Chamber and committees

Will the cabinet secretary advise how the access all arts fund will continue to support the creative ambitions of children and young people across Scotland? Can he also provide an update on some of the projects that are under way as a result of the 2025 allocations?

With electricity prices being so high and the efficiency of alternative heating systems not yet fully accepted or understood, if we are to make real progress on the transition of our residential homes away from fossil fuels, more will need to be done to persuade a sceptical public. Will Scotland’s councils play an important role in becoming a trusted partner to help to lead the transition and provide the assurance and long-term support that people will need if they choose to make the transition in their homes?

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the Scottish digital academy is having on improving digital skills in Scotland. (S6O-04473)

According to ScotlandIS, something like 13,000 new vacancies in digital technologies are created every year, with the number rising year on year. There is a worldwide shortage of software developers, at a time when the digital revolution is having more and more of an impact on our daily lives. Salaries are pretty good, and the industry and careers can be exciting, variable and long lasting.

With that in mind, will the cabinet secretary say more about how we in Scotland can capitalise on that demand, and encourage more of our younger people to take up software development at school and join that dynamic and fantastic industry?

The Shelter report provides us with a clear message on the impact on children and young people who are experiencing life in temporary accommodation. The focus of the report on safety, health and educational development is incredibly helpful. Some of the testimonials were positive, but most were not, and they were hard to read.

The first thing that occurred to me to ask was: why does temporary accommodation generally always seem to be in such poor condition? Why is it that homeless families and kids are given housing—even temporary housing—that is not fit for purpose? There is really no excuse for that. It is as if they do not matter—that, somehow, homeless families can take second best when it comes to being rehoused. Surely that has to stop.

One of the sections in the report that caught my eye was the one on mould and dampness, which seemed to be prevalent in the temporary housing that was featured in the study. The comments from a wee six-year-old child were pretty awful, describing his or her bed as being soaking wet due to the dampness in the house. It is beyond me as to why a house in that condition can be used at all, and I ask the Government and the councils to take a serious look at preventing the use of accommodation that is not fit to be lived in. Sadly, councils have not done that for years—that includes Labour and Tory councils, let us remember.

The impacts of the issue went beyond the discomfort of the dampness itself. It had wider implications for the children, who expressed fear and anxiety to the researchers about the conditions that they were living in. Added to that was the frustration and anger of parents who were trying to solve those issues, on top of the homelessness situation that they were already facing. It presented a disturbing picture for us all.

I think back to my early days as a local councillor in the 1990s, when a big proportion of my inquiries came from tenants living in damp houses with mould. We have come a long way since then. According to the current Scottish house condition survey, 90 per cent of all housing stock is free of the stuff, but it is still there, and it is causing misery and harm in equal measure.

Only yesterday, the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee heard about testimonials from people who are suffering dampness in their homes—not temporary accommodation—and the problems that they have encountered in trying to deal with it. We know that it can be a complex issue to sort. The witnesses who gave evidence to the committee also talked about the importance of improving the specialist skills that are needed in order to diagnose and treat such problems.

Even now, 30-odd years later, there are still examples of fungicidal washing and paint being used as the sole means of keeping dampness at bay, but that does not solve the problem. My question for our councils is this: why are you continuing to allocate houses that are clearly damp and mouldy at the outset? That includes some of the temporary housing that is featured in the report. Surely we should outlaw that practice, too, as well as embracing Awaab’s law.

As ever, I am indebted to my East Ayrshire Council colleagues, who advised me that the number of kids who live in temporary accommodation down there is dropping year on year; the current figure is around 25. That figure is too high, but it is among the lowest in Scotland. The council is doing its best. It is building more council houses than ever before, and it is buying back a substantial number of properties, too. Taken together, that work shows that East Ayrshire Council is doing all that it can to tackle the problems of demand and capacity. The Government’s big investment of £768 million in affordable homes will be a significant help in dealing with the problem, and the council hopes to build more than 600 new affordable homes in the period ahead.

It is right for the main focus of my comments to be on what is in the Shelter report. I am reassured by the minister’s assurance at the outset of the debate that the Government accepts the recommendations and will act on the findings to address the issues that are presented in the report.

What preventative work has the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime been doing, particularly in relation to disrupting serious organised crime groups that target rural communities across the United Kingdom?

To ask the Scottish Government how the housing to 2040 strategy will aim to benefit Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley. (S6O-04439)

The minister will be well aware of East Ayrshire Council’s good performance on housing during this parliamentary session, which has seen 353 affordable homes being built, 169 of them by the council. Just this week, the Scottish National Party administration there opened 48 such homes in Kilmarnock. Many of those houses are already net zero compliant and are adapted and accessible to fully meet local people’s needs.

Will the minister join me in congratulating East Ayrshire on its impressive record? Is he confident that the investment to be delivered by the Scottish Government through the recent budget will further enhance the housing programme for local people in the period that lies ahead?

The APR proposals from Labour are the latest in a long line of attacks on Scottish agriculture by successive UK Governments. What assessment has the Scottish Government made of the cumulative impact of Westminster policies in recent years, including the APR proposals, on Scottish agriculture?

I say at the outset, as others have already said, that it is a wee bit disappointing that we have only four Labour and four Conservative members in the chamber for such an important debate.

People in my constituency do not need me to tell them that their energy bills are rocketing and that Labour’s cost of living crisis is getting worse. They know that and they know who is to blame, so they want to hear what we can do about that here, in Scotland, and how this Parliament is helping despite the madness of Trump in the USA. It looks as if he is ramping up tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium to 50 per cent—as we all know, the situation has gone mad with Mr Trump.

Our powers in this place are limited and we have a fixed budget to tackle many of the issues that people face, but there are plenty of examples of how this SNP Government is helping, some of which I will cover today.

We cannot overlook Labour’s disastrous performance in Government. The party was in the door for just five minutes before pensioners were robbed and abandoned. Energy bills have gone up, not down, as Labour promised, and the poor, the disabled and the most vulnerable are in for it if the rumours of another £6 billion of cuts heading our way are accurate. The easiest targets of all—pensioners and the disabled—will be made to pay for Labour’s tenure in office so far. The cost of living crisis is certainly here, but Labour is making it worse.

With some justification, Labour can point to the appalling legacy left by Liz Truss, which has already been mentioned a few times today. The Treasury biscuit tin was empty when the Tories left, but Labour must have known that before last summer’s election. The civil service always briefs any potential incoming Government on the state of the public finances, so Labour either did not understand that message or chose to ignore it and to carry on making false promises to the electorate to get a foot in the door.

“Read my lips: no austerity under Labour”

and promises to save jobs at Grangemouth will forever be millstones around Labour colleagues’ necks.