Over 1500 people and families in the Cowdenbeath constituency are on a housing waiting list hoping to be allocated a property this new year local MSP Alex Rowley has said with a further 590 on the housing transfer list.
Mr Rowley joined up with Shelter Scotland to promote their campaign for 10,000 new social rented houses to be built a year and highlighted that in his own Cowdenbeath constituency, in the Lochs ward of Kelty and Benarty there is 346 applicants on the waiting and transfer list with 595 applications in the Cowdenbeath ward, 483 in Rosyth, 321 for Inverkeithing, Dalgety Bay and Aberdour and 395 in Lochgelly and Cardenden ward.
The Fife MSP said; “I will continue to work with Shelter Scotland and other housing related organisations to put housing much further up the political agenda in 2015. The homeless and waiting lists for the Cowdenbeath constituency speak for themselves and these figures are repeated across the rest of Fife and much of Scotland. We have also seen a massive rise in the private rented sector over the last decade but this leave many people on low income struggling to pay the high rents and therefore does not offer a longer term solution.
The Labour politician welcomed the fact that in 2015 new council housing will be built in Kelty, Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly, Dalgety Bay and Rosyth but said this was not enough. He said; “The Labour administration in Fife is leading the way with the new build housing programme it has embarked on but we need a far greater commitment from the government in Edinburgh, that is what Shelters campaign is about. I also want to highlight the wider benefits for skills and jobs that will come from a national housing programme but most of all if we are serious about tackling poverty and social inequality then we must recognise the very basic human right of every family, every child having a roof over their head, a decent quality home for all must be a priority as we move into 2015”.
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