AFFORDABLE HOUSING DELIVERS LOWER POVERTY RATES IN SCOTLAND

SNP MP Patricia Gibson has welcomed a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which revealed that:

“For someone with the same life circumstances such as qualifications, wage and family type, progress out of poverty is more likely if they live in Scotland or Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK and least likely if they live in London or the North East.”

The report also attributes lower poverty rates in Scotland to “lower rents in the social housing sector as well as Scotland having a higher proportion of social rented properties.”

This report shows that action taken by the Scottish National Party (SNP) The Scottish Government, such as building 87,000 affordable homes since 2007 - almost 60,000 of which were for social rent - and introducing vital child poverty legislation, is making a real impact on tackling poverty despite UK wide Tory austerity.

Commenting, Patricia Gibson MP said:

“This report shows that while only 15% of social security is devolved, the SNP Government is using its limited powers to make a real difference to Scottish communities in the face of harmful Tory austerity, including making building affordable housing and tackling poverty key priorities.

“In 2018-19, the SNP Government invested more than £1.4 billion in support targeted at low-incomes households, including £100 million to mitigate the worst impacts of UK Government welfare cuts. It also introduced the ‘game changing’ Scottish Child Payment which will see £10 a week per child go to low-income families by the end of 2022, reaching families with a child under 6 by the end of this year.

“Whilst the SNP Government has set ambitious targets to eradicate child poverty, the Resolution Foundation have warned that under this Tory government child poverty risks reaching a 60 year high of 34%.

“We could do so much more to tackle poverty and inequality if Scotland had the full powers of independence. For starters we would be protected from the Tories’ callous austerity policies and the consequences of their hard-line Brexit."

View the UK Poverty 2019/20 Report by clicking the link: https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2019-20

ENDS