Motion calls on Scottish Government to recognise housing crisis

Council Leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick told a meeting of the council’s executive that councils of every political stripe were facing pressures from homelessness.

Professional bodies such as CoSLA and those representing housing professionals have also branded Scottish public housing as in crisis.

Councillors voted 10 to 3 for the Labour-led motion against an amendment from the SNP which laid the blame for the housing crisis at the door of the Labour-led administration for not building enough homes.

Councillor George Paul, executive councillor for housing services, said: “I am deeply disappointed that the Scottish Government has not provided additional financial support to West Lothian to help with the costs of temporary accommodation.

“Despite allocating additional funds to homelessness this year the council is forecasting an overspend of more than £2 million.”

Despite West Lothian having the fourth largest number of households in temporary accommodation in Scotland, the council will not receive any share of an extra £2 million announced by the Scottish Government.

A report to the executive said: “Funds will be distributed to some councils where there is no use of unsuitable accommodation due to volume of presentation and where numbers of households in temporary accommodation are some of the lowest in Scotland.”

Housing officers have pointed to a variety of factors for the surge in homelessness, including the cost of living crisis and a huge departure from private rented accommodation as landlords have deserted buy to let markets.

On top of this legislation changes have removed local connection rules which mean anyone can present as homeless in West Lothian.

A cross party working group had produced “innovative” short term solutions to tackle the situation.

However, the council is projecting an overspend of £2.473 million on homelessness in 2023/24. This projected overspend takes account of a one-off budget of £500,000 in 2023/24 which was agreed to help mitigate the pressure in B&B spend and one-off prevention funding of £400,000.

Demand for housing outstrips supply by 312 per cent in one of the few local authorities in Scotland which has actually retained a council house building programme in the last decade.

Lib Dem Linlithgow Councillor Sally Pattle said: “I’m flabbergasted at this decision. It’s almost as though local authorities working the hardest to address homelessness are being punished.”

Andrew McGuire, vice convenor of the housing services PDSP, said: “The hypocrisy from the SNP today is astounding and staggering. For most of the past ten years West Lothian has built more council housing that any other local authority in Scotland and the SNP council have voted for the housing budget every year.

“The hypocrisy ignores that behind each statistic is a family that has to spend far longer than it should in temporary accommodation.”