• Pat McFadden: government’s targets will be meaningless unless they reverse disastrous mistakes
• Scot Lib Dems reveal 27,954 empty homes across Scotland
• Key mental health targets breached for 168,000 people

Pat McFadden: government’s targets will be meaningless unless they reverse disastrous mistakes

Responding to Pat McFadden on the Laura Kuenssberg show on the government’s plan for change, Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

The government’s targets will be utterly meaningless unless they reverse the disastrous mistakes made so far.

Scrapping the Winter Fuel Payment will force vulnerable pensioners to choose between heating and eating and their family farm tax risks a lost generation of farmers.

Ministers must swallow their pride, recognise the damage that these proposals will do and scrap the family farm tax and reinstate Winter Fuel Payments.

Scot Lib Dems reveal 27,954 empty homes across Scotland

Scottish Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Paul McGarry has today accused the SNP of a “massive failure” to tackle the housing crisis after new research by his party uncovered that almost 28,000 homes are lying empty across Scotland.

A freedom of information request submitted by Scottish Liberal Democrats asked all 32 of Scotland’s local councils how many homes were classed as long-term vacant, meaning they have been empty for longer than 6 months.

The request found that:

• Across the 30 councils with data on how many homes are long-term vacant, there are 27,954 long-term vacant properties.
• There are 3,093 long-term vacant homes in Edinburgh, 2,929 in Aberdeenshire, 2,801 in Glasgow and 2,584 in Argyll & Bute.
• Of the councils with data for how long they had been vacant, 1,420 had been vacant for longer than a year, while 2,609 had been vacant for more than 5 years and 5,937 more than 10 years.
• In 2023/24, only 579 properties were brought back into use in Glasgow- just 20% of the number of long-term vacant homes.
• In 2023/24, just 71 properties were brought back into use in Dumfries & Galloway, despite the number of long-term vacant properties being 1,211.

It comes as the numbers of people experiencing homelessness and living in temporary accommodation have reached new highs.

In 2023/24, 10,110 children were in temporary accommodation- the highest number since records began and double the number in 2007, when the SNP came to power. In the same year, there were 40,685 homeless applications recorded- the highest since 2011/12.

Scottish Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Paul McGarry said:

Under the SNP, there has been a massive failure to tackle Scotland’s housing crisis.

Tens of thousands of homes are lying empty all while the number of people sleeping rough and moving between temporary accommodation shoots up to record levels. That is just palpably wrong.

The SNP have made things worse by taking an axe to the housing budget and failing to build the thousands of homes they promised for social rent.

Scottish Liberal Democrats want to bring thousands of empty homes back into use, maximising existing buildings and stock, as well as building more homes and re-establishing social rent as a viable, long-term option.

Key mental health targets breached for 168,000 people

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton today marked ten years since Scotland’s mental health waiting targets were introduced by revealing that they have been breached for at least 168,128 people on the SNP Government’s watch.

A Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information request shows that since the 18-week mental health targets were introduced on 1 December 2014, in total:

• The CAMHS target was missed for at least 43,670 children and young people;
• The psychological therapies (PT) target has been missed for 124,458 patients;
• The PT target was missed for 15,151 patients in 2023 – more people than in any other year since their introduction.

The 18-week treatment targets should be met for 90% of patients – standards that have never been met for children or adults.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

Mental health has become a signature issue for my party because we know that if you break your arm you’d expect to have it in a cast by the end of the day, but the wait for mental health treatment can be months if not years. Nobody should have to endure that.

SNP ministers have unleashed tens of millions of cuts on overwhelmed mental health services. They have made it so much harder to bring down waiting lists and get everyone seen.

Scotland needs world-class mental health services. By investing in driving down mental health waiting times we can help people get back to work and make the most of their education.

Scottish Liberal Democrats led the charge in getting the Scottish Parliament to declare a mental health crisis. Since then we have set out a detailed plans to fund more mental health support in schools, get more professionals close to where you live, and ramp up the training of new staff and mental health first aiders.

The SNP haven’t met the waiting time targets once in the 10-years since they were introduced. It’s time to put an end to their decade of failure.