Homelessness is a real danger as Scottish Government must take action

The Scottish Government must take action to tackle soaring rents. Far too many tenants are facing ­extortionate rises, with many on the brink of homelessness as a result.

A rent cap introduced during the Covid lockdown was intended to help those struggling with housing costs. The problem is, when it was dropped, demand for rental properties was off the scale and rents increased as a result.

Today, we tell the stories of some of those affected. Wojciech Lazlak faced an increase from £650 to £1000 a month on his flat on the southside of Glasgow.

Alaina Paterson, from Edinburgh, saw her monthly bill for her and a flatmate rise from £1750 to £2250. These increases are unsustainable.

People who live and work in our big cities should be able to do so at a reasonable cost. Of course, much of the blame rests with this rotten Tory Government.

Mortgage rates soared after Liz Truss’ mini-budget and have stayed their since. That has a crippling knock-on effect on rents.

But at the root of this crisis is a lack of decent affordable housing. The Scottish Government has declared a housing emergency.

But there needs to be a plan to massively expand social housing. Holyrood’s housing emergency will not be worth the paper it is written on if nothing is done to make more homes available.

It was a terrible decision by the SNP Government to slash the money for affordable housing in December’s budget. Clearly, we need more houses and the lack of them is helping drive prices up.

In the meantime, the Scottish Government should bring back the rent cap which was scrapped in April. The alternative will be a sickening explosion in the homeless population.

Give fans cheer

Tonight is do-or-die for Scotland’s Euro hopes as we take on Switzerland. Fans back home and in Cologne are hoping beyond hope we can make it a night to remember.

It’s fair to say our optimism took a knock after the insipid display against Germany in the tournament opener. But the Tartan Army are not going to let that get in the way of their support for Steve Clarke and his lads.

Across Scotland and in Cologne, the whole country is willing us to win. Our fans have been world-class during this tournament, with police and local authorities full of praise in Munich and Cologne.

If there was a Euros for fans, we’d be runaway winners. The Tartan Army have given everything. Now it’s time for Andy Robertson, John McGinn and the rest of this talented Scotland team to do the same.

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