The next item of business is a debate on motion S6M-16844, in the name of Mark Griffin, on children’s rights and temporary accommodation. I invite members who wish to participate in the debate to press their request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible.
15:59
If you are a mum or dad, or if you have no kids at all, Shelter Scotland’s publication, “In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation”, on the stories of children in temporary accommodation, is stark and a really hard, difficult read. You cannot help but imagine your own children, or kids from other families who you spoil, comfort, laugh or play with, faced with some of the intolerable conditions and situations that are described in the report.
Towards the end of the report, there is a story that a mum tells about her little boy, who is six. She says that at Christmas and on his birthday, people ask him what he would like to put on his list for Santa or to have as a birthday present. He has to say, “Nothing,” because he knows, as his mum knows, that the next time that they have to move house, when they are forced to move to the next temporary accommodation placement, they will have to leave his toys behind.
The feelings of isolation and unsettlement permeate absolutely every line of Shelter’s report. We are told that unsuitable accommodation orders are in place to stop children living in hostels or bed and breakfasts for more than seven days. However, councils are having to move families from one place to another every seven days so that they do not breach the order. Last year, the number of children who are living in such places increased by more than 200 per cent.
Can you imagine being six and packing up your whole world every single week? What would you leave behind? What would you not manage to fit in your bag that week? What of yourself would you leave behind every week? Where would you move to? What does “unsuitable” really mean?
In the report, a mum says that her home is “wet” and “very, very cold”. She says that both her boys have asthma and that they are both in and out of hospital all winter. Another describes her child throwing up blood and being in hospital for six weeks because the temporary accommodation in which they live is not clean.
In unsuitable accommodation, a child is having to brush her teeth at a bedroom sink because the area that she is supposed to use, which is around the toilet, is covered in absolute filth. Kids describe rats, bugs, mould and—every single time, again and again—the cold. They are learning resilience out of necessity, but they are lonely, insecure, cold and sad. Some of them act out at school and take their feelings out on others, which is understandable but is—again—disrupting their own education.
I cannot begin to imagine what it is like to be a parent who is trying their best, and trying to make things okay, but who is, every single day, seeing their child getting sadder and sadder, right in front of them, because of what their home is doing to them. Throughout the report, there is a feeling of children and their parents being forgotten about that will stay with me for ever. Those families, and more than 10,000 other children, have somehow disappeared into dirty, damp places that suck their childhood away.
I cannot accept—I cannot believe—that that is acceptable in Scotland in 2025. We are nearly a year into the Government reluctantly declaring a housing emergency—the same Government that promised, long ago, to reduce the number of children in temporary accommodation. We are still reading about kids witnessing stabbings and not being able to sleep at night because they are feeling scared and alone.
When I asked about the report at topical question time, the Government—as it often does—talked about empty homes, cutting voids, acquisitions and working groups. It takes a fair amount of front to respond to the details in the report—to respond to hearing about children watching someone else being stabbed—with plans for working groups. At that topical question time the other week, Willie Rennie voiced the absolute disbelief of members in the chamber when he asked the Minister for Housing whether he had actually “read the report”, because any sense of empathy or urgency in the face of the absolutely bleak reality of what the report describes seemed completely absent.
I accept that local authority housing departments are having to make impossible decisions. I do not believe that a single housing officer would ever willingly place a child in a house that they knew would cause a child harm. I do not envy them in their jobs, and I do not really know how they turn up for work. Because of the Government’s complete failure to tackle the shortage in the supply of homes and because of its abject failure to take urgent action on the housing emergency, those are the choices that we are asking housing officers to make.
The Housing (Scotland) Bill is progressing through the Parliament, but it hardly addresses the housing emergency and the conditions that are ravaging a generation of Scotland’s children. It does not build any new homes for them, nor does it stop them waking up in cold, unsafe and unhealthy rooms. They want something different, and they want that now.
Some of my amendments to the bill try to get to the heart of the issue. The Scottish Government’s failure to reduce the number of children in temporary accommodation as a matter of urgency is a breach of their rights. If agreed to, my amendments will require relevant bodies to take account of children’s rights in deciding where their homes should be. It is blindingly obvious to me that a system that places children in such situations is not putting their best interests at the heart of decision making. If it did, it would be impossible for any child in the 21st century in Scotland to have to be in hospital because of where they lived and what the conditions did to them.
I beg the Government, on behalf of the children, families and parents who are represented in Shelter Scotland’s report, as well as the thousands of others who are not quoted in it and who are in temporary accommodation, to replace the lethargy with absolute urgency. The situation that the report describes should never have happened. I ask the Parliament to collectively agree and pledge that this is the last generation of children who will have to face that situation.
I move,
That the Parliament notes the publication of In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, a research publication commissioned by Shelter Scotland from De Montfort University and University College London; accepts the findings of the publication, which concludes that children in Scotland are adversely affected by the shocking conditions found in some forms of temporary accommodation; recognises that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) provides children with rights to have their best interests considered when decisions about them are being taken, including the right to life and the ability to develop, the right to school, the right to protection from violence in all forms, and the right to play and rest; notes with concern that the report highlights a number of examples of these rights being breached; accepts that the use of hotel-like accommodation for children in temporary accommodation carries a high risk of breaching children’s rights under the UNCRC; notes that amendments to the Housing (Scotland) Bill have been laid that would require relevant bodies to have regard to the rights of the child in dealing with cases of homelessness, and calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that children in Scotland are placed in safe and secure homes which take account of their rights under the UNCRC.
16:07
I welcome this debate on housing, which follows a few weeks after the publication of Shelter Scotland’s research on children who are living in temporary accommodation. I attended and spoke at its event. The report lays bare some of the stark conditions for children and their families who are living in temporary accommodation, which Mark Griffin mentioned and which, quite frankly, are unacceptable. I agree with him on that point.
It is important to remember that not all temporary accommodation is unsuitable accommodation. However, we know that lengthy stays in temporary accommodation are not good for the health and wellbeing of families.
Will the minister take an intervention?
I will come back to the member once I am further into my speech, if that is all right.
That is why our response to the housing emergency is focused on working with local authorities and partners to increase the supply of social and affordable homes, particularly larger family homes. That will enable households to move into settled homes more quickly, which will reduce the uncertainty and instability of temporary accommodation.
Is the Scottish Government saying that temporary accommodation complies with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’s rules on the human rights of children?
I will come to that later in my speech.
We also know that harm can be caused by the condition of some temporary accommodation. The Scottish Government is clear that temporary accommodation provided should be of a consistently high standard and that the households who live in that accommodation should receive good-quality services that meet their needs. That is why, in 2023, the Scottish Government published the temporary accommodation standards framework, which sets out physical, location, service and management standards to ensure that temporary accommodation is of good quality and is safe and affordable. We will need to discuss the framework with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and other stakeholders, but all local authorities should ensure that the temporary accommodation that they provide to accommodate homeless households meets the standards in that framework. A public consultation is required before the framework can be implemented, and I am pleased to say that we will begin the consultation later this year.
The Government is focused on driving down the number of households, especially those with children, that are living in temporary accommodation. Our latest statistics show that 12 local authorities reduced the number of households that are living in temporary accommodation in 2023-24, and that 20 local authorities have reduced the number of children who are living in temporary accommodation.
With regard to actions that have been taken, I note that there has been a 40 per cent reduction in Edinburgh in the voids that Mark Griffin mentioned, a 23 per cent reduction in Fife, a 25 per cent reduction in West Lothian and a 20 per cent reduction in South Lanarkshire. The action that we are taking now is making a difference by bringing homes forward more quickly. For example, in my constituency, between September 2023 and September 2024, there was a 33 per cent reduction in the number of children living in temporary accommodation.
We know that housing and homelessness pressures are not uniform across Scotland. In response to that, we have provided funding of £80 million over this year and next, 80 per cent of which has been targeted at five local authorities that have the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures. To date, that has supported local authorities to bring 1,000 homes back into use through acquisitions and to reduce the number of empty homes. That is the action that we are taking, and we are seeing the outcomes of that coming through.
On the Housing (Scotland) Bill, Mark Griffin has lodged amendments at stage 2, and I will be happy to engage with him tomorrow at the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, and beyond.
Every child deserves a safe and warm place to call home. That is a fundamental human right. Mr Whitfield mentioned the UNCRC, and I know that he follows issues related to it very closely. Section 6 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 makes it unlawful for public authorities in Scotland to act in a manner that is incompatible with the UNCRC requirements when carrying out certain functions. That is really important, and I know that that is what some of Mark Griffin’s amendments relate to. Again, I am willing to discuss that matter with Mr Whitfield. I note that the UNCRC also requires that, in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration.
On Awaab’s law, the tragic death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale in 2020 highlighted the issue of damp and mould in housing. The quality of housing has improved over a number of years due to the actions of this Government. We know that most social landlords in Scotland keep their properties in a good state of repair and tackle issues promptly. The Scottish house condition survey shows that more than 90 per cent of homes have no damp or condensation. However, we know that damp and mould still occur and that waiting for repairs brings physical and mental health risks. I do not think that anybody wants tenants in Scotland to live in those conditions. That is why I was very pleased to lodge an amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Bill that, in a way that is similar to Awaab’s law in England—we have been working with the Government in England on this—will require social landlords to investigate and address issues in a timely manner, especially when tenants’ health is affected. We are committed to implementing a similar provision to Awaab’s law for private tenants after engagement with the private rented sector.
Will the member take an intervention?
Do I have time, Presiding Officer?
No.
I have raised that issue with Mr Simpson on a number of occasions, and I will try and bring up the issue in my closing speech.
We already have a strong set of rights and standards that have been improving the conditions of homes in Scotland. However, the measures that I describe will go even further and give tenants confidence that their health will be protected.
Hearing of the conditions that some children are experiencing in temporary accommodation has only reinforced the Government’s commitment to improve the life chances of children in Scotland. We are taking all possible actions to help to deliver more high-quality permanent homes, provide the right homes in the right places and ensure a settled home for everyone.
I move amendment S6M-16844.3, to insert at end:
“; notes the actions taken to address the issues highlighted in the report, including the publication of the temporary accommodation standards framework and bringing forward the amendment to implement Awaab’s Law in the Housing (Scotland) Bill, and welcomes that the number of children in temporary accommodation has reduced in 20 local authority areas.”
I remind members that we are always tight for time in these Opposition debates, as we are today.
I call Meghan Gallacher to speak to and move amendment S6M-16844.2. You have up to four minutes, Ms Gallacher
16:12
It has been 10 months since the Scottish Government was forced into declaring a housing emergency. Local councils, of course, followed suit, referencing the growing number of people declaring themselves as homeless and the fact that they have to place families in temporary accommodation as they do not have the supply to meet demand. At the same time, measures such as the introduction of rent controls have led to £3.2 billion of lost investment, with a significant drop in house building. Something has gone dreadfully wrong, and I have no confidence that this Government will be able to produce a plan that will tackle the housing emergency before the end of this parliamentary session.
Scottish Labour has rightly focused its debate today on the impacts of temporary accommodation and the affect that it has on children and young people.
Will the member take an intervention?
I do not have time; I have only four minutes for my speech.
The figure of 10,300 should shame the Scottish Government into action, and action is exactly what this Government promised to deliver following 15 recommendations from the temporary accommodation task-and-finish group in 2023. At that time, the Government said that it would
“prioritise action in response to the recommendations that will have the greatest impact to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation by 2026.”
That is what it promised, yet here we are, with the number of people in temporary accommodation rising exponentially.
To add insult to the Government’s injury, the publication of “In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation” lays bare the scale of the problems. I accept that a pilot programme is being rolled out to five local authorities with the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures to increase supply through buying back properties and bringing long-term empty homes back into use.
I submitted a written question to ask what immediate steps are being taken to
“guarantee that all temporary accommodation meets the basic standards of safety, cleanliness and suitability for households with children”.
The minister’s response is to advise that the Scottish Government published a standards framework in 2023, although it will need to further consult on whether the framework can be legally enforced. The framework was published back in 2023, so if the minister has time in his concluding remarks, will he answer the question of what exactly has been done?
It would be remiss of me not to mention the Housing (Scotland) Bill, which represents the Scottish Government’s biggest missed opportunity to tackle the housing emergency. The legislation should be about housing, but it will not result in the building of one single home. I will leave the issues that I have with rent controls to one side for today, but I gently remind the minister that, should billions of pounds of investment continue to be lost, that will be on his watch.
That being said, I welcome the minister’s amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Bill on the introduction of Awaab’s law, which I called for in the chamber just last week. However, that shows that many issues that could have been included in the bill have not been. I am still unclear why the amendment that the minister has lodged does not include the private rented sector, because the private rented sector will be included in the bill that is going through Westminster. Why is that not the case here? Perhaps the minister can expand on that in his closing speech. He was only too happy to tell me that most of the mould and damp instances occur in the private rented sector, despite the issue that I raised directly with him relating to a social landlord.
I am out of time, so I will conclude. The only way out of the housing emergency is to build more homes. Until this Government gets a grip on the housing situation that we face in Scotland, my fear is that more children will be stranded in temporary accommodation, which will not allow them to go on and live full lives.
I move amendment S6M-16844.2, to insert at end:
“; believes that the report underlines the urgent need for the Scottish Government to outline an action plan to address the housing emergency, and notes that the Housing (Scotland) Bill is a missed opportunity to encourage more investment and housebuilding in Scotland.”
16:17
I am deeply grateful to Shelter Scotland and the authors of this clear and comprehensive yet heartbreaking report. Just reading it is a harrowing experience. To write it and to listen to those stories must have been much more so. To live those stories—to experience those horrors—and then to retell them for the benefit of others is worthy of the greatest respect and gratitude. Most of all, I thank the children and families who shared their stories with such grace, insight and integrity.
I do not use the word “horrors” lightly. There are some terrible accounts in the report, which are all the more chilling for the matter-of-fact way that they are told. There are accounts of thick black mould not just on bedroom walls but on a child’s bed; of carpets soaked with urine and shared bathrooms smeared with faeces; of heating that does not work in the depths of a Scottish winter; and of a child in hospital with an infection caused by rat infestation. Another child lost two and a half stone as a result of their surroundings. The report talks of exposure to violence, including stabbings and shootings, and of noise through the night so loud that a child repeatedly fell asleep in their classroom.
Those are the stories that shock us, but there are many more—not so dramatic, perhaps, but just as haunting. There are the daily struggles to make a home and the quiet spirals of loss, anxiety and stigma. We read of unsafe accommodation without basic protections such as properly installed fire alarms, functional lighting, window guards or safety gates. We read of unsafe surroundings—of violence, knives, needles and confrontational neighbours—and of there being nowhere safe to play. We read of unhealthy accommodation, often cold and damp, lacking space and facilities, that leads to sleep deprivation, malnutrition, delays in development and long-term, lifetime trauma.
The mental health impacts for children and their parents are often worse than the physical impacts, through worry and anger, shame and secrecy, isolation and a sense of hopelessness. Some of those will stay with children for the rest of their lives. Some of those will make those lives shorter than they would otherwise be.
Every age group suffers. Babies and toddlers are without the space to learn to crawl and walk, with their shouts and cries quickly shushed for fear of the neighbours. Schoolchildren are separated from their family and friends as a result of long journeys to school, with missed opportunities, a loss of concentration and the recognition and sharing of their parents’ sadness. Teenagers, without privacy or a place to study, are ashamed of where they live, lose self-esteem and are susceptible to risky behaviour, with lifelong consequences.
The costs in every sense are far too high—for families, who are charged rent that they cannot afford, with debt in Scotland for temporary accommodation standing at more than £33 million; for essential furniture and appliances that should have been supplied; for storage fees and taxi fares; for running small electric heaters when the radiators do not work, again, for another week; for lost childhoods and chances; for lost agency and control; and for lost toys, with the swing in the old garden never forgotten.
However, it does not have to be like that. We can change this. Children’s rights can be realised, and they must be realised as a matter of moral as well as legal responsibility. The report’s recommendations show us the way forward. There are changes that can and must be made now—changes to provision, services and strategies; changes to legislation and policy; and changes in attitude and priority.
In my closing speech, I will say more about my commitment, which my Green colleagues share, to making a safe, secure and permanent home the reality for children everywhere.
16:21
It is really interesting that, in trying to amend Labour’s motion, the Government has lodged an add-on amendment. In effect, it is accepting that there has been a breach of the UNCRC. This is quite a moment. The Government is readily accepting that there has been not just one breach but, we assume, numerous breaches.
However, on the back of that, there is no urgent action of the type that I would expect. The minister has just repeated what he is already doing. It is quite an admission for the Government to acknowledge that the UNCRC—the United Nations international convention on children’s rights—has been breached on numerous occasions. I hope that, when the minister sums up the debate, we will hear a little more about the urgent action that is needed, because we have heard about the real consequences.
The report reveals that the issue is about not just numbers, but human lives and the impact on children’s security, health—including mental health—and education. It is about schools and transport. It is not just one child whose life is in limbo; thousands of children are in limbo.
The quote that struck me the most shows that the effect is as much mental as it is physical:
“I’m coming back to a home that no matter how I clean it, it feels dirty”.
You cannot get that out of your head. That feeling must be there 24/7—you must never escape it. Therefore, I hope that the minister responds in a much more significant way than he has done so far.
The minister talked about the standards framework, but Meghan Gallacher is right—the work began two years ago and we are still at the starting line. We do not even know what the baseline is. I have asked the minister about that previously, but he was unable to give me an answer. The Government has not even asked whether we are anywhere near meeting the standards framework. Are we? In relation to temporary accommodation, do we understand what is really going on with social landlords and private landlords across the country? It does not seem that the minister is in a hurry to try to understand that, because work on the framework started two years ago.
We should not forget that half of the children in temporary accommodation in Glasgow are from refugee families. That has not been mentioned in the debate so far. They have to live in limbo for a very long time. We need to consider how we respond to and treat refugees, because, as I have witnessed, they have to live in hotels and other types of accommodation for very long periods.
The root of the problem is the lack of investment. I disagree with Meghan Gallacher on one point. She says that the bill is not driving any kind of investment, but I think that the bill and Government policy probably are driving investment simply by removing many of the damaging policies that the Government introduced in previous years—it has neutered those—and because the Government is considering bringing in exemptions around build-to-rent housing and mid-market rents that were not there before. Therefore, the bill represents progress, but only through the removal of the barriers that the Government had put up in the first place. To some degree—[Interruption.] I am trying to be generous. To some degree there is progress. I am hunting for some credit to give to the minister.
We need to take the opportunity through the bill to ensure that those changes incentivise investment in housing, because we have seen significant detriment in recent years. There has been a 12 per cent decrease in starts for housing in all sectors and a 10 per cent decrease in completions. That is a terrible record, and we need to fix it.
Thank you, Mr Rennie. We move to the open debate.
16:25
The report from Shelter Scotland is uncomfortable and depressing reading, but, unfortunately, for many members, it will be unsurprising, and it merely confirms what we have heard from our constituents. It is an indictment of an SNP Government that allowed the housing emergency to grow and grow. That is especially true in Edinburgh, which has the highest number of children who are waiting in temporary accommodation of anywhere in Scotland. The report’s findings are stark and they show that children are being failed and that their rights are not being met.
Last year, north Edinburgh parents action group published a similar report, and both reports identify common issues that people in temporary accommodation face—particularly mould and damp. The Shelter report states that
“dampness, mould, and inadequate maintenance were observable and pervasive features of children’s daily lives”.
Damp and mould were described as causing “discomfort and fear” in children and “frustration and stress” in parents, who faced great concern about their children’s health and could not get these issues fixed for months. That situation does not meet a child’s right to an adequate standard of living or best health.
Crime and antisocial behaviour were also features of children’s and parents’ experience. One family with a four-year-old mentioned neighbours consistently shouting and threatening to kill each other at night. Many parents restricted children’s outdoor play due to crime and drug taking. Those issues alone are harmful to children’s development and health, but we must stress the compounding nature of these experiences.
Research shows that a child who cannot sleep due to antisocial behaviour is more likely to do poorly at school. A parent being stressed and anxious in their life situation can cause a child to be stressed and anxious. Years spent in temporary accommodation have lifelong consequences, so investing in housing, raising standards and, most important, lowering the waiting time for social housing will benefit us all in the long term.
The conditions that are described in the report are appalling and shame us all. They fall far short of what vulnerable children need and deserve. Shelter’s recommendations should be implemented by the Scottish Government. I have called for Awaab’s law to be implemented in Scotland, to ensure that damp and mould are addressed, so I welcome the fact that the Scottish Government is in favour of that.
Children lose out socially and educationally when they move schools, so we should keep them in the same school unless it is absolutely necessary to move them.
Above all, we need to build more social housing. That is the clearest demand in the report. The current rate of social and private house building does not touch the sides and must be accelerated.
As we approach a year since the housing emergency was declared, the report serves as a painful reminder that a failure to act is failing Scotland’s children.
16:30
The SNP Scottish Government is committed to every child having the right to grow up in a safe and comfortable home. In its report, Shelter Scotland states:
“The Scottish Government has taken bold steps to adopt a human rights approach to ending adverse childhood experiences. Their decision to enshrine the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots Law promised a Scotland where ‘every child has the right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and social needs and support their development.’”
That ensures that children’s voices are not just heard but listened to.
However, I accept that too many children live in temporary accommodation. The Scottish Government recognises that, which is why it is taking the decisive action that is needed to address the housing emergency, get families out of temporary accommodation and eradicate child poverty in Scotland.
In Scotland, we invest more per person to tackle homelessness and keep people in their homes than any other United Kingdom nation. We are delivering a further 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and are set to invest £768 million in the affordable housing supply programme in 2025-26, so that everybody in Scotland can have the safe, warm and affordable home that they deserve.
Despite dealing with a challenging financial context, Scotland continues to make steady progress in how it tackles homelessness. To reduce the use of temporary accommodation, we are taking action, such as the £83 million national acquisition programme, which delivered almost 1,500 social and affordable homes over 2023-24. We will go further by investing an extra £80 million in acquisitions between 2024 and 2026. All that will play a strong role in keeping children in secure and safe homes.
However, we all have a part to play in this, and that includes the UK Government. Mr Griffin is a really decent guy, but I am sure that, like me, he is still shell-shocked by his party’s inhumane attack on disabled people yesterday, when it announced benefits cuts. Those will have a dreadful impact on many people’s financial security and, consequently, on their housing situation. That disgusting decision penalises those who are most vulnerable.
Anas Sarwar has bizarrely claimed that that is “not austerity”. If it is not austerity, what is it? Clearly, that is austerity. Independent analysis by Crisis has shown that austerity-driven policies, such as the two-child limit, are undoubtedly driving up homelessness across the country. That contrasts with the SNP’s commitments to ending the two-child policy, and this year it will provide around £97 million in discretionary housing payments to mitigate the bedroom tax and the benefit cap.
In the face of Westminster austerity, the SNP has delivered an average of 7,750 affordable homes across Scotland each year. Prior to that, at a time of plenty, when it was last in office, the Labour-led Scottish Executive built just six council houses. Since 2007, more than 135,000 affordable and social homes have been completed under SNP Governments. That is, proportionately, 45 per cent more affordable homes than have been built in England and 70 per cent more than in Wales.
Despite the Labour Party promising change, it is delivering more of the same. In contrast, Scotland is the only part of the UK where child poverty is expected to fall, which is a direct result of the SNP’s progressive policies that put children first. The consequential impact of Labour’s cuts on support to disabled people that were announced yesterday will put much more pressure on the Scottish Government. However, only the SNP will take the housing emergency seriously. As part of that, we recognise that that includes the rights of children to have a safe and secure home, and we need to work together on the matter.
16:34
It is now nearly a year since the Scottish Government accepted what the rest of us already knew, and declared a housing emergency. It has been a year of missed opportunities and increasing misery for those who do not have a permanent place to call home. What a pity that the cabinet secretary is not here today to help out her beleaguered housing minister.
Will the member take an intervention?
No. The minister can come back in later, potentially.
Government statistics show us that 15,500 children in Scotland became homeless last year. According to Shelter Scotland, 10,360 children are currently in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 5 per cent compared with the previous year and a 150 per cent increase over the past 10 years. Those are damning figures.
None of us here is in the position of living somewhere that we know is only temporary. The Shelter report, “In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation”, spells out from the children affected a situation that should make the Government sit up. It is little wonder that Alison Watson of Shelter Scotland said:
“Their words have put into stark relief the fact that children are bearing the brunt of Scotland’s housing emergency. Our children are being denied their rights and condemned to growing up in often poor quality, entirely unsuitable, temporary accommodation.”
She is right.
Children spoke of living
“miles away from friends”
and of sleeping in
“beds covered with black mould, placed in accommodation with urine-soaked carpets, dead rats and broken windows, with no access to decent cooking and washing facilities.”
They also spoke of lack of sleep, poor nutrition and hygiene and repeated hospital visits. All that places a great emotional toll on the children and their families. It is hard to imagine the uncertainty that such a lifestyle—if we can call it that—brings.
In February, we learned that more children are trapped in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh than in the whole of Wales. That is more than 3,600 as of November 2024, compared with 2,823 children stuck in temporary accommodation across Wales in the same month. Glasgow is in the same position. As of 30 September 2024, there were 16,634 households in temporary accommodation in Scotland.
It is not just about the overall figures; it is also the length of time that families are spending in temporary accommodation. For cases that closed between April and September last year in which there was at least one temporary accommodation placement, households spent an average of 234 days in temporary accommodation. That is shocking. That compares with 222 days for the same six-month period in 2023 and 233 days for the period from October 2023 to March 2024. The situation has got worse—and it is worse in Edinburgh.
According to the Government’s own homelessness update of last September, between April and September, there were 7,500 instances of households not being offered temporary accommodation, which is breaking the law.
The minister mentioned Awaab’s law. I have seen an amendment that might deal with the issue, although I am not really sure. He mentioned that the measure would aim to fix problems “in a timely manner”. I do not know what “a timely manner” means; perhaps the minister can explain what that is.
We have known about all those problems for years, but very little has changed. The reality of life for some people in Scotland is a badge of shame, which should make any housing minister consider their position.
16:38
It is a pleasure to follow Graham Simpson in this very important debate.
The voices of Scotland’s children need to be heard. The report “In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation”, commissioned by Shelter Scotland—for which I thank Shelter—puts those words not just in front of the Parliament but in front of the people of Scotland. It reports that more than 10,000 children are living—or, rather, enduring life—in temporary accommodation. As we have just heard, they are forced to live for upwards of a year in such conditions, with mould-invested rooms, beds soaked with urine and space shared with vermin being just some of the harrowing conditions that have been reported.
That is not just an issue of poor housing; it is a fundamental breach of human rights. Such conditions actively harm children’s physical and mental health, their development, their education and their life chances. It is not only a housing crisis, but a moral failure. We are a country that prides itself on our values of fairness and human rights, yet children here are growing up isolated from their peers, placed far from their schools and subjected to environments filled with fear and anxiety. Those are not just bad conditions; they violate the rights outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which this Parliament enshrined into law.
Article 27.1 states that parties—that is, Governments—recognise
“the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.”
The article makes it clear that, unequivocally, it is the responsibility of the Scottish Government, under the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, to ensure that those rights to adequate standards of living are upheld.
I welcome the fact that, as Willie Rennie pointed out, in its amendment to the motion, the Scottish Government accepts its responsibility and, indeed, the breach of the UNCRC rights.
Children have a right to live in safe, stable and secure environments. They have a right to attend school without fear of being displaced or living in unhealthy conditions. They should not have to suffer the trauma of inadequate housing that impacts on their health, education and wellbeing. The Scottish Government has a responsibility to uphold those rights. Its failure to do so is not just a policy failure but a failure to meet the moral and legal obligations to protect children here.
The consequences of the breach of children’s rights are profound. Children suffer from sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, respiratory illness and mental health challenges. They fall behind in their education, struggle to maintain friendships and live in fear for their future. They are the effects of not only poor housing; they are the direct result of the failure to prioritise children’s rights in policy and in practice.
On top of that, the oversight board for the Promise reminds us in its recent report that children of families in temporary accommodation are more likely to be taken into care. When we fail on housing, we fail on so much. The right to a home is fundamental to the Promise being kept.
Scotland’s children deserve more than just words. They deserve a Government that takes action to address the crisis and ensures that every child has access to a safe, stable and supportive home environment. I welcome the fact that the minister will close the debate. I wonder whether he recalls that, in 2012, when he was leader of East Lothian Council, he said:
“We are proud of what we have achieved.”
He continued:
“But we recognise that we’re only as good as our last achievement.”
I ask the minister, what was the last achievement relating to children in temporary accommodation that he is proud of?
16:42
The Shelter report provides us with a clear message on the impact on children and young people who are experiencing life in temporary accommodation. The focus of the report on safety, health and educational development is incredibly helpful. Some of the testimonials were positive, but most were not, and they were hard to read.
The first thing that occurred to me to ask was: why does temporary accommodation generally always seem to be in such poor condition? Why is it that homeless families and kids are given housing—even temporary housing—that is not fit for purpose? There is really no excuse for that. It is as if they do not matter—that, somehow, homeless families can take second best when it comes to being rehoused. Surely that has to stop.
One of the sections in the report that caught my eye was the one on mould and dampness, which seemed to be prevalent in the temporary housing that was featured in the study. The comments from a wee six-year-old child were pretty awful, describing his or her bed as being soaking wet due to the dampness in the house. It is beyond me as to why a house in that condition can be used at all, and I ask the Government and the councils to take a serious look at preventing the use of accommodation that is not fit to be lived in. Sadly, councils have not done that for years—that includes Labour and Tory councils, let us remember.
The impacts of the issue went beyond the discomfort of the dampness itself. It had wider implications for the children, who expressed fear and anxiety to the researchers about the conditions that they were living in. Added to that was the frustration and anger of parents who were trying to solve those issues, on top of the homelessness situation that they were already facing. It presented a disturbing picture for us all.
I think back to my early days as a local councillor in the 1990s, when a big proportion of my inquiries came from tenants living in damp houses with mould. We have come a long way since then. According to the current Scottish house condition survey, 90 per cent of all housing stock is free of the stuff, but it is still there, and it is causing misery and harm in equal measure.
Only yesterday, the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee heard about testimonials from people who are suffering dampness in their homes—not temporary accommodation—and the problems that they have encountered in trying to deal with it. We know that it can be a complex issue to sort. The witnesses who gave evidence to the committee also talked about the importance of improving the specialist skills that are needed in order to diagnose and treat such problems.
Even now, 30-odd years later, there are still examples of fungicidal washing and paint being used as the sole means of keeping dampness at bay, but that does not solve the problem. My question for our councils is this: why are you continuing to allocate houses that are clearly damp and mouldy at the outset? That includes some of the temporary housing that is featured in the report. Surely we should outlaw that practice, too, as well as embracing Awaab’s law.
As ever, I am indebted to my East Ayrshire Council colleagues, who advised me that the number of kids who live in temporary accommodation down there is dropping year on year; the current figure is around 25. That figure is too high, but it is among the lowest in Scotland. The council is doing its best. It is building more council houses than ever before, and it is buying back a substantial number of properties, too. Taken together, that work shows that East Ayrshire Council is doing all that it can to tackle the problems of demand and capacity. The Government’s big investment of £768 million in affordable homes will be a significant help in dealing with the problem, and the council hopes to build more than 600 new affordable homes in the period ahead.
It is right for the main focus of my comments to be on what is in the Shelter report. I am reassured by the minister’s assurance at the outset of the debate that the Government accepts the recommendations and will act on the findings to address the issues that are presented in the report.
We move to the closing speeches.
16:46
In closing the debate for the Scottish Greens, I reiterate my thanks to Shelter and to the researchers, children and families who made the report such a valuable, challenging and human testament. It shows us not only what is wrong, but the paths to making it right—to making the rights of children real.
There are immediate provisions to be made on support and services and access to amenities and facilities, as well as to better—much better—temporary accommodation, while that is still needed. There are policies to be changed. Standards for temporary accommodation need to be set at the same level as those for permanent housing. Primary health services need to be included in prevention strategies. Families with children and those children who are most in need must be prioritised.
There is a wider picture, too, which is a desperately urgent one. We again call on the Scottish Government to build more high-quality permanent homes for social rent, including homes that are large enough for families. We reiterate our commitment to ending homelessness and to a housing first approach as its central pillar. We call on the Parliament to show courage and commitment in making the Housing (Scotland) Bill an opportunity for transformational change. The amendments that we and others have lodged will go some way in helping with that.
No child should face eviction over the winter months. No woman who faces domestic abuse should have to make the choice between staying in an abusive home and making herself and her children homeless. No family should have their physical and mental health jeopardised by mould and damp.
I welcome the opportunities to engage with the minister and others on those and many other issues over the coming months, as the Housing (Scotland) Bill makes its way through Parliament, but I echo Willie Rennie’s call for the minister to tell us how he intends to address the recommendations in the report, because we need action now.
We also need to see compassion and justice at every level of government. Poisonous rhetoric about social security, suspicion and scorn for those who are in need, and an obsession with work, when parents are already working their fingers to the bone and still cannot afford to eat, will not help. It seems that the workhouse mentality—the idea that the very worst thing that a Government can do is to provide food and shelter for someone who does not deserve them, whatever “deserve” means in that context—has not gone away. In truth, the worst thing that a Government can do in this context is deny children the basics of a happy childhood as a way of punishing their parents.
When we, as a Parliament and as a nation, passed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill we were not just taking on a legal responsibility; we were taking on a moral one. We in the Scottish Greens take that moral responsibility seriously and I know that colleagues across the chamber do too. We also need the conviction to act. We must act, and we must do it now—for all our children’s sake.
16:50
Shelter Scotland’s report can be summed up in one sentence: the SNP has failed Scottish children. Our country is gripped by a housing crisis, which is forcing thousands of vulnerable people out of their homes and into a system that is unable to handle the workload.
As has already been mentioned this afternoon, more than 33,619 households were assessed as homeless in 2023-24, including 15,000 children. Take a moment to think about that: there are 15,000 children without a safe place to call home. In the past 15 minutes of this debate, we have heard not one practical solution from the Government or its members for how that is going to change. That number should shame all 129 of us and it should shame the Scottish Government even more.
In my region, here in Lothian, the picture is as bleak as it is on the national level. There were 3,600 children in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh in 2023-24. As Mr Simpson pointed out, that figure is larger than the total number of children in temporary accommodation in the whole of Wales during the same time.
The Government must stop talking and start acting to protect the most vulnerable in our society. For too many years, it has continued to oversee a worsening situation. Make no mistake, what we see in Scotland today is a modern-day scandal.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has the right
“to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.”
As Mr Rennie pointed out, the Government has not sought to amend, only to add to, the Labour motion before us. It is happy to accept that it is in breach of the convention, not just once but over and over again.
Not only is the number of children in temporary accommodation unacceptable, but, as we have heard from other speakers, the conditions in the accommodation are often unacceptable: mould, damp and heating systems that do not work during winter months. That is unacceptable.
We have a housing bill, which we will debate tomorrow in the Social Justice and Social Security Committee but which will bring almost no benefit to those children. The Government has refused to look at amendments that would improve the bill. It wants to discourage people from renting accommodation; we will see fewer properties being put up for rent in the next years because of what is in the bill.
It is even worse than that. The only way to solve the problem is to build more houses, yet what have we seen under this Scottish Government administration? There has been a fall in house building in Scotland. Unsuitable accommodation, a lack of house building, and no willingness to listen to experts and change the housing bill—the Government should go away and think again, not for my sake, but for the sake of the children here in Lothian and across Scotland.
16:54
The report that was published earlier this month highlighted the devastating impact that living in poor-quality temporary accommodation can have on children’s lives. We have heard examples of that today, and I take addressing that as one of my main objectives as housing minister.
In response to the research findings, Shelter Scotland stated that we—all of us—
“have a duty to act”
on what we have heard. The Government is already acting. I talked about the £768 million investment in acquisitions and voids funding, which has enabled reductions in Edinburgh, as I think Foysol Choudhury mentioned, and in four other areas that are under the most sustained pressure.
However, we all need to act on the issue together. One key thing that was in the Crisis report was the need for the UK Government to act on local housing allowance and tackling poverty. Local housing allowance is being frozen again, and the Crisis report mentioned that that has the biggest influence in pushing people into homelessness. We need the Labour Government to act on that and, again, I ask colleagues from the Labour Party to engage with that. The Tories had that policy for a number of years and knew the impact of it, so they have to take responsibility on that point. That report mentioned that the policy on local housing allowance pushed people into homelessness, which the Tories have to acknowledge.
Our ambition—all members’ ambition—is for every household to have a settled home, and we are firmly committed to reducing the number of households that are in temporary accommodation.
I will touch on the point that Willie Rennie made about voids and acquisitions. In engaging with the housing to 2040 group, we have worked with local authorities on targeting homes that need to be purchased for families with large numbers of children. That is a targeted focus, and a reduction in temporary accommodation has started in 20 local authorities. That is key. I have talked about the £200 million that is increasing housing supply, and I will come on to Meghan Gallacher’s point about investment in a second.
We are all, rightly, concerned to hear of the experiences that children described in the research of living in conditions that breached the unsuitable accommodation order. Of course we are—everybody is. The action that the Scottish Government is taking now is intended to move us out of the housing emergency, but that will take time and requires a sustained and joint effort from all parties. I will touch on that in a second.
As was mentioned, local authorities—of all colours—are responsible for that, too. They are all working extremely hard to increase the supply of social, affordable housing and deliver services for people who experience homelessness. We have been working, and will continue to work, in partnership with local government. We will not support the Tory amendment, for the very reason that we have been working very closely with local authorities on their housing emergency action plans. We think that it is better to work with local authorities on their own local housing emergencies rather than the national picture. We have seen the effect of that, through a reduction of about 40 per cent in Edinburgh, for example.
Will the minister take an intervention?
Yes, if I have time.
What is the point of declaring a national housing emergency if the Government will not take national responsibility? We would be as well just to leave the 32 councils to get on with it and not bother with declaring a national housing emergency in the Parliament.
Minister, I can give you the time back.
I am happy to answer that point. Our action is in consultation with local authorities. The situations of local authorities in Edinburgh, Glasgow and elsewhere are all different.
We have targeted an increase in the budget to £768 million. The increase in voids and acquisitions funding is an important part of that. We have talked about the £4 million pilot for the Scottish empty homes partnership. We think that it is better to work in engagement with local authorities on their specifics. That is demonstrated in the action that we are taking and in the reductions that 20 local authorities have had in temporary accommodation for children. That is an important point. Reducing the number of households and time spent in temporary accommodation is a priority for the Government, as it is for everybody else.
Housing is critical to the delivery of our national mission to eradicate child poverty. I think that Marie McNair made the point that the UK Government’s announcement yesterday on disability benefits will not help the housing situation at all. It will push more people, including more families with children, into homelessness.
The Scottish Government spends more money per person on discretionary housing payments than the UK Government does. Again, the UK Labour Government can help on that. We are spending £97 million in 2025-26, which is an increase on 2024-25. Again, the UK Government could help us to reduce the figures that we talked about.
I want to talk about some of the amendments.
Will the minister accept any responsibility for the actions of his Government that have led to a housing emergency and the issues of temporary accommodation for children?
Minister, I can give you the time back.
I will come back to that point. On the amendments—[Interruption.]
I said that I would come back, and I will come back to the points that were made by Meghan Gallacher after I address Mark Griffin’s points.
We discussed the UNCRC. We will vote for the Labour motion, but we are also trying to acknowledge the progress that has been made.
Meghan Gallacher made a few points about the task and finish group, which fed directly into the Housing (Scotland) Bill. On investment, she knows as well as Graham Simpson does that I value the impact of build to rent, mid-market rent and other investment opportunities. Just this afternoon, we met the housing investment task force, which has produced recommendations. The Government will look at those and will get back to that group quickly. We acknowledge the value of that area. The task force also fed into the rent controls discussion. As I said, we will come back to that point.
Willie Rennie made a point about looking at opportunities in the investment sector, and Mr Rennie and I have talked about the value of bringing investment into Scotland. We need that. It is not just about Government funding; it is about funding from other areas as well.
Mr Rennie made a point about asylum issues, which we are discussing with the UK Government. As Mr Rennie mentioned, there are specific pressures in Glasgow, but we are discussing that particular point with the UK Government.
On Meghan Gallacher’s point, of course we take responsibility for our actions. That is why we have the £768 million, the temporary accommodation fund and the £4 million for that. We will engage with Shelter on that point, too. Of course we have taken responsibility—that is why we have taken the actions that we have decided to take.
On a point that Graham Simpson made, the cabinet secretary is not here because she has a long-standing meeting with the UK Government—I wanted to put that on the record.
Willie Coffey made the point that parties of all colours are involved. All local authorities are involved.
We have touched on amending the Housing (Scotland) Bill to require social landlords to investigate and address issues that, if left unattended, could cause health problems or worse, as in the case of Awaab Ishak. That measure would provide tenants in the social rented sector with assurances that their homes will be of good quality, and we are engaging with the private rented sector on that.
Scotland has strong homelessness rights, which mean that households have the safety net of temporary accommodation when that is needed, as a legal right. We are taking action, and we are seeing those actions coming through. The number of children in temporary accommodation has dropped in 20 local authorities, and the number of voids is also falling.
We have also implemented a wide range of anti-poverty measures, including the Scottish child payment and mitigating the bedroom tax and the benefit cap to address issues that we know contribute to households presenting as homeless and to negate the need for them to enter temporary accommodation.
Please conclude, minister.
I am happy to meet Mr Griffin and Mr Whitfield to discuss the point about the UNCRC. The Housing (Scotland) Bill will strengthen protections for households from potential harm that could be caused by living in social rented properties.
17:02
It is a privilege to close today’s debate on behalf of the Scottish Labour Party. I will start where Maggie Chapman and others started, by thanking Shelter Scotland for all its work on the issue. Today, as we are having the debate, 15,000 children are homeless, as Jeremy Balfour reminded us, and 10,360 children are living in temporary accommodation across Scotland.
At the start of the debate, my colleague Mark Griffin and others set out the dark reality of the situation every day for children and those who are closest to them. We heard from members across the chamber about the intolerable conditions that children find themselves in. As many said, we have also been devastated by the tragedy of the death of Awaab Ishak. I was pleased to hear that members from across the chamber, including Meghan Gallacher, the minister and others, support the need to act and bring in Awaab’s law. I hope that members will support the amendments on the issue to the Housing (Scotland) Bill, which are in Mark Griffin’s name. I agree with Willie Rennie that the Government could inject urgency in addressing the issue and that supporting those amendments could indicate that.
The number of people who are in temporary accommodation placements that have been in breach of the unsuitable accommodation order reached 7,400 in 2023-24, which was an increase of 41 per cent, or 2,160, on the previous year. Shelter Scotland’s recent report on children’s experiences in temporary accommodation, which is a painful reminder, as Foysol Choudhury rightly called it, and a damning report, as Graham Simpson correctly stated, sets out the intolerable real-life consequences of those alarming statistics for some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged children in our society. Many members share those concerns and mentioned that today.
The UNCRC sets out what we and they—children across Scotland—should expect. That the UN has commented on how bad things are must be a wake-up call, as Willie Rennie said. I agree with Martin Whitfield that the situation represents a failure.
The UNCRC provides children with rights to have their best interests considered when decisions about them are being taken, including the right to life and the ability to develop, the right to school, the right to protection from violence in all forms and the right to play and rest. It is a huge concern that the Shelter report highlights that those rights are being breached.
One such right that has had attention from members across the chamber today is in article 28, which states that every child has the right to an education. Given its wide-ranging impact, it is no surprise that many members spoke about that today. The instability and uncertainty that come with living in temporary accommodation have significant impacts on a child’s education and development, and, ultimately, on their life chances. Every day that a child spends in temporary accommodation is a day too long and is a day that holds back their education and their opportunities. Shelter Scotland’s report lays bare the impact of that.
The logistics that children and their parents face when their housing is not near the children’s school include long commutes and the associated financial burdens, lateness and increased stress. The disruption to school attendance, social connections and emotional stability that comes with frequent relocation, which Willie Coffey spoke passionately about, sees many children have trouble adjusting to new schools and losing access to friends, networks, preferred resources and activities.
Pupil absence rates are stubbornly high for many, and the Government must consider that that issue could be exacerbated for children who are living in temporary accommodation. The quality of temporary accommodation has been highlighted as a significant factor in young people and children’s distress at home and in school.
The Shelter Scotland report concluded that
“Noise and inadequate sleep in temporary accommodation negatively impact on children’s academic performance and concentration.”
The report also found that instability affected teenagers’ eligibility for education maintenance allowance, which further exacerbates concerns.
There is much evidence on the link between poor housing and negative educational experiences, which is why it is the case that we should move children who are living in temporary accommodation into secure housing not only because it will improve their life chances today but because every one of the 10,000 children in Scotland who are in temporary accommodation will otherwise be held back in future.
That issue is keenly felt by my constituents in the Glasgow region. A recent letter from Glasgow City Council to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee revealed that, as of February this year, 3,503 children were living in temporary accommodation in Glasgow. That is more than the number of children who were stuck in temporary accommodation across the whole of Wales in December. The city of Glasgow alone has more children in temporary accommodation than the whole of Wales does—let that sink in. Ultimately, children in the region that I represent, and across Scotland, are being failed. There is no excuse and no explanation for the amount of children in temporary accommodation.
Although I am pleased that most members engaged with the seriousness of the issue, I have to say that I am a little disappointed that some members chose to list Government actions—or the lack thereof—that have so far failed, instead of setting out how they could get serious about addressing this housing crisis of the Government’s making.
We must act quickly to move children to secure, safe and affordable homes. The use of hotel-like accommodation for children in temporary accommodation carries a huge risk of breaching children’s rights under the UNCRC, but it is also a failure of our moral duty to children across Scotland.
I note that there are UNCRC-related stage 2 amendments to the Housing (Scotland) Bill that would require relevant bodies to have regard to the rights of the child in dealing with cases of homelessness. I hope that the minister will support them tomorrow.
Scottish Labour wants everyone to live in a warm, safe, accessible and affordable home. That means driving up the supply of housing across all tenures and ensuring that children in Scotland are placed in safe and secure homes that take account of their rights, including those under the UNCRC. I hope that, at decision time, Parliament will support our calls to do that.
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