Greens seek consensus in Holyrood housing debate
The Scottish Greens will today outline radical proposals to improve the availability and affordability of houses in Scotland during an opposition debate at Holyrood.
The Scottish Greens are the only political party to call for a reduction in house prices to improve affordability and as the party’s housing spokesperson Andy Wightman will make clear, Greens are campaigning for greater rent controls, a vacant land tax and a target for fixing leaky homes.
Andy will look to find consensus with the political parties who all agree there’s a “housing crisis” in Scotland.
Lothian MSP, Andy Wightman said:
“In this debate, we will build on the broad consensus in parliament that we are in the midst of a housing crisis. We need more and affordable quality homes. Yet, the ways in which we can achieve this differ between Scotland’s political parties.
“The Green approach centres on eliminating the speculative volume housebuilding industry. It’s time for a new model of housebuilding – one which reflects well established practices in much of Europe including Germany and the Netherlands.
“Only with action to improve the quality and energy efficiency of existing homes can we ensure that everyone in Scotland has a comfortable, warm and affordable to heat home to live in. We need to tackle fuel poverty head on by bringing in effective and practical energy efficiency measures that will not only deliver multiple health, economic and social benefits, but reduce our emissions too.
“Linked to this, we support the introduction of a vacant land tax to get landowners building on brownfield sites. As rents are increasing faster than people can afford, we will also call for rent controls to provide greater security of tenure and make renting a positive option.”