The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday May 15 2024 #Housing
Scotsman head of news Dale Miller catches up with political correspondent Rachel Amery about problems for councils in delivering vital services
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello, welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin
00:12 for this Wednesday.
00:13 My name's Dale Miller.
00:14 I'm head of news at the Scotsman.
00:17 I'm joined by political correspondent, Rachel Armory.
00:20 Good morning, Rachel.
00:21 - Good morning.
00:23 - We're here firstly to talk about the front page
00:26 of the Scotsman and it's a story of Rachel's
00:30 that we've led on a 585 million pound black hole
00:35 for Scottish councils that have put vital services
00:38 in jeopardy.
00:40 It's a massive figure.
00:41 We'll come back to that, Rachel,
00:43 because we want to talk firstly
00:46 about the housing emergency.
00:47 The Scottish government set to declare
00:49 an official housing emergency today.
00:52 We knew there was gonna be a debate
00:54 and a vote happening in Holyrood anyway.
00:57 What I think our readers and viewers will want to know,
01:00 what does this change, Rachel?
01:02 - Yes, so this afternoon, Scottish Labour Party
01:05 are having an opposition day debate
01:07 and they're using that chance to push
01:09 for a housing emergency to be declared.
01:11 This is on the back of, I think, five councils now
01:13 who have declared housing emergencies locally.
01:15 I think in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Argyll and Bute,
01:18 Western Bartonshire and Fife have already done this.
01:21 So this will be to declare a national housing emergency.
01:24 And ahead of this happening this afternoon,
01:25 the Scottish government have said,
01:27 yes, we are going to declare a housing emergency.
01:30 Now, beyond acknowledging this crisis that's happening
01:33 and using this platform to call on the UK government
01:36 for more money, it doesn't actually change
01:38 very much off the front.
01:40 So if you're homeless or you're struggling with housing,
01:43 you're looking at temporary accommodation,
01:46 that kind of thing, it's not going to change anything
01:48 immediately for you, unfortunately.
01:50 It's more just of a acknowledgement of the issue
01:52 that's happening at the moment.
01:54 - And how have we got to this point?
01:57 We know that there was a whole heap of budget discussion
02:00 about the money that was not committed to housing
02:04 by the Scottish government.
02:05 They've said it's the UK government's fault
02:07 that they didn't get enough money, in essence.
02:10 But how did we get to this point where housing
02:13 is in such short supply that there is an emergency?
02:16 - Yes, I think the problem changes
02:18 depending where you are in the country.
02:19 If you look at somewhere like Edinburgh, for example,
02:21 there's quite a big problem with short-term lets,
02:24 for example, whereas if you look at Glasgow,
02:27 I think there's a lot of problems with the influx
02:30 of asylum seekers coming in, and some of the rules
02:33 around accommodation and where they can stay.
02:36 If you go somewhere into the rural areas,
02:37 you've been to the Highlands, it's, I think,
02:39 the lack of house building that's happening at the moment.
02:41 So it really does depend on whereabouts in the country
02:43 you are as to what the main problem is with housing.
02:46 But as you said, there are some issues
02:48 with funding for this as well.
02:50 So the Scottish Government say that the blame
02:51 is with the UK Government because there's been 9% cut
02:55 to their capital budget in real terms.
02:58 However, others would say the Scottish Government
02:59 is to blame because for their budget this year,
03:01 they cut, I think, 200 million pound
03:03 from their housing budget, and that includes
03:06 their affordable house building budget as well.
03:09 Now, last month, before Humza Yousaf
03:10 stepped down as First Minister,
03:12 he's announced an extra 80 million pound
03:14 over two years for housing.
03:16 But that, of course, doesn't quite go as far
03:18 as the cuts that have so far been made.
03:20 So it depends on who you ask as to who's to blame here,
03:23 but it does seem that there's lots of things
03:25 all at work at once as to why we have now
03:27 got to this situation.
03:29 - And Rachel, talking about the lack of money,
03:31 we'll go back to that headline figure
03:33 on the front page of the Scotsman today.
03:35 585 million pounds, I mean, to the average person listening,
03:40 it is a massive amount of money.
03:43 I know I'm sitting here in Fife,
03:45 and I know that there are plenty of potholes
03:47 in the local roads.
03:49 What are we talking about?
03:50 What does this practically mean for people
03:52 that are sitting there watching in their houses across Scotland?
03:56 - Of course, it does seem a bit kind of far away
03:58 when it's such a big figure that encompasses
04:00 the whole of Scotland.
04:01 This is the collective figure for all
04:03 of Scotland's 32 local authorities.
04:05 And it does seem that we're just being constantly told
04:08 how stretched council budgets are.
04:10 It can sometimes feel a bit sort of difficult
04:13 to really grasp what it means,
04:14 but essentially it means that more services will be cut
04:17 and more extra charges will be put onto individual households.
04:22 For example, where I am, we pay for garden waste collection.
04:25 So things like that,
04:26 we'll have to get more charges added on, for example.
04:29 And I think the Lib Dems were saying this is critical
04:32 because it could then affect frontline services
04:34 such as education and of course, housing as well there.
04:38 So there will be services that people rely on
04:41 that will be cut down, cut altogether,
04:44 extra charges incurred, but it is difficult to grasp.
04:47 It's such a large figure at the moment.
04:50 - And you talk about those frontline services.
04:52 We know there's a debate happening this afternoon
04:55 around teacher cuts, an example being in Glasgow
04:58 where there's some planned cutbacks in teacher numbers
05:03 linked back into the council as well.
05:06 Rachel, thank you very much for joining us.
05:09 You can read all and more about those stories
05:11 at scotsman.com.
05:13 Go to the politics tab in the navigation bar
05:16 for the latest coverage from Rachel herself
05:18 and the rest of the political team.
05:20 And please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X
05:22 and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow for your full roundup.
05:26 Thanks very much for joining us.
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