I welcome the opportunity to contribute to today’s debate. The action plan that was published on Tuesday points to the Scottish Government’s commitment and ambition to eradicate homelessness in all its forms. On the same day, in the chamber, the Government acknowledged 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, and today we all wear our white ribbons in solidarity with the white ribbon campaign, which aims to end men’s violence against women.
Women’s experiences of homelessness are unique. As the homelessness and rough sleeping action group’s recommendations note, groups with particular needs, such as women who have experienced domestic violence, are at particular risk of homelessness.
As a former member of the Parliament’s Local Government and Communities Committee, I will reflect on the inquiry into homelessness that the committee conducted. In written evidence to the committee, Scottish Women’s Aid confirmed that domestic abuse continues to be a major cause of homelessness in Scotland. In 2015-16, 4,135 homelessness applicants gave
“Dispute within household: violent or abusive”
as the reason for their application. Some 72 per cent of applications were made by women, and women with children made up 36 per cent of applicants. A 2010 Government review of domestic abuse, housing and homelessness policy and research stated:
“The prevention or cessation of domestic abuse in a family context will almost always require the woman to leave that home.”
Between 2013 and 2015, Scottish Women’s Aid worked in my constituency, alongside Fife Council’s community research team, in the production of the report “Change, Justice, Fairness: ‘Why should we have to move everywhere and everything because of him?’”, which focused on women’s experiences of homelessness when they presented to the local authority. The report found that 58 per cent of Fife Council staff agreed that
“some women claim domestic ... abuse when they have not experienced it.”
That narrative—the idea of not being believed—weaves its way throughout the report as women document their experiences of presenting to the council. The report says:
“One individual was advised by Fife Council to give up her tenancy because her abusive ex-partner had accrued substantial debt—in her name.”
Women were asked whether they felt that they had a choice between remaining in their home or moving out, and 84 per cent of women said that they had no choice.
I was therefore glad to note in the Labour Party’s amendment a specific reference to the work that is being done by the Chartered Institute of Housing in that area. The ending homelessness action plan acknowledges that the
“prevention of homelessness must recognise the particular needs of people, mainly women and children, fleeing domestic abuse.”
I turn to the root causes of homelessness and the Local Government and Communities Committee’s report. Graham Simpson referred to the committee’s inquiry as a “harrowing” experience, but I note that he did not make a single reference to the numerous representations on welfare reform that the committee received from third sector organisations. Let me remind him what they told us. Shelter told the committee that the roll-out of welfare reform and universal credit was creating a complicated landscape to navigate and was pushing people further into poverty. COSLA highlighted the fact that universal credit was squeezing local authorities’ budgets as they were having to mitigate the impact of welfare reform. Fife Council has had to set aside £200,000 to cover the roll-out of universal credit and has spent more than £1 million on related costs. Scottish Women’s Aid told the committee:
“Cuts to social security have had a grotesquely disproportionate impact on women, from 2010 to 2020, 86% of net ‘savings’ raised through cuts to social security and tax credits will come from women’s incomes.”
Across the United Kingdom, the number of homeless families has risen by more than 60 per cent, and that is
“likely to have been driven”
by the United Kingdom Government’s welfare reforms, according to a National Audit Office report that was published last year. Graham Simpson is absolutely right to say that there is a “scandal”, but perhaps the real scandal is that not a single Conservative MSP will admit to the damage that is being caused to homeless people in this country by Tory welfare policies.
There has been some debate recently on the purpose of this institution. The issue of mitigation was revisited consistently by the committee during our evidence sessions. On that point, the minister, Kevin Stewart, told the committee:
“The Scottish Government can mitigate a number of things—bedroom tax mitigation costs £47 million a year, we have talked a number of times today about using the Scottish welfare fund to ensure that 18 to 21-year-olds whose housing benefit is being withdrawn are still helped and we have put additional money into discretionary housing payments in recent times—but we cannot mitigate every aspect of the cuts that are being made.”—[Official Report, Local Government and Communities Committee, 1 November 2017; c 10.]
That is the crux of the debate. The Scottish Parliament—irrespective of who holds political power—was never created to guard the people of Scotland against Tory austerity. Much as I enjoyed Jackie Baillie’s history lesson earlier, mitigation is not one of the Scottish Parliament’s founding principles.
The argument that Labour advances is that, were there to be an alternative Government at Westminster, the problem would be solved, because, given that austerity is ideologically driven, without the Conservatives in power, the degrading welfare reforms would simply disappear and our homeless population would be saved. Forgive me, but I do not and cannot subscribe to that argument. We all heard Kezia Dugdale’s palpable anger in her speech, but, just three short years ago, the Labour Party abstained on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. The bill passed with a majority of 184—184 Labour MPs abstained.
I say to the Scottish Labour Party that we can have a nice, fluffy debate in which we discuss how terrible homelessness is, all commit to doing something about it and welcome the action plan; however, until the full welfare powers are devolved to this Parliament and put in the hands of the Scottish Government, we will never be able to tackle the root causes of homelessness.
Integrity, compassion, wisdom and truth are the principles that should guide us all in our work in the Parliament. I give the final word to one of the women who contributed to the report that was produced by Scottish Women’s Aid. She said:
“You’re destroyed. I mean yeah, you eat, you drink, you sleep, you talk but you’re dead inside and you can feel it. You feel so down, so low, you wish the floorboards would open up and swallow you. It’s so embarrassing. Yeah, you just think oh gosh, I should have let him kill me because that would have ended it. It’s just agony, agony, agony.”
I say to the Labour Party and to the Conservatives that they should help us to stop that agony, help their constituents and back the full devolution of welfare powers to really help Scotland’s homeless people.
16:09