0:01 AM, 6th December 2024, About A week ago
Text Size
The Scottish Liberal Democrats have accused the SNP of a “massive failure” to tackle the housing crisis.
A Freedom of Information request by the party revealed that more than 28,000 homes are sitting empty while homelessness in Scotland reaches record levels.
The news comes after the Scottish government declared a housing emergency along with12 other councils across Scotland.
The Freedom of Information request asked all 32 of Scotland’s local councils how many homes were classed as long-term vacant.
The data showed nearly 28,000 long-term vacant properties across Scotland, including 3,093 in Edinburgh, 2,929 in Aberdeenshire, 2,801 in Glasgow, and 2,584 in Argyll & Bute.
Among councils with information on how long properties had been vacant, 1,420 homes had been empty for over a year, 2,609 for more than five years, and 5,937 for more than a decade.
Scottish Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Paul McGarry says the party is urging the Scottish government to bring back empty homes into use as Scotland’s housing crisis worsens.
He said: “Under the SNP, there has been a massive failure to tackle Scotland’s housing crisis.
“Tens of thousands of homes are lying empty all while the number of people sleeping rough and moving between temporary accommodation shoots up to record levels. That is just palpably wrong.
“The SNP have made things worse by taking an axe to the housing budget and failing to build the thousands of homes they promised for social rent.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats want to bring thousands of empty homes back into use, maximising existing buildings and stock, as well as building more homes and re-establishing social rent as a viable, long-term option.”
The Freedom of Information Request reveals in 2023/24, only 579 properties were brought back into use in Glasgow – just 20% of the number of long-term vacant homes.
In 2023/24, just 71 properties were brought back into use in Dumfries & Galloway, despite the number of long-term vacant properties being 1,211.
The Scottish government say they are supporting local councils to bring properties back empty homes into use.
Housing Minister Paul McLennan told Abeerdeen Live: “Tackling the housing emergency remains an urgent matter for the Scottish government and we are supporting local authorities to encourage them to work at a rapid pace to identify properties and bring them back into use.
“We previously announced the allocation of an additional £40m to councils to purchase properties or to bring empty social homes back into use. We will also invest a further £40m for this purpose next year.
“This will build on the success of our programme to enable the acquisition of existing homes, which spent more than £83m last year and delivered almost 1,500 affordable homes.
“Since 2007 we have supported the delivery of more than 133,000 affordable homes, with more than 94,000 of those being for social rent, 40% more affordable homes per head of population than in England and 70% more than in Wales.”
