Scottish Labour will ensure everyone has a home they can be proud of. To help people through the cost of living crisis we have called for:
- Greater protections for renters with eviction bans, rent caps and support for those in arrears.
- A mortgage rescue scheme to provide a safety net for those at risk of losing their homes because of the Tories economic chaos. Our revamped Mortgage to Shared Equity Scheme would mean people can access capital support from the Government to help lower their mortgage payments if they face arrears – paid for by reallocating underspends in the housing budget and revising the funding timeline for the Scottish National Investment Bank.
In the long term, Scottish Labour will improve housing supply by building more homes and making better use of the housing stock we have.
- Labour will reduce the amount of empty and derelict houses that blight our communities. Our council tax escalator would target tax rises for these properties and we would help councils buy up neglected houses, selling them on for just £1 to future home owners who are committed, with government support, to turning them back into homes that are lived in and loved – paid for by the new taxes we would create for second and empty homes.
- To address the growth in second homes and holiday lets, which take local homes out of the market, Labour will create a 100% council tax surcharge on second homes and close the tax loopholes available to self-catering properties and AirBnBs which cost the taxpayer £21 million.
Read Scottish Labour’s Mortgage Rescue Scheme, November 2022.