Homelessness

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 25 April 2012.

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Photo of Malcolm Chisholm Malcolm Chisholm Labour

As the convener reminded us at the start of the debate, the homelessness legislation—in particular the 2012 commitment—is one of the most important pieces of legislation that this Parliament has ever passed. It is also perhaps the most internationally recognised Scottish legislation, as I discovered when I spoke at a homelessness conference in Brussels in 2005 and realised that the whole of Europe was looking at Scotland’s approach to homelessness legislation.

We should pay tribute once again to the various organisations that made important contributions to the preparation of that legislation, particularly those in the homelessness task force. Many of those organisations have continued to contribute to our discussions, including our committee deliberations and the stakeholder event that we held at lunch time today.

Like the convener, I thank Angela, the service user, with whom I spoke at lunch time. Nothing is more important for MSPs than to talk to those who are experiencing or have experienced the problems of homelessness.

We all know that homelessness is about more than bricks and mortar, although those are clearly vital, as I will discuss further in a moment. Prevention has always been central to the homelessness agenda. I agree with Margaret Burgess that there have been great improvements in the past 10 years, and many witnesses who gave evidence to the committee spoke about the change in culture that had come about through the housing options approach and in other ways.

The committee makes two recommendations in that regard: first, that there should be measures to ensure consistency in the housing options approach; and, secondly, that there should be a measurement tool for homelessness prevention work.

Various members have mentioned the 20 per cent reduction in applications in one year. I do not wish to rubbish that figure, but members ought to note the recent article by the director of Shelter, which asked probing questions about that. We must be very careful to ensure that the housing options approach is implemented in the most effective way, which is why measures to ensure consistency are particularly important.

On prevention, there is a new duty to provide support, which arises from the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010. A consultation on that has just concluded. The committee recommends that that support should include money advice and debt counselling. At lunch time, I became aware that a debate is going on about whether regulations or guidance should be provided in relation to that duty. It was interesting that most of the stakeholders to whom I spoke at lunch time thought that guidance would be preferable.

We do not have time to speak at great length on the supply of affordable housing, but the committee clearly believes that it is strongly relevant to the issue of homelessness. I have spoken on many occasions over the past few months about the importance of investment in affordable housing, and I repeat my view that it should be the number 1 priority for capital expenditure, although I recognise the late improvements that were made in the budget process to increase the amount of money that goes into that area.

The private sector is important, too. The committee looked in considerable detail at the sector’s role and recommended that the Government should look at the possibility of a new tenancy regime for the private sector to make that sector more attractive for people who are homeless. It is clear that the housing benefit changes could have a negative impact on that. Time is running out, so I cannot make the obvious points that I made in the recent debate on housing benefit about the general negative effect that those changes will have on our homelessness commitment.

Temporary accommodation will have to be used even more from the end of this year, but the committee cautions against unacceptable levels of temporary accommodation and recommends that there should be standards for temporary accommodation, on which the Scottish Housing Regulator should report.

My time is up. We should recognise the progress that has been made, but we should certainly not be complacent.