Fixing the housing crisis should be high on the SNP’s agenda.
It’s a crisis that has been created on their watch.
The nationalist government has been forced to declare a housing emergency, following West Dunbartonshire Council doing so recently.
No wonder. The situation is stark.
Homelessness is on the rise.
The housing budget has been cut by more than £200 million.
Rents in Scotland are rising at ridiculous rates - among the highest increases anywhere in the UK - because of socialist control measures.
That all amounts to not just an emergency, but a scandal.
I see the scale of the situation regularly as a member of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.
Week after week in the Scottish Parliament, I raise the many problems in the housing sector that the SNP seem unwilling or unable to tackle.
I’ve held the SNP to account on the lengthy social housing waiting lists, the rent controls that have caused havoc for landlords and housebuilders, and the severe problems in the planning system.
I also spoke to 31 out of 32 local authorities earlier this year about the challenges they are facing.
It’s clear to me what needs to change, but SNP ministers don’t seem to have any vision for the future of housing in Scotland.
We need to end the housing emergency for the benefit of future generations of Scots.
The Scottish Conservatives will continue to stand up for people who want to get on the property ladder, while the SNP seem content to keep kicking away the ladder.
They don’t want to celebrate hard work, they would rather tax it and limit the ambitions of hardworking Scots who just want to get ahead in life.
