Lewis Macdonald is Scottish Labour’s shadow cabinet sectrary for infrastructure and capital investment.

TRANSPORT

Scottish Labour wants to see more targeted road safety measures implemented to cut the number of road deaths throughout Scotland every year. 

Scottish Labour has also raised concerns about delays to road upgrades across Scotland - some up to three years. The huge delays highlight the mess the SNP are making of Scottish transport policy. 

If the SNP and Transport Scotland cannot deliver key roads projects on time, it raises serious questions about the proposed replacement Forth Crossing. Scotland cannot afford delays or cost over-runs on such a major project. Ministers need to take urgent action to identify and resolve problems, ensuring lessons are learnt from Transport Scotland's failure to deliver these road projects.

Charlie Gordon also backs plans for a high-speed railway line between Scotland and London, which would benefit Glasgow and Edinburgh. The service will see passengers' journey time to London cut to just over two hours by 2030.

HOUSING

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.