STURGEON'S CHILD POVERTY SHAME
First Minister presides over rising child poverty, rising child homelessness and more kids living in temporary accommodation than ever before. A sorry story of cheap rhetoric & growing human suffering
Nicola Sturgeon first became First Minister on the 20th of November 2014, and delivered her first programme for government speech on the 27th. She informed Holyrood her exercise in power would always be founded “on three key priorities: participation, prosperity and fairness.”1
A nice theme, sure. Yet it is very far from clear that there has been much “prosperity” or “fairness” for the kids of Scotland. Examining the Scottish Government’s own statistics something becomes clear: the SNP under Nicola Sturgeon has failed a generation of children.
After seven years of Ms Sturgeon being ensconced in power the number of homeless kids in the country has skyrocketed. The educational attainment gap remains wide and learning outcomes continue to slide. It is far from clear if Scottish children can survive much more of Ms. Sturgeon’s “fairness”.
Children in temporary accommodation 2016-2022
In 2016-17 there were 6,0582 children in temporary accommodation in Scotland. This figure grows worse every year, rising to a shocking 8,6353 as of 2021-22.
Put simply, the SNP have succeeded in creating an increase of homeless kids to the tune of 2,577 in just seven years. Huge cuts to local government finances - engineered in repeated SNP Holyrood budgets - has decimated the ability of local authorities to tackle homelessness.
Back in 2016-17, the reduction in overall homelessness applications was thanks to the prevention strategies of local governments, not due to the SNP government actually tackling the underlying causes of the problem:
“The continuing fall in applications overall is mainly due to the impact of housing options/ homelessness prevention strategies adopted by most Local Authorities over the past few years rather than to changes in the underlying drivers of homelessness.”4
It is fair to say, local government prevention strategies play a critical role in tackling homelessness. But under this First Minister there have been cuts upward of £1bn5 to local government finances. Add to that Ms Sturgeon’s predilection for ‘ring fencing’ the funds that do go out, you have a dismal picture forming.
Scottish local authorities have suffered funding cuts and heightened “conditionality” (i.e ‘ring fencing’). So they have less money overall, and what they do get they have less say over how to spend it. This sort of thing hurts the ability of our local authorities to respond to problems, including operating successful homelessness prevention strategies. There are consequences to Nicola Sturgeon’s Freddy Krueger cuts to local government funding.
Number of homeless children
If you thought that 6,058 children in temporary accommodation was bad, the numbers are much worse for homeless kids overall.
In 2020-21 there were 42,149 homeless people in Scotland. Of that, 11,8046 were children. But the figures for 2021-2022 are even worse, with 14,3727 homeless children in Scotland.
Back in 2016 the Scottish Government was saying that it was committed to
“investing over £3 billion to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes over the next five years”8
The only problem is, they would fail to meet that target. The SNP would need to have managed 10,000 new affordable homes per year to have met it. Yet, the nearest the Scottish Government ever came to that was 9,501 in 2019. But prior to that they only produced 7,261 new affordable homes in 2016 and 7,505 in 2017. In fact, by 2021 the SNP had fallen 10,000 affordable homes short of their own 50,000 target.
In October 2015 Nicola Sturgeon boasted
“Making sure that everyone has a safe, warm and affordable home is central to our government’s drive to make this country fairer and more prosperous.”9
As of today, it is clear she completely failed to deliver on the affordable homes pledge, and as a consequence has failed to remedy one of the key drivers of homelessness.
This is a Scottish Government that is presiding over 14,372 homeless kids and a botched affordable house building programme. Not many indications of this “fairness” agenda that Ms Sturgeon insisted would be a core foundation of her long term exercise of power.
Rising child poverty
Another feature of the last seven years of Nicola Sturgeon’s time in charge has witnessed gradually rising child poverty.
The First Minister inherited a child relative poverty rate of 22% (after housing costs) from her predecessor Alex Salmond. Fast forward to 2021 and this has leapt to 24%10. Putting that in plain numbers, there are 240,000 children each year were living in relative poverty, after housing costs 2017-20.
Child poverty gradually rising, and a greater proportion of kids living in relative poverty than before she came to power.
As if that was not bad enough, under this SNP leadership being in work won’t even save you. Approximately two thirds of children in poverty live in working households. Under Nicola Sturgeon’s “fairness” and “prosperity” era being in work won’t save your kids from suffering the blight of poverty.
According to her own government statistics, 68% of children in relative poverty after housing costs were living in working households (160,000 children each year). And remember ‘in-work’ poverty simply refers to paid employment, and so doesn’t include unpaid work such as caring for your children or other family members. When you consider those other factors, you can imagine just how grim life is for the most vulnerable in our society under this failing SNP administration.
A nation which doesn’t seem to care
Every day a classroom full of kids becomes homeless in Scotland, but if you ask the public nobody seems to even know.
YouGov undertook a survey which revealed a shocking 93% of adults in the nation cannot correctly identify the right range when estimating this number.
32 children every day becomes homeless and there is so little attention paid to this grim fact that 93% of people are blithely unaware.
Alison Watson, director of Shelter Scotland, says of this depressing reality
“The fact that most people in Scotland don’t know that 32 children become homeless every day is saddening, but not surprising”11
Unsurprising indeed. Perhaps the Scottish Government has been happy to let widespread public disinterest or ignorance of the grim realities of child homelessness as it benefits them politically? After all the day everyone actually pays attention is the same day they realise what a hideous mess the SNP record in office has been.
But until that day, apparently most Scots just don’t seem to care about child homelessness enough to even familiarise themselves with the facts. With newspapers regularly publishing articles on the subject, and an internet full of statistics easily accessible any ignorance of these facts is wilful. Too many people need to care more about child poverty and child homelessness and care less about independence, flags and borders.
A ruling Scottish Nationalist Party that has spent a decade telling voters to just ‘wheest fir indy’ has a price; and the kids of Scotland are the ones paying it.
Conclusions
Despite the cheap rhetoric of a “fairness” agenda, Nicola Sturgeon has presided over rising numbers of children struggling in temporary accommodation. She has witnessed a rise in the overall numbers of homeless children across the nation to an abysmal 14,372. Meanwhile she has imposed upward of £1bn in council funding cuts, effectively knee-capping council capacities to undertake prevention strategies.
Her governments have completely failed to meet the Scottish Government affordable homes building target; thereby further worsening the homelessness epidemic.
Finally, she has led the country to growing child poverty and even kids living in households which are in-work doesn’t save them. It just goes to show, SNP promises of a “fairness” and “prosperity” agenda have been cheap rhetoric. Little in the way of concrete substance, this Scottish Government is all hat and no cattle. Sturgeon’s era is defined by a smooth talking politician who has talked boastfully, without ever acting on her own words.
More homeless kids, more kids in temporary accommodation, more children living in poverty. That will be Nicola Sturgeon’s political legacy. A lost generation of suffering children and a nation which seems to struggle to care.
Sturgeon, Nicola, (2014, November 64), ‘Programme for Government 2014-15’, https://www.theyworkforyou.com/sp/?id=2014-11-26.18.0&s=attainment+speaker:14105
Scottish Government (2018, June 19), ‘Homelessness in Scotland: 2017 to 2018’, Main Points, ISBN 9781787810280, https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-scotland-2017-18/pages/3/
Scottish Government (2022, August 18), ‘Homelessness in Scotland: 2021/22’, Main Points, ISBN 9781804358368, https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-scotland-2021-22/
Scottish Government (2017, June 27) ‘Homelessness in Scotland: 2016-2017’, Main Points, ISBN 9781788510493, https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-scotland-2016-17/pages/4/
Bol, David (2021, March 14), ‘SNP told to 're-set' councils' relationship after £937m cuts revealed’, The Herald, https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19158278.snp-told-re-set-councils-relationship-937m-cuts-revealed/
Scottish Government, (2021, June 29), ‘Homelessness in Scotland: 2020 to 2021’, Main Points, ISBN 9781802011128, https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-scotland-2020-2021/
Scottish Government (2022, August 18), ‘Homelessness in Scotland: 2021/22’, Main Points, ISBN 9781804358368, https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-scotland-2021-22/
Glasgow Live (2017, February 6), ‘Homeless families with children now 'spend longer in temporary accommodation' in Scotland’, Glasgow Live, https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/homeless-families-children-now-spend-12561040
Williams, Martin (2021, April 4), ‘Affordable housing pledge broken as SNP target falling short by 10,000 and number of children in temporary homes soars’, The Herald, https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19209165.affordable-housing-pledge-broken-snp-target-falling-short-10-000-number-children-temporary-homes-soars/
ScotGov (2021, March 25), ‘Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2017-20’, Child Poverty, https://data.gov.scot/poverty/2021/#Child_poverty
Armour, Robert (2021, December 16), ‘Public don't realise extent of homeless children in Scotland’, TFN: The Voice of Scotland’s Vibrant Voluntary Sector’, https://tfn.scot/news/public-dont-realise-extent-of-homeless-children-in-scotland