Scotland's record homelessness figure is another grim sign of incompetent SNP government – Scotsman comment

If only the Scottish Government had not squanders millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, it might have more funds to tackle the growing homelessness crisis

A few hours before MSPs voted on the Scottish Government’s Budget – including a cut of some £200 million to funds for affordable housing – came the latest bad news about life in this country. In September, the number of unresolved homelessness cases in Scotland hit 30,724, the highest figure on record. Applications from people who reported having slept rough in the last three months rose by 20 per cent to more than 1,400.

Furthermore, this appalling situation looks set to get worse. Writing in The Scotsman earlier this month, Janet Haugh, chief executive of the charity Right There, pointed to forecasts that homelessness is expected to rise by a third within two years, a trend she described as a “national embarrassment”.

Housing minister Paul McLennan rightly said the figures were “sobering” and demonstrated “the challenge we face in tackling homelessness”, but then – as always when the SNP has no excuse to offer for the many crises over which it currently presides – blamed Westminster. It is a tired old argument that has been used far too often to carry any weight with all but the most fervent of nationalists whose blind ‘patriotism' is doing this country and their fellow citizens, like those who will sleep out in the cold tonight, a monumental disservice.

If only the SNP’s desire for positive publicity about saving Clyde shipbuilding had been matched by competent government, then perhaps the bill for the two ferries being built at the state-owned Ferguson Marine shipyard for the state-owned CalMac would not now be approaching £400 million, four times the original contract price. And perhaps that £200 million cut to the housing fund could at least have been delayed.

The millions wasted on pointless independence papers, the botched deposit return scheme, and legal fees run up on the lost cause of attempting to challenge the UK Government’s decision to block the Gender Recognition Reform Bill are further evidence of just how costly the SNP’s blunders have become. The party’s slide in the polls, even as support for independence holds up, is a sign voters are increasingly unwilling to pay that cost.