More than a quarter of Scots do not trust any political party to fix the housing crisis, a new poll has suggested.
The survey, conducted by the Diffley Partnership for the charity Shelter Scotland, spoke to 1,002 Scots between April 2 and 13, finding 26% of respondents did not believe any party could solve the housing emergency in Scotland.
The same proportion of respondents also said they trust the SNP to fix the issue, with Labour at 16% and Reform at 10%.
Two-thirds of those surveyed said they agreed Scotland was facing a housing emergency while 73% thought it could lead to “long-term problems in society”.
Some 57% of respondents said they would consider shifting their vote if another party offered “clear policies which I like to tackle the housing emergency”.
Gordon Llewellyn-MacRae, assistant director at Shelter Scotland, urged politicians to “have the courage of their convictions” and build more social homes to fix the issue.
“For too long we have watched as the managed decline of social housing in Scotland has led to rising homelessness and the number of homes built falls below what is needed to cut rising homelessness,” he said.
“The cost of not building the homes can be seen in cuts to council services like libraries, swimming pools and potholes as councils divert resources to pay for hotel rooms to keep people off the streets.
“It is an outrage that every party leader knows the solution is to build more social homes, but they seem too scared to act.
“Now, thanks to this research, they know that voters will back them if they just get on and deliver the homes people in Scotland so desperately need.
“Our politicians must have the courage of their convictions and deliver.”
Mairi McAllan, an SNP candidate and Scotland’s Housing Secretary, said the country must “both build more affordable homes and support people to prevent it from happening in the first place”.
“We’ve passed gold standard anti-homeless laws, fully mitigate Labour’s bedroom tax so no-one pays it in Scotland and are supporting families with children to mitigate Labour’s local housing allowance freeze – two Labour policies which drive homelessness,” she said.
“We will now go further with the largest investment in affordable homes in the history of devolution and a new agency, More Homes Scotland, to bring simplicity, speed and scale to delivery.
“Building more homes is a key priority for the SNP, but we will also help first-time buyers to get on the property ladder with support of up to £10,000 and will introduce measures to give renters new rights to buy the home they live in.
“That’s exactly what you get from John Swinney’s strong leadership firmly on Scotland’s side.”
Scottish Tory housing spokeswoman Meghan Gallacher accused the SNP of having “created and then fuelled” the housing emergency by cutting the affordable housing budget and instituting rent controls.
“John Swinney should be ashamed that his policies have left us with record homelessness rates and tens of thousands of families stuck in temporary accommodation,” she said.
“The Scottish Conservatives have clear, costed plans to address this crisis.
“We would build 80,000 affordable homes in the next parliament and get the housing market moving by cutting red tape and scrapping the land and buildings transaction tax.
“We’d also ditch rent controls which have deterred the construction of new homes and led to landlords pulling existing properties from the rental market.”
The survey found substantial support for rent controls among respondents, with 66% backing the measure and just 9% being against.
Scottish Labour housing spokesman Mark Griffin said the party will end the housing emergency by “prioritising housebuilding and taking action across government to prevent homelessness”.
“Only Scottish Labour has a fully-costed plan to build more than 50,000 affordable homes including council and social homes as part of our wider target of delivering 125,000 homes in the next five years,” he said.
“The SNP’s failure to build new homes has had significant social and economic consequences for our country.
“Only by increasing supply across all types of tenure will we be able to unblock the housing system and deliver the secure homes Scots need.”
Scottish Green candidate and former co-leader Lorna Slater said there had been “years of political failure” on housing, adding: “Too many people are being priced out of their communities, stuck in poor-quality housing or left without a secure home at all.
“The Scottish Greens are offering a different approach where we are prioritising social housing. We would build at least 15,700 social homes a year, bring in stronger rent controls, back tenants’ rights and take action to end homelessness for good.
“That means giving councils and social landlords the powers they need, holding bad landlords and developers to account and making sure everyone has access to a safe, warm and affordable home.”
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said his party had committed to building 25,000 homes per year, adding: “Under the SNP homelessness has reached record levels. Thousands of children are stuck in temporary accommodation.
“Affordable housebuilding has collapsed. Too many young professionals are finding that they have no choice but to live at home with their parents.”
