Housing in Scotland
“They shall build houses, and inhabit them.” Isaiah 65:21
1. Affordable Local Family HousingThe Scottish Christian Party believes that Scotland’s housing policy should support local communities built around the family unit. The dispersal of the extended family, owing to the lack of housing near to parents and siblings, is of major concern as it weakens traditional family support systems, particularly in the care of the elderly. The Scottish Christian Party will seek a year on year increase in the supply of affordable housing (and crofting land where appropriate) earmarked for members of local families. However, through our other policies, we will try to reduce the demand for new homes to the extent that demand is driven by family breakdown.
2. Housing Asylum SeekersThe Bible is clear as to our responsibility to love and to care for the “stranger in the land” and to “love our neighbour as ourselves”. These principles guide the Scottish Christian Party’s policy on housing asylum seekers. We also recognise that the handling of asylum seekers is seriously in need of improvement. The current situation is bad for the majority of asylum seekers, who are marginalised and alienated, and bad for the host community who see money and resources assigned in ways that are patently not fair nor right, and sometimes wasteful. We further recognise that the majority of asylum seekers are single people (mostly men). The Scottish Christian Party suggests that local authorities adopt the practice of ‘Asylum Seeker Hosting’.
3. HomelessnessThe Scottish Christian Party recognises the need for a more structured homelessness policy. In the past, priority was given to those with a local connection. Now an applicant can leave a house in one local authority and the present themselves as homeless within a matter of days in a different authority, and in many cases be accommodated within days to the disadvantage of others. The current and proposed legislation are detrimental to the local community because there is no local connection clause, affording someone from a distant location the same status as someone from the current local authority.
The Scottish Christian Party will seek to reverse this trend and revert to the situation prior to the Housing (Scotland) Act 2003, so that an applicant cannot jump the queue to apply for homeless status in a different authority immediately after leaving a house. The applicant will be referred back to the authority they have just left (with the exception of domestic abuse or other cases where the applicant may be at risk).
4. Housing Stock Transfer & Public AssetsWe will seek to create a public sector housing model that retains the accountability of local government with low capital costs, along with greater involvement of tenants in the running of services.
This can be attained either 1. through a “housing partnership” where the tenants have voted for this, or 2. through the local authority with suitable input by tenant forum representatives.
This model has run successfully in the Hebridean Housing Partnership, Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership, and the Scottish Borders Housing Association.
We will support a repetition of the stock transfer offer with the eradication of debt as an incentive.
We will seek to ensure that decisions about land owned by public bodies, or in the ownership of charities who receive government assistance, are transparent. These decisions should be in the best interests of Scottish society as a whole through the planning process. We will reinstate genuine ‘local connections’ as a basis for housing allocation.
Christian Party Members of Parliament will:
“They shall build houses, and inhabit them.” Isaiah 65:21
1. Affordable Local Family HousingThe Scottish Christian Party believes that Scotland’s housing policy should support local communities built around the family unit. The dispersal of the extended family, owing to the lack of housing near to parents and siblings, is of major concern as it weakens traditional family support systems, particularly in the care of the elderly. The Scottish Christian Party will seek a year on year increase in the supply of affordable housing (and crofting land where appropriate) earmarked for members of local families. However, through our other policies, we will try to reduce the demand for new homes to the extent that demand is driven by family breakdown.
2. Housing Asylum SeekersThe Bible is clear as to our responsibility to love and to care for the “stranger in the land” and to “love our neighbour as ourselves”. These principles guide the Scottish Christian Party’s policy on housing asylum seekers. We also recognise that the handling of asylum seekers is seriously in need of improvement. The current situation is bad for the majority of asylum seekers, who are marginalised and alienated, and bad for the host community who see money and resources assigned in ways that are patently not fair nor right, and sometimes wasteful. We further recognise that the majority of asylum seekers are single people (mostly men). The Scottish Christian Party suggests that local authorities adopt the practice of ‘Asylum Seeker Hosting’.
3. HomelessnessThe Scottish Christian Party recognises the need for a more structured homelessness policy. In the past, priority was given to those with a local connection. Now an applicant can leave a house in one local authority and the present themselves as homeless within a matter of days in a different authority, and in many cases be accommodated within days to the disadvantage of others. The current and proposed legislation are detrimental to the local community because there is no local connection clause, affording someone from a distant location the same status as someone from the current local authority.
The Scottish Christian Party will seek to reverse this trend and revert to the situation prior to the Housing (Scotland) Act 2003, so that an applicant cannot jump the queue to apply for homeless status in a different authority immediately after leaving a house. The applicant will be referred back to the authority they have just left (with the exception of domestic abuse or other cases where the applicant may be at risk).
4. Housing Stock Transfer & Public AssetsWe will seek to create a public sector housing model that retains the accountability of local government with low capital costs, along with greater involvement of tenants in the running of services.
This can be attained either 1. through a “housing partnership” where the tenants have voted for this, or 2. through the local authority with suitable input by tenant forum representatives.
This model has run successfully in the Hebridean Housing Partnership, Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership, and the Scottish Borders Housing Association.
We will support a repetition of the stock transfer offer with the eradication of debt as an incentive.
We will seek to ensure that decisions about land owned by public bodies, or in the ownership of charities who receive government assistance, are transparent. These decisions should be in the best interests of Scottish society as a whole through the planning process. We will reinstate genuine ‘local connections’ as a basis for housing allocation.
Christian Party Members of Parliament will:
- provide a distinctly Christian Voice in Holyrood
- speak up for the Christian constitution of Scotland
- introduce legislation to hold governments to their own Manifesto pledges
- expose the unequal Equalities legislation
- work against the centralisation of Police services
