The story of how Mariam in the north of Glasgow has been left stuck in temporary accommodation after losing her home is heartbreaking.
She was given a no-fault eviction and had never missed a rental payment. Health issues mean she can only work part-time – with landlords unwilling to let her a home because of her employment.
She is now living an hour’s drive from her children’s school and social clubs. Mariam says she feels like a failure as she has no home to call her own.
But her story is not an isolated case. There are many more families just like hers all across Scotland. The country faces a huge housing and homelessness emergency.
A record number of Scots – including 10,000 children – will wake up on Christmas day without a home to call their own. But the problem is not getting any better because we are not building enough homes.
Housebuilding is down at least 10 per cent, with affordable housebuilding starts at their lowest levels in more than a decade. The Record welcomed the Scottish Government acknowledging the scale of the problem by declaring a housing emergency earlier this year.
But this meant little after Humza Yousaf cut the housing budget. It was welcome that the cuts were reversed in the recent Budget. But the Scottish Government needs to pull out all the stops to build more homes. Only then will we end the scourge of homelessness.
Pricing puzzle
It’s bonkers that it’s cheaper in some scenarios to fly from Edinburgh to London than it is to travel by train between Scotland’s two biggest cities. One route covers a distance of more than 300 miles. The other is around 40 miles.
Yet, if you travel at peak times between Glasgow and Edinburgh, you’ll pay £31.40 for a return ticket, compared to a return by air between Edinburgh and London Stansted that can come in under £30. If rail fares aren’t affordable – which, for many, they are not – how exactly does the Scottish Government, or its nationalised ScotRail service, expect to get people out of their cars and on to trains?
This at a time when we’re supposed to be finding greener ways to travel. Instead, if Scots fancy a trip to London, it’s more cost-effective for many to take a plane – the most polluting form of transport. SNP ministers need to get their transport priorities straight – fast.
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