'Millions' to be spent on council housing

Published on Friday 18 April 2008 22:15

HUNDREDS of new council houses will be built across Scotland under multi-million– pound government plans being announced today.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Deputy First Minister, will reveal the investment in tackling Scotland's housing crisis in her keynote speech at the SNP spring conference.

Party members will meet just before they celebrate their first year in office amid the row over their plans to replace the council tax with a 3p local income tax.

Critics claim the policy will harm multi-earner households and students and take away tax-raising powers from councils, but the SNP insists it is fairer.

The Conservatives also alleged yesterday that Ms Sturgeon, in an interview, admitted that she wanted independence to raise more money through tax.

In the interview she said: "Of course if Scotland was independent, if we had financial independence, we would raise our own taxes and decide our own spending levels.

"That would be a much more sensible position for us to have, but in the meantime we have to work within the levels set elsewhere."

A spokesman for the SNP dismissed the Tory claims as "pure spin", saying: "Ms Sturgeon will today be showing that we are getting on with actually getting things done.

"There is a genuine crisis in housing in this country which we intend to tackle.

"In her speech today, Ms Sturgeon will announce an eight– figure sum to pay for hundreds of new council houses across Scotland and a ban on the sale of new council houses through right to buy, to give councils an incentive to build them."

The First Minister, Alex Salmond, is due to speak at the conference tomorrow.

Today, Angus Robertson, the SNP business convener, will launch Vision.

It will set out the policies delivered by the SNP in government over the last 12 months and reveal plans for the second year.