I read SNP Councillor Adam Nols-McVey’s article in the Evening News today with great interest. It came with the usual negativity that we have become used to, but on the points he made about housebuilding it omitted a fundamental truth.

On the very day in February that his SNP/Green Government set the budget in Holyrood, Shelter Scotland was protesting outside because the social housing budget was being “slashed”.  This came just a few days after Shelter Scotland said the SNP/Green Government were choosing “to deprioritise social housing in their spending plans by disproportionately slashing that budget”.

Just last month Shelter Scotland intervened again when data was published showing that homelessness was rising across Scotland taking the total number of homeless children to 16,263. Shelter Scotland were again clear on their position by saying the situation was “utterly shameful” and that “there is no mystery surrounding the solution to this emergency, no need for more summits or round tables to puzzle out an answer”. They told the SNP/Green Government “we need more social housing, and we need it now”.

Cllr Nols-McVey would have us believe that this was all Labour’s fault and neither SNP/Green cuts nor Edinburgh’s position as Scotland’s worst funded local authority has anything to do with it.

The reality is that Edinburgh’s Labour Councillors are open to working with all parties in our city to take our capital forward. This approach is slowly changing the culture in the City Chambers, and is delivering results every day for the people in Edinburgh – we are making a great city better.  

Cllr Nols-McVey’s SNP can join us or he can continue to carp from the sidelines with no positive vision for Edinburgh to counter the change Labour has on offer. The first step in that journey, however, may be to accept the damage his party’s cuts are doing to people looking for affordable housing in Edinburgh.