Latest news with #ScottishGeneralElection
The Herald Scotland
25-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Scottish housing emergency one year on: 'There is no credible plan'
In the last 12 months, homelessness has risen. Social housebuilding has fallen. Our study with YouGov found 2.3 million adults struggling with the condition, security, suitability, or affordability of their home, or facing discrimination when trying to find one. Behind these statistics are families living in fear. Children growing up without space, safety, or dignity. All while John Swinney vows to end child poverty. But child poverty cannot be tackled without ending child homelessness. And the latest Programme for Government fails to offer either a plan or the investment to do so. It is now clear: there is no credible plan to deliver 110,000 homes and no serious effort to cut the number of households stuck in temporary accommodation. We need a Programme for Housing. What we got was a Programme for Homelessness. Read more on Scotland's Housing Emergency: Despite systemic failures in homelessness services across Scotland, there is no commitment to ramp up social housebuilding, no expanded budget, and no real investment in services to prevent more people falling into homelessness. Politicians are failing in their duty. They look away as wave after wave of families fall through the cracks. We know what it means for families to live in overcrowded, unsafe homes - to be unable to host a friend, to live in fear, to be isolated. We now have evidence of the profound harm this does to children's development and mental health, casting a shadow long into their future. We don't need more excuses. We need a Housing Emergency Action Plan - with clear, concrete targets, proper funding, and a genuine commitment to affordable, secure, permanent homes. Not a plan that shuffles people from one crisis to another. As the Scottish General Election approaches, every political party has a choice to make continue treating housing as a second-tier issue or rise to the challenge and put it where it belongs - at the centre of the agenda. Voters have power, too. We can demand more. We can ask the hard questions. We can refuse to accept that this is the best Scotland can do. Because everyone deserves more than just a roof over their head. Everyone deserves safety, stability, peace. It has been a year. If our politicians won't treat the housing emergency like the emergency it is, then we must. It is time to say: enough is enough. If those in power won't act, then it's up to all of us to speak out, stand up, and fight for the right to a home. Alison Watson is a director at Shelter Scotland.
The National
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Scottish Labour London MSP hopeful squirms in 'paper candidate' grilling
The National asked Lewisham councillor Eva Kestner about her bid to become the MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross outside a local authority meeting in south London on Wednesday evening. Asked whether she was a paper candidate, Kestner said: 'No, I'm not.'. Kestner insisted she would 'absolutely' move to the constituency, which is 650 miles away from the English capital, and claimed to have 'lots of connections' to the Highland seat. Arguing that the biggest issues facing the area were 'access to healthcare' and the 'dire' transport connections, the London Labour councillor added: 'I am a serious candidate that seriously believes in that area. 'I have lots of connections.' Pressed on her links to Caithness, Kestner replied: 'I worked for MSPs up there for a really long time, that's where I started my political journey.' In response to mockery that her desired seat is hundreds of miles away from her home, she said: 'I mean, it is what it is.' Kestner is among a raft of candidates who have been accused of being 'parachuted' into seats, with a row breaking out about the SNP's candidate in the Hamilton by-election not living in the constituency. Katy Loudon, who is running to defend the seat after the death of SNP minister Christina McKelvie, lives in nearby Rutherglen. Kestner ran for the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross seat at last year's General Election, but lost to LibDem Jamie Stone. She came third on 3409 votes, with Stone holding a majority of more than 10,000 votes. At the last Scottish Parliament election in 2021, the Holyrood Caithness seat was won by the SNP's Maree Todd, who had a 2000 vote majority over her LibDem rival. Labour came fourth in the seat, picking up just 2016 votes. Anas Sarwar's party were predicted in a poll published earlier this week to languish in third place after next year's Scottish Parliament elections. Scottish Labour were predicted to gain just 18 seats in a poll conducted by Survation for True North Advisers, which also put Reform on course to become the second-largest Holyrood party with 21 seats. The same poll said there would be a Yes majority in 2026, with 66 pro-independence MSPs elected. The upcoming Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election is being viewed as a key test ahead of next year's election on the question of whether Labour can translate their Scottish General Election victories into Holyrood success or whether the SNP could secure another five years in power.
