While the First Minister has changed, the composition and responsibilities of those in his cabinet will remain largely the same. This is a missed opportunity.
The evidence is clear; Scotland is in a housing emergency. Nearly 10,000 children without a home, record numbers stuck in temporary accommodation, and local services stretched beyond breaking point due to a lack of funding. Indeed, 48% of people in Scotland live somewhere that simply doesn’t have a fully functional homelessness service.
In that context, it is deeply troubling that no one who sits around the cabinet table is focussed solely on housing. We’ve already seen what happens when housing is excluded from the cabinet; the last budget slashed funding for social homes when the need for investment has never been greater.
People suffering at the sharpest end of the housing emergency need to know that their voices are being heard by those in power. That means there needs to be someone at the very top of government with a laser focus on driving the kind of urgent radical action necessary to end the housing emergency.
The lack of a dedicated voice for housing in his cabinet makes it all the more vital that the First Minister demonstrates his commitment to ending the housing emergency.
Shortly after having been sworn in as First Minister, John Swinney told reporters that reducing child poverty would be his ‘driving mission’ in office. That mission cannot succeed while 10,000 kids are trapped in temporary accommodation.
It’s time for the First Minister to recognise the reality facing thousands of people across Scotland, declare a national housing emergency, and set out a plan to deliver the social homes needed to end it.