In housing, Labour’s traditional values are never more urgent than now.

Mary Mulligan is our Shadow Minister for Housing. Labour has created this post to give Housing and Regeneration the priority it deserves, but which the SNP have failed to deliver.

We need an urgent  step-change in Scottish  Government policy to deliver a major expansion in the number of affordable homes being built for rent. We need this now because a strategy for homes is also a strategy for jobs.

The SNP’s housing policy has failed badly. Their response to the recession was to cut the grant to Housing Associations, which has led to a dramatic fall in the number of completions.

The SNP proposal for a new quango, for 'mid-market' housing rental, is the latest in a series of schemes which are badly thought through, and have not been consulted on. The best way to deal with the housing crisis is to build more homes.

And in these tough economic times, we will never abandon families facing the trauma of repossession. Nicola Sturgeon’s arrogant and complacent refusal to provide vulnerable homeowners in Scotland with the same protection from repossession as those in England, has meant families being left unprotected.  

While  Gordon Brown acted to impose a new legal duty on Courts and lenders to make repossession an absolute last resort, the SNP government sat on its hands and refused to act. 

Thanks to sustained pressure from Labour, they were forced to bring forward draft legislation to deal with this vital matter.

Local people deserve a decent environment to live, work and spend their leisure time in. The SNP has also let down communities across Scotland, by failing to meet their expectations of awards from the Town Centre Regeneration Fund.