Highland housing crisis is ‘staggering and depressing’ says former Labour MSP and MP
Labour tabled a very appropriate and timely motion at the Scottish Parliament this week on the ‘catastrophic’ housing crisis in Scotland.
The number of Scots without a home of their own reached a new high. The number of people registering themselves as homeless reached the highest level for over 10 years. This is exacerbated by a severe lack of affordable homes.
The housing crisis has not escaped the Highlands and Islands.
• Highland Council confirms it faces a £2.8 billion ‘housing challenge’ to build 24,000 new homes
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Earlier this year, Homes for Scotland carried out a major survey of housing in the north. They discovered that there were 30,500 households facing housing need. The statistics are staggering and depressing.
Four-thousand individuals were living in chronic overcrowded accommodation. Two-thousand people were staying in ‘unfit’ housing, identifying at least one aspect as ‘very poor’. Fifteen-thousand households had at least one individual staying there who wanted to move but could not. Four-thousand people required specialised housing adaptations and nearly nine-thousand households were struggling financially because of high housing costs.
The Scottish Government plan to build 11,000 new homes in rural and island areas by 2032, but many housing campaigns argue that this is insufficient for many Highland communities to meet the demand from local people who wish to live and work there.
Many rural areas in the north, like Badenoch and Strathspey, have more second homes and holiday accommodation than they can sustain - even after the doubling of council tax on second homes from April. Historically, the Highlands have suffered from de-population in key rural and island communities and clearly shortage of affordable housing has been a contributing factor. Community activists also argue that housing need has been underestimated because the Scottish Government measurement tool (Housing Need and Demand Assessment - HNDA) is not sensitive enough to record true need.
What we do know from the last available statistics is that within the Highland Council area there were 500 households in homeless accommodation. As MSPs debated, homelessness has lifelong impacts and has an adverse effect on employability, security, physical and emotional health. As Homes for Scotland chief executive Jane Wood said: “Adequate housing is a human right, but today more than a quarter of households in Scotland are in one or more forms of housing need - including 30,500 in Highland Council.”
There are no easy answers to the Scottish housing crisis - but substantial Scottish Government funding for affordable housing, turbo-charging planning decisions and greater permitted development over land for housing would be a major step in the right direction.
By-election win for Labour
Last Friday I spent a pleasant morning in the hallowed surroundings of Inverness Town House for a couple of Highland Council by-election counts, including Inverness Central, caused by the retirement of Labour councillor Bet McAllister, who represented the area so well over many years and will be greatly missed on the council.
I was delighted that my friend, newly-retired teacher Michael Gregson was elected in Inverness Central - and condolences to SNP candidate Martin MacGregor, who ran an energetic campaign.
Michael and I were Inverness District Councillors together from 1992-96 and we both enjoyed working in the Town House, debating the various contentious issues of the day as they affected Inverness Burgh. We did not always agree, but we made our debating points with the energy and vigour of youth.
Perhaps the only time I managed to get one over him was at a grand reception for the premier of the film Loch Ness, where I managed to get my photo taken with Sir Bob Geldof, lead singer of the Irish rock band Boomtown Rats, but he didn’t. I’m not sure Michael has quite forgiven me!