'Utterly disgraceful': Sack demands as children in temporary accommodation hits highest level in 23 years
Thousands of Scots were left homeless last year after the government slashed its affordable housing spending.
Scottish ministers have been accused of “shameful negligence” as it was confirmed the number of children stuck in temporary accommodation had soared to the highest level in more than 20 years.
John Swinney was urged to sack Housing Minister Paul McLennan, as the damning figures were published after the SNP Government previously slashed its spending on affordable housing.
Statistics published on Wednesday show there were 16,634 households in temporary accommodation at the end of September last year, including 10,360. This is an increase of 6 per cent and 5 per cent respectively on the previous year, and the highest level since 2002.
There were also more than 7,500 households not offered temporary accommodation despite councils having a legal obligation to do so, with the vast majority of these cases being in Glasgow.
There are now calls for Mr McLennan to be sacked as housing minister for his party’s “shameful negligence” on homelessness.
Between April and September last year, there were 17,424 households classed as homeless or threatened with homelessness - a rise of 4 per cent on the same time period in 2023.
This comes immediately after the Government cut £200 million from the affordable housing supply programme in its 2024/25 Budget.
During this time period, the Government also declared a national housing emergency after several councils declared local housing emergencies.
The statistics show there were 20,823 applications for homelessness assistance made in this period - an increase of 1 per cent. There were also 32,727 open cases of homelessness by the end of September. While this is slightly lower than the 32,377 recorded at the of June, it is 6 per cent higher than the 19,856 in September 2023.
Of those declaring themselves homeless, 1,198 had slept rough the night before - a rise of 32 per cent - and 1,785 had done so at some point in the previous three months, an increase of 25 per cent.
The number of adults who were in a “homeless household” rose by 4 per cent to 19,893. There was a slight fall of 1 per cent in the number of children associated with homeless households to 8,063.
In total, 20,345 were lifted out of homelessness between April and September - an increase of 5 per cent.
Maeve McGoldrick, head of policy and communications for Crisis in Scotland, said: “None of these figures will come as a surprise to anyone working in homelessness services.
It was almost an inevitability the SNP was going to find itself with this mess to deal with when it slashed hundreds of millions of pounds from the affordable housing programme in last year’s budget.
The public could probably see it coming too - in June, Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville declared a national housing emergency, so we all knew things were bad.
In fact, homelessness got worse in 15 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, with the biggest increases being seen in Glasgow with a 22 per cent rise and Dundee with a 21 per cent rise.
Glasgow has already declared a local housing emergency, and Shelter Scotland is urging Dundee City Council to do the same.
But next year (and let’s remember 2026 is an election year), the SNP could very well find itself facing the same problem.
John Swinney has increased the affordable housing fund to £768 million in the draft 2025/26 budget, but he really had no other choice after his government declared a housing emergency.
But while this is a 26 per cent increase in the money for affordable housing in this financial year, it is still 3 per cent less in real terms on what was spent in this area in 2023/24.
So this £768m, which sounds great, does not actually even cover the cut made in 2024/25 by former first minister Humza Yousaf.
The SNP will also need to get a move on if it wants to reach its target of building 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, 70 per cent of which will be available for social rent.
By the end of June 2024, the number of affordable homes being approved fell by 1 per cent and the number of affordable homes started fell by a whopping 20 per cent.
It may be pessimistic to say right now, but there is a very long and difficult road ahead for the SNP to get on top of this in time for the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.
“As the cost-of-living crisis continues to impact household incomes, more people are being forced from their homes, often in circumstances where we know it could have been prevented from happening.
“That means more children forced to grow up without a safe, secure place to live and more money being spent on emergency responses, while the key causes of homelessness go unresolved.”
Glasgow recorded the biggest increase in those who had to be housed in temporary accommodation, with 516 households in the council area in this situation - a rise of 16 per cent from September 2023. There was also a large rise in councils acting unlawfully by failing to offer temporary accommodation.
Ms McGoldrick said the figures showed councils were working to reduce homelessness numbers, but they “can’t keep up with growing demand”.
She said: “That has led to growing numbers of people sleeping on the street, more people placed in accommodation that is totally unsuitable for their needs, and more instances of councils failing to meet legal obligations.
“We need a targeted response to stop more people from being forced into the trauma and indignity of homelessness.”
There are now calls for Mr Swinney to sack Mr McLennan from the housing brief over what has been described as a “national scandal”.
Mark Griffin, Scottish Labour’s housing spokesman, said: “The SNP slashed funding for affordable housing and raided council budgets for years.
“The SNP’s shameful negligence has left thousands of Scots with no home, hundreds sleeping rough, and more than 10,000 children without the safe, secure home they deserve. It means nothing to declare a housing emergency if you don’t take any action to deal with it.
“By any measure, Paul McLennan has failed as housing minister and it is unthinkable for him to stay in the job.
“John Swinney needs to take responsibility for his Government’s appalling failures, sack his housing minister and set out a real plan to tackle this emergency and ensure every Scot has a home.”
Meghan Gallacher, the Scottish Conservatives’ housing spokeswoman, said it was “utterly disgraceful” to see a record number of children living in temporary accommodation.
She said: “The SNP continue to be asleep at the wheel while a national housing emergency continues to spiral out of control on their watch. Their only plan to fix this emergency is wasting more taxpayers’ money on a Housing Bill that won’t help to build a single new home.”
Ms Gallacher added: “It is time for Paul McLennan to show some common sense. He needs to drop any plans for permanent rent controls and outline a real plan to fix Scotland’s housing emergency and deliver the homes we need.”
Paul McGarry, the Scottish Lib Dems’ housing spokesman, said: “It makes you wonder what on earth the SNP have been doing for the last 18 years. In Scotland, affordable housebuilding has collapsed and the cost-of-living crisis has made rent and mortgages unaffordable for so many.
“Last year, the SNP made that situation even worse by taking an axe to the housing budget.”
He said one of the reasons the Lib Dems were supporting the SNP’s 2025/26 Budget was to get additional money invested in affordable homes to “stop ever-greater numbers of people from being plunged into homelessness”.
Mr McLennan admitted the number of homeless people and children in temporary accommodation was “far too high”. But he said the Government was taking “decisive action” to make sure people did not end up being homeless.
“The key to tackling homelessness is delivering more homes and we have a strong track record in doing so, having supported the delivery of 135,000 affordable homes since 2007,” he said.
“That’s 47 per cent more per head of population than England and 73 per cent more than Wales. However, we can and will go further.”
The housing minister said the 2025/26 draft Budget replaced the £200m previously cut from the affordable housing programme, claiming the Government was targeting the areas where there was most need.
A further £42m will be spent on bringing 1,000 empty homes back into use, and £4m on frontline homelessness prevention services.
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