Presiding Officer, I wish you and everyone across the chamber, and all the Parliament staff, a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2025. I send a special thank you to our emergency service personnel, who will be working throughout the festive period.

Scotland is in the middle of a housing emergency. While all of us here will wake up this Christmas morning to see the joy on our loved ones’ faces, this year a record number of Scots will wake up without a home to call their own. Homelessness is at record levels, 10,000 children are living in temporary accommodation, and hundreds will be left to wake up in hostels, refuge centres and bed and breakfasts. Is John Swinney still proud of his Scottish National Party Government’s record on housing?

I associate myself with Mr Sarwar’s remarks and express my good wishes to you, Presiding Officer, and to parliamentary staff for a happy Christmas. I express my appreciation to those in the emergency services, our volunteer community and our public services who will be working hard to keep everybody safe and supported during the Christmas break.

On the question of housing, the Government accepts that there is a housing emergency. We are not building enough houses. We have built more affordable houses per head of population in Scotland than have been built in other parts of the United Kingdom, but we are not building enough, which is why the Government has significantly increased the housing budget for the next financial year by more than £200 million. We have allocated £768 million, representing a 38 per cent increase in the housing budget, to help build the housing that is required to meet the needs of people in Scotland.

The Government has a strong record on building houses, but we have a changing society that requires more house building, and the Government is putting in place the resources to make sure that that can be the case.

John Swinney is talking about correcting the mess that his Government has made, but this is about people here and now. I will give one example out of thousands.

Mariam is a single working mum in Glasgow. Almost two years ago, she and her four children were evicted after she complained about mould and leaks that were affecting her children’s health. She was forced to declare herself homeless and was put into temporary accommodation, an hour from her children’s school, where she and her family have been living ever since—five people crammed into a two-bedroom flat. Despite Mariam’s efforts, her daughter, who dreamed of being a dentist, had her education so disrupted by the chaos that she missed out on her dream by just one mark.

The housing emergency has an immediate impact, but can you not see that it is also impacting the life chances and outcomes of our young people? How can the Government be proud of its record?

It is important to look at the data and the evidence. Over the past 14 years, we have lived through a period of punishing austerity. That is a financial context that Mr Sarwar and I agree about: we agree that the period of austerity has been incredibly damaging for public infrastructure and the public fabric of our country and that it has significant social and economic implications.

In that context, the Scottish Government has built 73 per cent more affordable homes per head of population than has been built in Wales and 47 per cent more than in England since 2007. That is the record of this Government, and I will argue for it. The facts speak for themselves: against the prevailing tide of austerity, the Scottish Government has built more affordable houses per head of population than any other part of the United Kingdom. However, I accept that that is not enough, which is why we have just increased the budget and put in a commitment to ensure that we can encourage and motivate more house building to address the very issues that Mr Sarwar raises with me today.

The facts do speak for themselves. There are 10,000 children in Scotland who are in temporary accommodation, which is a record high, but all that the First Minister wants to do is point to other parts of the country rather than look at his own record of failure.

The truth is that this crisis has been years in the making. I remind members that these are your constituents who I am talking about—children in your own constituencies—who are living in temporary accommodation.

Always speak through the chair, please.

The truth is that this crisis is years in the making. Mariam’s heartbreaking story is just one example out of thousands. [ Interruption .]

Let us hear Mr Sarwar.

On John Swinney’s watch, house building is down by 10 per cent, the number of affordable and private homes that have been built is the lowest in more than a decade, and there are more than 11,000 council houses lying empty. Every statistic is another example of a family that has been failed and a future that has been squandered.

As Alison Watson from Shelter Scotland has said:

“Despite declaring a national housing emergency earlier this year, the Scottish Government has failed to get to grips with a deepening crisis ... More than 10,000 children will wake up facing the trauma of homelessness this Christmas—the highest number on record”.

That is 10,000 children without a home to call their own on Christmas morning. First Minister, how many children will wake up homeless under this Government next year?

I agree with Mr Sarwar on the objective of ensuring that children do not live in poverty—that is absolutely at the heart of my Government’s programme and of everything that we are trying to do.

On housing, I am afraid that it is not good enough for Mr Sarwar to dismiss the points that I have made about the evidence. In a climate of austerity, the Scottish Government has built more affordable houses per head of population than have been built in any other part of the United Kingdom. That is a simple statement of the evidence on our commitment to housing.

In the budget proposition that we have put forward, £768 million is allocated to the housing budget. As part of that, resources are available to tackle the issue of voids, which has been tackled during the current financial year, to bring more properties into use. Government expenditure is being used to support that activity.

In addition to all that, the Government’s budget provides a record settlement for local authorities: the £1 billion increase in local authority funding will support services that include homelessness services.

This is where we get to the crunch point. In a few weeks’ time, we will find out whether Mr Sarwar is interested in a solution or whether he is interested only in rhetoric. The Government’s budget will have to be voted for in this Parliament. The people of this country have just had an insight into Mr Sarwar’s rhetoric. We have heard Mr Sarwar’s rhetoric on the WASPI women—women against state pension inequality. Before the election, the Labour Party promised big, bold action on the WASPI women, but it has delivered absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Mr Sarwar is in no position to come here and give any of his rhetoric unless he is prepared to vote for the Government’s budget and help to lift children out of poverty.