Exclusive:Scottish Budget: Anas Sarwar in demand to 'unleash housebuilding' for cost of living 'meaningful change'
Anas Sarwar has called for “structural, meaningful change” for families facing the cost-of-living crisis
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has set out a need to “unleash homebuilding” across Scotland as he refuted claims he has handed SNP ministers a bank cheque in Tuesday’s Budget.
Mr Sarwar told The Scotsman that a focus on ramping up housebuilding and a strategy to retrofit homes would provide “structural, meaningful change for families”, amid a warning the current system is “trapping people in an uncertain housing market”.
But the Scottish Labour leader was forced to deny claims his party is allowing John Swinney’s government to have a free rein over the Budget, despite being a minority government.
On Thursday, Mr Sarwar confirmed Labour will not vote down Shona Robison’s Budget, essentially securing the SNP’s spending plans through Holyrood, despite them not yet being published.
Mr Sarwar said the Budget would have passed regardless, with support from the Greens or Lib Dems, although Labour’s move means SNP ministers do not need to placate other parties for their spending plans to pass.
The Scottish Labour leader told The Scotsman that any suggestion his party was handing the SNP a blank cheque was “not true”.
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He said: “The discussions have been happening for weeks between the government and other political parties. We have engaged in those discussions in good faith, as have the Greens and the Lib Dems, I believe.
“But let’s live in the real world. The Greens and the SNP are in a symbiotic relationship. They both want to see a continuity of John Swinney in government. They both want to see the SNP remain in office and a 19th John Swinney budget is not going to change the outcomes for the country. A new government can and will and that’s what I’m relentlessly focused on.”
Ms Robison and Mr Swinney has suggested that Tuesday’s Budget, alongside boosting the NHS, will focus on measures to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis.
The Scottish Government has set a flagship target to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, but just over 31,000 have been delivered so far.
Asked by The Scotsman what cost-of-living priorities should be looked at, Mr Sarwar said: “If you look at what’s happening around housing, so much of the pressures that come on individuals come either from mortgages, rents or running costs of a home - whether that be their energy bill or anything else”.
He added: “If you look at the fall in home-building, not enough support going into retrofitting homes, that is trapping people in an uncertain housing market.
“That’s why we need to unleash homebuilding across the country and having a full programme of retrofitting of homes is going to be really crucial.
“It’s not just a sticking plaster on the cost-of-living, it’s a structural, meaningful change for families. Sadly, I don’t think that kind of proposal is going to come from this government.”
Speaking in Coatbridge alongside local Holyrood candidate, Kieron Higgins, Mr Sarwar added that there is a need to “prioritise getting growth in our economy” and “using the fruits of that growth to invest in our public services but also reduce the tax burden for people in the country”.
He said: “That is also not just a sticking plaster for one year, that is something that focuses and supports people for the long-term as well.
“These areas we’re exploring and we’ll be setting out more as we get closer to the election.”
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