar to build houses in this country. We can debate the UK Government’s erosion of Scotland’s capital budget all we like, but let us come together on the budget bill to build more houses for Scotland.

Mr Sweeney, with one or two exceptions, gave a very good speech. I say to him that housing associations in my local area are actively seeking to buy back properties from the private sector, using Scottish Government funds. More funds would be welcome, but they are actively doing that.

I commend the Scottish Government’s amendment to the chamber.