LightningMinion launched his campaign for the new seat of Highland, Grampian and Fife with a speech in Kirkcaldy:

It has been a privilege to serve this town at Holyrood for the past few years, and today I am announcing that I am running for re-election so that I can continue to stand up for this town in the Scottish Parliament and work to deliver a better Future For All.

Earlier today I was talking to a group of voters regarding the housing situation in Fife. One of them was telling me that they have been trying to find a house to rent but have been struggling to find any good, affordable options. Another was telling me that they wish to move out of their current house, but that they haven’t found any options on the housing market they can afford. Another said they are having to move out of their rented house as their landlord increased their rent and they cannot afford it anymore. Another voter also expressed to me their concerns about not everyone in this town having a roof to sleep under. What these conversations made clear to me is that Fife has a housing crisis, and that tackling it must be a priority of the next government.

One of the causes of housing being unaffordable is a lack of supply. We’ve all heard about the basic economic laws of supply and demand, and how prices fall when supply meets demand. This is what has been the priority of Scottish Labour’s plans: building more houses so that the supply of new houses meets the demand for housing, allowing house prices to fall to affordable levels.

And how do we plan to boost house building? Earlier this year, thanks to legislation I drafted, the Scottish Housing Agency was created as the new body which decides whether to grant planning permission to housing projects. This removed politics out of the planning process while ensuring that local residents have a say in local housing projects. This alone has already helped increase how many houses are being built, but more needs to be done.

One type of housing we especially need more of is social housing, with this being especially important for tackling homelessness. Current strategies for tackling homelessness have ultimately failed to tackle the problem in Scotland as some people are still having to sleep outside on the cold streets. However, one city has virtually eliminated homelessness: the city of Helsinki. Homelessness is often a complex issue but Helsinki found that the solution is the obvious one: give those who are homeless a house without any conditions whatsoever. Then, from the stable foundation that a house gives their lives, those who are homeless can rebuild their lives. They can access support services, access education, interview for a job, etcetera, knowing that they no longer need to worry about where they will spend the night, how they will stay warm throughout the night, how they can access a bathroom, and so and so on.

Under Scottish Labour’s plans, all homeless persons would be offered a social house or flat which has running water, electricity and heating unconditionally. But to make this possible, councils need to have enough social housing, which they currently often do not have. This is why we are proposing to give the Scottish Housing Agency the responsibility to build social housing and to end homelessness, and why we would ensure that the Agency has enough funding to build the necessary houses. But, in the meantime, while these houses are being built, the homeless still need a warm bed to sleep in. This is why we will invest in temporary accommodation as a temporary solution to prevent the homeless from sleeping outside in the cold before they can be given a house on a more permanent basis.

Thanks to legislation passed by the now defunct Scottish Tories, once the homeless are given a social house to live in, their landlord would normally expect them to move out after a fixed time as all social housing contracts are fixed, short-term contracts. Social housing should give vulnerable households security, but this law has made all social housing contracts insecure. This is why Scottish Labour will repeal this legislation.

In addition to building more social houses, Scottish Labour will also seek to have private developers build more affordable houses. During the Rainbow Coalition, I helped create the Affordable Housing Fund to provide housing developers the necessary funding to build affordable houses, and Scottish Labour will hand responsibility of administering this fund to the Scottish Housing Agency so that it can become a national housing agency coordinating house building across Scotland and ensuring that enough houses are being built.

The effect of all of these policies will be that much more housing is being built across Scotland, satisfying demand and leading to house prices and rents falling to sustainable, affordable levels.

Earlier I mentioned how one voter I spoke to cannot afford an increase to their rent and has to move out. They are not alone: there have been many cases of landlords raising their rents to levels their tenants cannot afford. This is why Scottish Labour has committed to introducing rent stabilisation measures which will limit how much a landlord can increase rent by. We will additionally make private rented accommodation much more secure for tenants by finally banning no-fault evictions so that good tenants who have never breached their tenancy contract cannot be kicked out of their house for no good reason.

Scottish Labour has a proven track record of taking measures to tackle the housing crisis, and we are the only ones with a detailed, comprehensive policy to tackle the housing crisis this election. The SNP is more interested in their disastrous, fairytale dream of independence than in alleviating the housing crisis while Forward’s plans are full of vague, undetailed commitments with no plans for achieving them.

If you want a government who will take the necessary steps to tackle the housing crisis and ensure that you’re able to find rented accommodation which you can afford, that you’re able to find a house on sale for a price you can afford, and ensure that no one has to go without the basic human need of a house in one of the world’s richest nations, then vote for Scottish Labour this Friday to build a Future For All! Thank you!