Communities

"Strong communities are the basic building blocks of a better society. Those like Mark - the individuals, campaigners, volunteers, local organisations, businesses and social entrepreneurs who work to build a positive future for us all - are the backbone of our communities. The job of government must be to support and work with them as they improve our society.

"Scottish Labour will be on the side of Scotland’s communities. We will develop opportunities for investment in the voluntary sector, support communities to take ownership of properties in their area, appoint a Disabilities Champion and ensure that our plans to boost employment support those who find it most difficult to get a job.

"This is because Scottish Labour believes that the foundation for a strong community is fairness. Jobs, opportunity and prosperity must be spread more widely throughout our communities – to improve housing, to regenerate deprived communities, to support the most vulnerable and to lift people out of poverty."

- Iain Gray, Scottish Labour Leader
 
Our promises to Scotland

• Ensure the Scottish Future Jobs Fund, the modern apprenticeship guarantee, procurement policies and community benefit clauses support employment opportunities for individuals who are the most removed from or disadvantaged in the labour market
• Help first time buyers to get onto the property ladder with a new First Foot scheme that will reduce the size of deposits on new properties
• Champion volunteering, beginning by restarting ProjectScotland
• Freeze council tax for the next two years
• Recognise the needs of local people in allocations as part of our house building programme

 
Meeting Scotland’s housing needs
In difficult economic times, we know many people in Scotland are anxious to obtain and retain secure, affordable homes. Scottish Labour will work to meet the target that all unintentionally homeless people are offered a secure tenancy by 2012  and will provide guidance on the interpretation of homelessness and housing legislation. We will also review the effectiveness of current schemes to help those facing repossession, as well as implementing the pre-action protocols campaigned for by Labour.

Scottish Labour will ensure that housing allocations address priority needs - including the needs of key workers - but also that sufficient weight is given to meeting the needs of local people. We are committed to building housing that suits the specific needs of people, including older people and those with disabilities. We will therefore explore how best sensitive lettings can be used to support vulnerable people and to ensure sustainable communities. We will also fulfil our commitment to meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and consult on raising building standards, especially with regard to energy efficiency.

We understand the urgency of delivering homes that are affordable. Scottish Labour will introduce First Foot – a new mortgage indemnity guarantee scheme that will reduce the level of deposit required of first time home buyers to only five or ten per cent, helping them to realise their aspiration of owning a home.

We will examine how we can prioritise funding for housing and will explore alternative sources of finance – including establishing an infrastructure fund to encourage private developers - to ensure that more houses are built to satisfy demand.  Scottish Labour will also consider the establishment of a new taskforce to identify the changing needs and challenges we face in housing supply and examine the role of local authorities, housing associations and co-operatives in increasing supply.  

We will support community-based housing associations and housing co-operatives with a stable level of subsidy, ensuring they are able to fulfil their roles as community anchors providing a range of services for people in their local communities. We believe the time is now right to review the role of Cooperative Development Scotland and we will consider the part it might play in supporting the creation of housing cooperatives.

We will ensure that tenants are consulted on how their housing is provided and their local community is supported. We will put in place procedures so that the Housing Regulator, whilst fulfilling its regulatory role, is responsive to the views of tenants. Scottish Labour will look to establish a Housing Advisory Service which will provide aspirant tenants and homeowners with advice on housing tailored to their needs. We will also consider ways to establish a Housing Tribunal to simplify the ways of ruling on housing legislation.

Whilst we know that policies need to support stable communities, we recognise that housing needs are diverse. Housing should meet the needs of a range of people, including those seeking home ownership and middle market renting. Scottish Labour will require all property factors to comply with a code of conduct that will end the nightmare many homeowners face at the hands of unscrupulous factors.

We also recognise the contribution of the private rented sector to meeting affordable housing needs. We will seek to make further improvements in this sector and encourage responsible investment, tightening up the landlord registration scheme to root out rogue landlords and act to ensure that landlords take action to tackle anti-social behaviour and maintain standards in the properties they rent. Scottish Labour recognises that a credible strategy is needed to bring Scotland’s 25,000 long-term empty homes back into use. As a first step we will commit to funding the Empty Homes Partnership beyond 2012 and ensure that the Scottish Government’s housing budget can be used to bring empty properties back into use.

Ending fuel poverty
Scottish Labour is determined to end fuel poverty by 2016, delivering affordable, warmer homes for the people of Scotland. We believe the fairest approach is to target resources at the most fuel-poor, especially older and more vulnerable people.  We will continue to invest in measures to reduce fuel poverty and will review the effectiveness of the Energy Assistance Package and the Home Insulation Scheme. We will work with local authorities, energy companies, housing associations and local communities to develop heat and power schemes that can help provide warmer homes and lower fuel bills. We will also look at ways of helping people access newer, more efficient boilers and supporting a programme of sustainable home insulation, to help provide warmer homes and lower fuel bills.

Regenerating our communities
Scottish Labour is committed to the regeneration of our communities and recognises the important role that the Scottish Government, local government, private developers, the third and cooperative sector, public agencies and local communities themselves have in co-ordinating regeneration. Scottish Labour’s urban regeneration companies are transforming communities for the better. We will continue to support them in their efforts to transform those areas facing the greatest economic challenges.

Too many of our town centres become virtual ghost towns outwith the business day. We will encourage mixed tenure in town centres and will explore proposals for transforming vacant town centre units into public sector supported ‘office hubs’, with IT access and meeting spaces. We will also support communities to take ownership of derelict land or rundown properties, to refurbish it or turn it into new, green space, reviewing and seeking to expand the range of funding opportunities available to enhance community-led regeneration.

Scottish Labour will establish a review of land management, to ensure management agencies properly maintain the land they own. We will also consider measures to free land being held in land banks.

Delivering social justice
For people who have grown-up in care or in financial hardship, for women struggling to manage the demands of family life, for disabled people and for unpaid and young carers there can be a many obstacles to accessing decent, secure jobs. To help support equity and inclusion during difficult economic times, Scottish Labour will take steps to ensure that the Scottish Future Jobs Fund and modern apprenticeship guarantee are accessible to the full range of Scotland’s young people and consider the needs of those who face the most serious challenges in accessing the labour market. We want to ensure no-one is left behind.

We will establish a Fairer Scotland Commission, to consider the most effective action to tackle poverty, equality and social exclusion in Scotland. We will also establish a Scottish Centre for Financial Inclusion to guide the most excluded and vulnerable people through the maze of opportunities and support available to them, so that everyone in Scotland has the means to manage and get the most from their resources. We firmly believe that credit unions play an important role in offering alternative financial services to people living on low incomes and that they protect people when they fall on hard times. Scottish Labour therefore sees a key role for credit unions in our strategy to help lift people out of poverty.

We will deliver robust mechanisms to monitor the progress being made in tackling poverty – particularly child poverty – across Scotland.

Scottish Labour is committed to supporting older people in a way that respects their dignity and recognises them as active citizens and not just as recipients of services. We want to challenge isolation at every turn, supporting instead the active participation of older people.  We will sustain the concessionary travel scheme and better link it to community transport initiatives. We are also committed to ensuring the needs of older carers of adult children with disabilities are properly identified and addressed.

Scottish Labour recognises the particular role of kinship carers in preventing vulnerable young people going into care and we will establish minimum standards for the assessment and support of children in kinship care. For too long, there has been a postcode lottery in crucial financial and other support for kinship carers. Scottish Labour is committed to sitting down with local authorities and the UK government to resolve this frustrating and unacceptable situation.

We also know that effective support for carers can reduce the need for more expensive care services later on. We recognise the many challenges facing the range of carers in Scotland and want to continue funding pathways for carers’ information, recognising the crucial role of carers’ centres in providing information and support. We will work to ensure that information for carers continues to be as accessible as possible.

We are committed to supporting grandparents through the Grandparents’ Charter and will, amongst other things, ensure that grandparents and other family members are given due consideration in the adoption or fostering process.

Scottish Labour will strengthen the range of social work provision to help those who require support and protection in our communities.

Supporting the third sector
Scottish Labour values the role of those who work within the third sector and recognises the pressures they face during times of financial constraints. We are fully committed to developing opportunities for investment in the third sector - through the Scottish Future Jobs Fund and restarting ProjectScotland, for example - so that all young people can contribute to their communities. Scottish Labour will also work with third sector trade unions, staff representatives and organisations to ensure that jobs and fair working conditions are sustained during uncertain times.

We will work in partnership with and encourage support for third sector organisations competing for public sector contracts, continuing to invest in capacity building and practical support to ensure there is a level playing field with the private sector. In particular, we will ensure that government procurement makes effective use of community benefit clauses, Article 19, and gives due weight to good working practices, employability approaches, local employment and the living wage. We will also work to ensure the third sector has a clear voice by standardising the participation of the sector in Community Planning Partnerships.

Scottish Labour recognises the critical role of volunteering in supporting communities, harnessing the talents of individuals and groups and offering opportunities for skills development and inclusion. We will refresh the current volunteering strategy to update its priorities, to remove barriers to volunteering and to ensure that the necessary leadership is present to meet the demand for volunteering opportunities. We want to increase the opportunities for productive volunteering options, not just in the third sector but also in the private and public sectors.

Championing equality, celebrating diversity
Scottish Labour is committed to ensuring we support all of Scotland’s people through tough times. We know that many types of inequality are interconnected and that is why we are committed to ensuring we consider how all of our policies and plans impact upon the diverse people of Scotland.  We will develop strong guidance for the effective implementation of the public duties under the Equality Act. We want to ensure gender, race, religion, sexuality, age and disability are not barriers to accessing public services, employability or training. As part of this approach we will maintain the Equality Unit and aim to ensure that all public information is accessible to all people.

As we work to prioritise jobs, get people back to work and get Scotland moving again, we are determined to ensure that women are able to share equally in the new opportunities that become available, especially through support for childcare. We will ensure that the Scottish Government takes the lead in this area, giving clear direction to public bodies on equal pay and supporting family-friendly employment policies that take into account the needs of those with caring responsibilities. We will also ensure that our key employment policies, like the Scottish Future Jobs Fund and apprenticeship guarantee, open up opportunities for women in sectors and industries where men have traditionally dominated.

Scottish Labour recognises the contribution of disabled people to our economy and country and we are committed to supporting people with disabilities to realise their potential and to live as independently as possible. We will appoint a Disabilities Champion to drive this agenda forward. We will improve mobility and access for people with disabilities, including extending concessionary travel to those on the lower rate of the Disability Living Allowance, ensuring that community transport initiatives can use the concessionary travel scheme, looking at the concessionary travel reimbursement rate for non-profit transport operators and ensuring that the companions of the deaf-blind can access free train travel in Scotland.

Scottish Labour will encourage self-directed support for people living with disabilities and will support the development of personalised care, whilst ensuring that any new measures do not lead to deterioration in other areas of support.

Scottish Labour will tackle racial or religious prejudice, intolerance and discrimination, not only because of the impact on the lives of those who experience it, but because it holds us back as a nation. We will support initiatives to tackle racial and religious discrimination in the workplace and in communities and will continue support for schemes that celebrate the diversity of Scotland’s culture and its people. Scottish Labour will conduct a review of the Scottish Refugee Integration Strategy to reflect on the effectiveness of current action and to explore how integration work can be sustained and developed.

Scottish Labour wants to end the unjust situation that has seen gay men, who were previously prosecuted for consensual acts, continue to suffer the prejudice caused by these convictions - long after the offences themselves have been decriminalised. We will investigate the best way to implement the ‘Alli Amendment’ in Scotland, to give religious organisations that want to, the freedom to hold civil partnerships in their buildings for the first time. We also believe that the time is now right to consult on options to provide genuine equality for same-sex couples and their families, by addressing the different status of civil partnership and marriage. We are clear – Scotland shouldn’t be left behind on these issues.

Working with local government
Scottish Labour knows that local authorities have a crucial role to play in designing and delivering local services and driving the economy forward and we are committed to working in partnership to deliver a stronger Scotland. That is why we will deliver a new process of consultation through which an accord between Scottish central and local government will be delivered, based on the principles of mutual respect, transparency and accountability to all stakeholders.  We will aim to deliver an accord that is more strategically focussed and underpinned by national goals that lend themselves to local priorities.

Developing a social dialogue and partnership between the Scottish Government, COSLA, trade unions and the voluntary sector will be central to ensuring local services are delivered in the most effective manner. We will therefore develop a structure which promotes partnership working at a strategic level in local government, so that transparency in decision-making is improved and the future development of local government across Scotland is jointly shared by all social partners.
Just as Scottish Labour in government would prioritise economic growth, we will ensure that economic development becomes a statutory duty of local government.To incentivise economic development at the local level, Scottish Labour will ensure that local authorities can retain a proportion of the business rates raised through increased economic activity. We will also provide cities with new powers and responsibilities to drive growth and regeneration and will create a new City Growth Fund to support our cities.

Scottish Labour will freeze the council tax for the next two years, ensuring that the freeze is sustainably funded. But whilst we deliver this support, we know that local authorities cannot afford for a single penny to be wasted. Whilst some local authorities have been on a forward footing on shared services – from sharing backroom functions to delivering joint frontline services – the agenda has often lacked momentum and drive at the centre. We believe that the Scottish Government has a key role to play in fostering a culture in which joint working thrives. Scottish Labour will introduce the reforms required to deliver the intended benefits of shared services, including strengthening the procurement guidance to facilitate agreements between public service organisations.

Scottish Labour will abolish the failed Scottish Futures Trust, whilst retaining some of its functions within the Infrastructure Investment Unit. There will be a level playing field for investment and we will use all available finance mechanisms, including prudential borrowing, to deliver suitable, sustainable funding to get Scotland’s public building programme moving again.

Planning, at both local and national level, plays a critical role in economic growth and economic benefit should be one of the key considerations when making planning decisions. We want to see a culture in planning that tries to assist economic growth and sustainable development, whilst also taking into account other factors, such as the impact on communities. Scottish Labour will work closely with local government to carry out a ‘health check’ on the recent changes to the planning system, updating the National Planning Framework with wide input from industry, to ensure that it is delivering for Scotland.

We believe firmly in the principle of local democracy and will standardise participation in Community Planning Partnerships, ensuring that there is a diversity of voices heard in community planning processes.