Home sweet home?

The transformation of housing appears to have moved from provision of a warm, safe, and secure ‘home’ to ‘private asset’ in the last forty years. Fuelled in part by a rising demand for private housing while the state’s role as a direct provider of social housing has declined. Numerous councils across Scotland have all declared a ‘housing emergency’ for a range of complex reasons and there’s been a 130% increase in the last decade of children in temporary accommodation.

It’s time for radical solutions. Join the panel to discuss compulsory sales, land tax values and public land.

Relevant books available to order and collect from our online shop (with a 10% discount available):

• Our Country in Crisis: Britain's Housing Emergency and How We Rebuild by Kwajo Tweneboa – Kwajo will be doing a book signing on the day, so order your copy online today and collect it at the Parliament

Chair: Graham Simpson MSP, Convener, Cross-Party Group on Housing

Panellists:

Kwajo Tweneboa is a social housing activist who tirelessly campaigns against poor social housing conditions, travelling the country to shine a light on the conditions housing providers and governments have kept hidden. In his Channel 4 documentary, Help! My Home is Disgusting, Kwajo worked with tenants in disrepair and helped them tell their stories. Kwajo has appeared on Sky News, Good Morning Britain, GB News and featured in the Guardian and the Independent – he’s also been described by the Big Issue as “Britain's brightest social housing champion".

Professor Ken Gibb is professor of housing economics at the University of Glasgow where he is PI and director of the ESRC UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE). Ken's research is focused on the economics of housing policy reform, housing retrofit and housing systems analysis. He led the editing of the Rutledge International Handbook of Housing Economics. Ken chairs the SLWG on housing affordability for the Scottish Government. He is a board member of Clyde Valley HA and is a trustee of the Centre for Homelessness Impact and a committee member of Shelter Scotland.

Alison Watson is director of Shelter Scotland and is passionate about ensuring that it is the lived experience of housing policy and practice failures that defines and drives the actions and activities of Shelter Scotland. Alison has served on several key strategic and policy forums – she was a member of the First Minster appointed Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group; sits on the COSLA: Scottish Government’s Homelessness Prevention Strategy Group and Co-Chaired the Scottish Government's Task and Finish Group on Temporary Accommodation. Alison has extensive leadership experience in health and social care.