To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in tackling the housing emergency. (S6O-04437)

We are delivering a range of actions in response to the housing emergency. To support rapid action, we have targeted an additional £40 million at the local authorities that face the most sustained homelessness pressures. We have also announced an additional £1 million from this year’s budget to go directly towards sustaining tenancies.

In 2025-26, we will deliver an increased affordable housing supply programme budget of £768 million, along with £4 million in homelessness prevention funding and additional funding to bring more privately owned empty homes back into use.

Recent statistics show the scale of Scotland’s housing emergency under the Scottish National Party. There are 250,000 people waiting for social housing, more children are trapped in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh than in all of Wales and housing starts have started to slow down. With those figures in mind, what are the Scottish Government’s specific outcomes or benchmarks when it comes to ending the housing emergency?

I will highlight some of the actions that we have been taking since the housing emergency was declared. Twelve local authorities are reducing homelessness and 20 local authorities are reducing homelessness in relation to children. There has also been a 55 per cent reduction in the number of void properties in Edinburgh, which is the member’s local authority, a 23 per cent reduction in South Lanarkshire, a 25 per cent reduction in West Lothian, and a 20 per cent reduction in Fife. As I mentioned, there is also a £768 million budget.

This is about a partnership approach, too, and one of the key issues is the local housing allowance, which was referred to in a publication by Crisis. I will be looking for the member’s support for increasing the local housing allowance as part of tackling the housing emergency.