Mark Griffin
Scottish Labour · Scotland
“Driving down child poverty is a key priority of the Government and of the Parliament as a whole, but reviewing the targets that the Government is failing to hit does not seem to align with the rhetoric. The Scottish Government’s impact assessment of the child poverty delivery plan is that it will not meet the targets.”
“The minister set out the damage that is taking place in this country as a result of leaving a political and economic union, and there is nothing in his statement that I can disagree with. In his conclusion, he asked what we are prepared to do about it.”
“As I have said to others, I have engaged with and will happily continue to engage with Nick Thomas-Symonds, but if we consider that the potential benefits are 20 times less than the loss that we are sustaining, we see the impact.”
“We are content that there is a credible path to do so, despite everything that is happening in the rest of the UK and internationally. I go back to what I have announced, which is a review of the type of targets.”
“Our targets have driven our focus and delivery, but it is important to reflect on the investment that the Government is making in areas that do not impact directly on those targets.”
“To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities regarding the pay negotiations for 2026-27.”
The complete record
Every one of 217 lines we hold for Mark Griffin, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 5.
“I support the principle of rent control, especially given the background of ever-increasing rents and the urgent need to protect tenants. However, for those rent controls to be effective and workable, it is absolutely vital that rent is clearly defined as rent only, with the central utilities and services, such as broadband and district heating, identified and charged for separately, where appropriate. That approach ensures that tenants are not paying for hidden or bundled costs and that the system is transparent and fair for everyone. Attempts to remove the amendment that clarified that definition risk undermining the clarity and fairness that tenants deserve. We also cannot afford to lose much-needed homes from the sector, particularly in rural Scotland, at this time of housing emergency.”
“Amendment 270, in my name, would allow broadband and district heating schemes to be included in the list of services that may be supplied privately, where there is no publicly available infrastructure. I recognise that including those essential services in the legislation will encourage the development of more district heating networks, supporting our energy efficiency and decarbonisation goals; future proof the legislation for a time when heat networks become commonplace, ensuring that any charges are clearly identified and kept separate from rent; bring clarity and consistency to how privately provided essential services are treated, especially and crucially in rural and off-grid areas, where public provision is often lacking; and provide greater transparency for tenants in relation to service provision and costs.”
“To ask the Scottish Government when the culture secretary last met with Creative Scotland to discuss the future of Cumbernauld theatre, in light of reported concerns about its funding. (S6O- 04936)”
“We have an SNP council in Glasgow that blames the record financial settlement from the UK Government for its funding problems, while completely ignoring the years of successive council tax freezes and successive cuts to its budget made by its parliamentary colleagues.”
“The SNP Government’s utter failure to build enough homes and to properly fund public services has caused the current crises, and an SNP-run Glasgow City Council has facilitated that. Kaukab Stewart: We know that local authorities are not accommodating people who seek asylum; it is the Home Office that is entirely responsible. Will Mark Griffin join us in calling on the Westminster Government to properly fund local councils, instead of paying private companies that are making profit out of peril? Mark Griffin: The minister makes it clear that the UK Government funds asylum seekers to the point at which they are given leave to remain. Responsibility for housing them then becomes a Scottish Government and local government funding issue. That is where the problem lies.”
“It is the party that decided that 400 hotels across the UK were to be used to house people, and it is the party that had no serious plan to address the growing backlog that it caused. Secondly, was it not the Conservative Party that, just last week, was complaining about parliamentary time being dedicated to the situation of children who are suffering in Gaza? Today, its business is about asylum and immigration policy, which is a reserved matter. Like I said, it is a case of either political amnesia or hypocrisy—the public will decide. However, although the Conservatives have created the immigration crisis, it is the SNP Government that has entirely failed to address the wider housing crisis and the funding crisis in local government in Scotland.”
“Today, the Conservatives have taken the opportunity to put before the Parliament a motion that opens us up to the type of dangerous and divisive rhetoric that bad-faith actors weaponise for political gain. Of course, they are absolutely entitled to raise the issue in the manner that they have, but it is clear that doing so is, at best, an act of political amnesia or, more likely, blatant hypocrisy on two fronts. First, we cannot forget which party is entirely responsible for the huge increase in the use of hotels for asylum seekers. Fourteen years of having a Conservative Government in Westminster pushed our asylum system to the point of collapse. Tory party decisions meant that thousands of people were stuck in limbo while the appeals system sank under the strain.”
“To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Scottish local authorities spent over £100 million last year on bed and breakfast and hostel accommodation for homeless people. (S6T- 02649)”
“Overwhelmingly, what will make a difference is our commitment to multi-annual funding certainty and a significant increase in the funding of affordable homes in Scotland. Everybody who is working on the issue understands that the provision of affordable homes is the way to tackle it, and the member will see our commitment to that in the statement.”
“In general, the housing emergency will be over when people can fully utilise the protective anti- homelessness legislation that we are very proud to have in this country, and when supply and demand and availability of social housing are met. I hope that, if the member looks at the broad commitment that the Government has made in the plan, he will see a series of actions that will bring that together. Immediate action includes investing in the acquisition of homes to take children out of temporary and unsuitable accommodation right now. It also includes directions and advice to local authorities to contact every home with children who are in a temporary but suitable home to consider flipping that to a permanent residency— that can make a difference now.”
“Will the cabinet secretary say whether the Government will restore its policy in favour of sustainable development in order to kick-start the house building that we need? We welcome the increase in funding and stability after years of SNP cuts, but a 10 per cent rise in stats over three years falls far short of the 15,000 affordable homes that Shelter Scotland and the Chartered Institute of Housing say are essential. When does the cabinet secretary believe that the housing and homelessness emergency will end? Màiri McAllan: The housing emergency, and the homelessness part of that, is a very complex picture. It is multifaceted, and I do not believe that we should be trying to tie it down to key performance indicators and figures to be measured.”
“Two years ago, housing emergencies were declared across Scotland. A year and a half ago, the Government acknowledged the crisis. Today, ALACHO reports that councils remain just as overwhelmed as they were three years ago, and the Government’s response does not match the scale of that challenge. The promise to move 600 to 800 children out of temporary accommodation is good news for those children, but, with more than 10,000 kids living in unacceptable conditions, when will the Government end the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation for children? The statement makes passing mention of planning, but, without meaningful planning reform, we will not build the homes that we need.”
“To ask the Scottish Government what health policies it has in place to support the neurodevelopment of children born prematurely through their early years and adolescence. (S6O-04856)”
“I would characterise this not in terms of the workforce in central and local government, but in terms of corporate functions and the front-line workforce. The person-to-person, front-line workers who engage with service users are, of course, the most important. This is about shifting the £1 billion in resources from corporate functions to that front-line workforce, and we need to accelerate that work, while working with partners to make that happen in a way that does not cause problems for the system as we are doing it. We want to go as fast as we can, using the tools that I have outlined in the strategy.”
“The local government workforce has reduced by 30,000 full-time-equivalent posts, while central Government payroll has increased by 73 per cent during the Government’s time in office. Does the minister feel that the balance of staffing levels between national and local government is appropriate? Does that lend itself to his ambition to having the right number of staff in the right places? Ivan McKee: No. This is a journey and we need to make more progress—and fast. The data indicates that the civil service workforce in total, including contractors, has been coming down for the past three years in a row. That process will continue; indeed, it resulted in a real-terms reduction in the Scottish Government’s total operating cost last year.”
“Is the minister confident that, since the single open call, the Government finally has a comprehensive register of all buildings that are affected by the Grenfell-type combustible cladding? Paul McLennan: Mr Griffin will be aware of the estimated number of buildings that require various levels of remediation. That information was published just last week—an estimated 1,260 to 1,450 of the residential buildings in Scotland that are 11m or more in height might require work to alleviate external wall system fire risk. Those are estimates and do not represent a list of specific buildings that might or do not need work. The numbers are based on our current best estimates and the UK systems of methodology. I am happy to engage with Mr Griffin further on that point.”
“It is also worth noting that the current UK Government—a Labour Government—to which my Scottish Government colleagues have written on a number of occasions, has refused to engage on the matter of putting in place a remediation scheme, in recognition of the fact that this is a UK- wide problem.”
“As I indicated earlier, the Minister for Housing has met residents, and will continue to do so, to understand and address the challenges. That is why we are working with interested parties in the cross-sector working group on the issue. It is why we are engaging with the Institution of Structural Engineers and the RICS on developing guidance to support homeowners. It is also why we are engaging with the Association of British Insurers and others on issues concerning insurance and mortgage payments, to support owners and ensure that such issues are addressed. We will continue to do so, because we recognise the challenges that they face.”
“Across Scotland, lives have been turned upside down by problems with RAAC in homes. It is not scaremongering to say that some people are stuck in unsaleable and unsafe properties, and others have been forced to move out, leaving their possessions behind. Expressing concern is not good enough. People are desperate for action to secure their homes. Given that responsibility for housing is fully devolved, will the Scottish Government mark the scale of the crisis and respond to the call for a remediation scheme, as the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland recommended? Ivan McKee: We recognise the impact of the current situation on homeowners, which is why we continue to engage with local authorities.”
“Those organisations came forward with asks at the start of the housing emergency, and those asks have shaped our work on it. The coalition asked for a full reversal of the cut to the affordable housing supply budget, and that has been delivered. It asked for prioritisation of funding for larger homes and those in areas of specific pressure, and that has been delivered. It asked for specific work to be done with energy suppliers to assist with voids, and that work has been delivered, and indeed it is on-going. We are absolutely determined to rise to the remaining challenges. I know that we have made progress, but I also know that there is more to do.”
“Not a single individual or organisation outside the Government believes that it will end it. Shirley-Anne Somerville: I point to the Government’s strong track record delivering on affordable homes. The Government has delivered 136,000 affordable homes, which is 47 per cent more per head of population than in England and 70 per cent more per head of population than in Wales. That is a strong record that I am proud of, but I know that we need to go further. That is exactly why, as I said in my statement, we have taken a range of actions, on voids, acquisitions, affordable homes and assisting private developers. The work that we have undertaken has been shaped by the 17 asks of the coalition, which I mentioned in my statement.”
“What the Government has brought before us is not a plan for ending the housing emergency, but, as Shelter says, “a programme for homelessness”. Freedom of information responses show that the Government runs the risk of missing every single housing target that it has set. We have a housing budget that is lower in real terms than it was two years ago. Rates of affordable new homes are falling, which is somehow being packaged as a success. The promise of 8,000 homes in the statement is a lower number than we have had in previous years. All of that is happening in the face of 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation. Can the cabinet secretary point to the part of her statement that will end the housing emergency, instead of allowing more children to wake up in awful hotels?”
“The Government’s programme will build on exactly that.”
“This year’s housing budget is higher than it was the year before the year in which we had to reduce the budget. That is what the Government is doing; we have remedied that particular issue. I encourage the Labour Party to accept the facts, move on and find something else to talk about or to moan about, given that we have addressed the issue about the budget that we have put in place. [Interruption.] The Presiding Officer: Let us hear one another. The First Minister: The second point that I would make to Mr Griffin—I made this point to him at First Minister’s question time last week, and I am surprised that he has not taken account of it— is that, in Scotland, in the face of austerity, we have delivered more affordable houses per head of population than have been delivered in England or Wales.”
“A year on from declaring a housing emergency, we still do not have enough homes, the rate of building has fallen and more than 10,000 children are homeless. The Government has failed to get us anywhere near the delivery target of 110,000 affordable homes, and the 8,000 homes that were reannounced in the programme for government will not be enough to get that target back on track. That is not a surprise, given that the huge housing budget cut was only partially restored this year. In line with pleas made by Shelter and Homes for Scotland, will the Government pledge to build the homes that we all need, or will the 110,000 affordable homes target become another broken promise? The First Minister: I have to correct Mr Griffin, who is normally very accurate about this information.”
“To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to reports of local authorities suspending council housing allocations. (S6F-04032)”
“That legislation lies with the UK Government, which has published a green paper, but my officials and I are working closely with it on that particular point. If anything came out of the Grenfell inquiry, it was about products, commissioning and so on. We are working closely with the”
“Paul McLennan: I repeat the point that I made about accelerating the pace. There are a couple of important things to say about that. I said in my statement that we are concluding 13 single building assessment processes and are about to commission another four. Those single building assessment processes take a period of time and are all different, as is the completion of remediation. If Mr Griffin wants to get back to me about particular buildings, I am happy to get back to him on that particular point. Mr Griffin made a point about procurement issues. That is obviously a reserved matter, but it is something that we have discussed with the UK Government, and we will continue to do that. We have an intergovernmental meeting coming up, when ministers will be available to discuss that particular point.”
“As Meghan Gallacher said, it is almost eight years since the Grenfell tower fire. We are now in the remarkable position of having had more ministerial statements about cladding than buildings remediated. On behalf of the residents who are still living in fear of fires in their homes, I ask the minister how many buildings will be remediated by the end of this session of Parliament, what date has the Government set for every building in Scotland to be free of combustible cladding and why is Scotland so far behind the rest of the UK on remediation? Will the minister guarantee, as the UK Government is doing, that the companies that are responsible for the absolute tragedy at Grenfell will not be allowed access to any public contracts and will he update procurement legislation to make that happen?”
“I ask the Parliament to collectively agree and pledge that this is the last generation of children who will have to face that situation. I move, That the Parliament notes the publication of In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, a research publication commissioned by Shelter Scotland from De Montfort University and University College London; accepts the findings of the publication, which concludes that children in Scotland are adversely affected by the shocking conditions found in some forms of temporary accommodation; recognises that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) provides children with rights to have their best interests considered when decisions about them are being taken, including the right to life and the ability to develop, the right to school, the right to protection from violence in all forms, and the right to play and rest; notes with concern that the report highlights a number of examples of these rights being breached; accepts that the use of hotel-like accommodation for children in temporary accommodation carries a high risk of breaching children’s rights under the UNCRC; notes that amendments to the Housing (Scotland) Bill have been laid that would require relevant bodies to have regard to the rights of the child in dealing with cases of homelessness, and calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that children in Scotland are placed in safe and secure homes which take account of their rights under the UNCRC.”
“If agreed to, my amendments will require relevant bodies to take account of children’s rights in deciding where their homes should be. It is blindingly obvious to me that a system that places children in such situations is not putting their best interests at the heart of decision making. If it did, it would be impossible for any child in the 21st century in Scotland to have to be in hospital because of where they lived and what the conditions did to them. I beg the Government, on behalf of the children, families and parents who are represented in Shelter Scotland’s report, as well as the thousands of others who are not quoted in it and who are in temporary accommodation, to replace the lethargy with absolute urgency. The situation that the report describes should never have happened.”
“Because of the Government’s complete failure to tackle the shortage in the supply of homes and because of its abject failure to take urgent action on the housing emergency, those are the choices that we are asking housing officers to make. The Housing (Scotland) Bill is progressing through the Parliament, but it hardly addresses the housing emergency and the conditions that are ravaging a generation of Scotland’s children. It does not build any new homes for them, nor does it stop them waking up in cold, unsafe and unhealthy rooms. They want something different, and they want that now. Some of my amendments to the bill try to get to the heart of the issue. The Scottish Government’s failure to reduce the number of children in temporary accommodation as a matter of urgency is a breach of their rights.”
“At that topical question time the other week, Willie Rennie voiced the absolute disbelief of members in the chamber when he asked the Minister for Housing whether he had actually “read the report”, because any sense of empathy or urgency in the face of the absolutely bleak reality of what the report describes seemed completely absent. I accept that local authority housing departments are having to make impossible decisions. I do not believe that a single housing officer would ever willingly place a child in a house that they knew would cause a child harm. I do not envy them in their jobs, and I do not really know how they turn up for work.”
“We are nearly a year into the Government reluctantly declaring a housing emergency—the same Government that promised, long ago, to reduce the number of children in temporary accommodation. We are still reading about kids witnessing stabbings and not being able to sleep at night because they are feeling scared and alone. When I asked about the report at topical question time, the Government—as it often does— talked about empty homes, cutting voids, acquisitions and working groups. It takes a fair amount of front to respond to the details in the report—to respond to hearing about children watching someone else being stabbed—with plans for working groups.”
“Some of them act out at school and take their feelings out on others, which is understandable but is—again—disrupting their own education. I cannot begin to imagine what it is like to be a parent who is trying their best, and trying to make things okay, but who is, every single day, seeing their child getting sadder and sadder, right in front of them, because of what their home is doing to them. Throughout the report, there is a feeling of children and their parents being forgotten about that will stay with me for ever. Those families, and more than 10,000 other children, have somehow disappeared into dirty, damp places that suck their childhood away. I cannot accept—I cannot believe—that that is acceptable in Scotland in 2025.”
“What would you not manage to fit in your bag that week? What of yourself would you leave behind every week? Where would you move to? What does “unsuitable” really mean? In the report, a mum says that her home is “wet” and “very, very cold”. She says that both her boys have asthma and that they are both in and out of hospital all winter. Another describes her child throwing up blood and being in hospital for six weeks because the temporary accommodation in which they live is not clean. In unsuitable accommodation, a child is having to brush her teeth at a bedroom sink because the area that she is supposed to use, which is around the toilet, is covered in absolute filth. Kids describe rats, bugs, mould and—every single time, again and again—the cold. They are learning resilience out of necessity, but they are lonely, insecure, cold and sad.”
“He has to say, “Nothing,” because he knows, as his mum knows, that the next time that they have to move house, when they are forced to move to the next temporary accommodation placement, they will have to leave his toys behind. The feelings of isolation and unsettlement permeate absolutely every line of Shelter’s report. We are told that unsuitable accommodation orders are in place to stop children living in hostels or bed and breakfasts for more than seven days. However, councils are having to move families from one place to another every seven days so that they do not breach the order. Last year, the number of children who are living in such places increased by more than 200 per cent. Can you imagine being six and packing up your whole world every single week? What would you leave behind?”
“If you are a mum or dad, or if you have no kids at all, Shelter Scotland’s publication, “In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation”, on the stories of children in temporary accommodation, is stark and a really hard, difficult read. You cannot help but imagine your own children, or kids from other families who you spoil, comfort, laugh or play with, faced with some of the intolerable conditions and situations that are described in the report. Towards the end of the report, there is a story that a mum tells about her little boy, who is six. She says that at Christmas and on his birthday, people ask him what he would like to put on his list for Santa or to have as a birthday present.”
“Labour’s work to deliver a record budget settlement for the Scottish Government and help half a million Scots with fuel payments demonstrates the difference that a Labour Government, with a new direction in Scotland, can make. 16:12”
“The largest block grant in the history of devolution resulted in an additional £5.2 billion for the Scottish Government. That came about as a result of those tax decisions, and it has meant that the Scottish Government has been able to invest money in reducing the impact on families of the cost of living through proposals on the winter fuel allowance, which we proposed long before the SNP decided to include them in its budget. Labour’s interventions in the energy market will mean that we will no longer be so vulnerable to international shocks to energy prices and that, as a country, we will be able to bring down bills for households and businesses for good.”
“Mark Griffin: Mr Kerr might want to reflect on the records of previous Labour Governments, particularly that of the Labour Government that took office in 1997, which slashed unemployment and fixed the Conservatives’ mess. The UK Labour Government has had to increase the burden on UK companies because of the mess in which we have found ourselves as a result of Liz Truss and the failures of a series of UK Conservative Prime Ministers. We have had to fix that mess, which is the reason why the burden on UK companies has increased. However, we are still listening carefully to businesses that have been affected, and we will try to work with them. The budget that the motion praises is possible only because of the record investment for Scotland that the UK Labour Government delivered.”
“Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that households with the lowest income experienced a higher-than-average inflation rate. That disparity is due to low-income households being more deeply affected by those rising costs. Stephen Kerr: Is Mark Griffin not at all concerned about the widespread views expressed by business groups and industry bodies that we are about to see massive increases in unemployment, especially among young people, because of the consequences of Labour’s first budget last October, with its increase in taxes and costs on businesses and the national insurance increase? Does he not recognise that every Labour Government increases unemployment? The Deputy Presiding Officer: I can give you the time back for both interventions, Mr Griffin.”
“Britain is now more reliant on gas than almost all our European neighbours, so that increase in wholesale gas prices has a bigger impact on us as consumers and businesses. As the motion says, that has helped to contribute to the cost of living crisis faced by those who are most vulnerable. Following Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, the annual rate of inflation peaked at 11.1 per cent in October 2022, which is a 41-year high. Over the three years between May 2021 and May 2024, food prices rose by 30.6 per cent. It had previously taken more than 13 years— from January 2008 to May 2021—for average food prices to rise by the same amount. Low-income households across the UK were hit hardest by those rising prices.”
“Mark Griffin: Sorry—I will make some progress rather than address the member’s question. However, I agree with the point behind his intervention; he can listen to me respond to it or we can carry on this conversation later. There is clearly an issue with the linking of gas and electricity. In particular, it is harmful to switch from gas heating to electric heating; when people switch to heat pumps, solar power or other forms of heating, it causes problems, and the Government should look at and address that. Wholesale gas prices are around 15 per cent higher than they were in the period under the previous price cap. That situation has been made worse by the choices of the previous Conservative Government.”
“However, when it comes to prices, it is not beyond the realm of possibility for the Labour UK Government to change energy prices and to decouple energy prices from international gas prices. Why does the Labour Government not consider doing that? Mark Griffin: I am not sure whether Kevin Stewart was listening to the points that I made. I was talking about the reasons for the price rises being outwith the control of the Scottish and UK Governments, as they are an impact of the war in Ukraine and the shutting down of the gas pipeline through Ukraine from Russia to Europe. I was talking about the fact that the factors that are affecting the price of gas and energy bills are outwith the control of both Governments. Kevin Stewart: Will the member take another intervention?”
“It is stating the obvious to say that energy prices are high in the UK right now. This month’s energy price cap rise will mean an increase of around £9 per month for a typical household over the next three months. Liz Smith and a number of other speakers in the debate have talked about the reasons for that being well beyond the control of either the Scottish or the UK Government. A perfect storm of factors has driven up the price of gas since the start of 2025, and it has pushed British energy bills up with it. Because of the war in Ukraine, the pipeline delivering Russian gas to European countries through Ukraine was switched off at the start of the year. Kevin Stewart: Mr Griffin says that those issues are beyond the control of the Scottish Government, and I agree.”
“I also made the point about the responsibility of the local authority. I do not agree with the landlords’ point that all that the tenant needs to do to take action is to open the window. The regulator can push local authorities on that, as it has done previously. However, akin to what I said to Meghan Gallacher, we will keep Mark Griffin up to date on what we need to do on damp and mould standards.”
“As Meghan Gallacher said, dampness and mould in homes are damaging to the health of those—in particular, young children—who live in them. Far too often, when people raise issues of dampness and mould, their landlords simply blame it on the tenant and tell them to open a window in the middle of winter, as if that will solve the problem. Does the minister think that the non-statutory guidance that has been issued by the Scottish Housing Regulator is firm enough to deal with the problem, and has he spoken to landlords about the practice of blaming tenants for problems of mould in their homes? Paul McLennan: It is worth coming back to the answer that I gave to Meghan Gallacher. I will update Mark Griffin on what we will take forward in relation to Awaab’s law through the Housing (Scotland) Bill.”
“We have also heard about the 12 local authorities that have reduced homelessness and the 20 that have reduced homelessness in relation to children. In the budget that has just been passed, we are also investing £768 million in this financial year to enable the delivery of around 8,000 homes. There is also the £2 million that has been made available in the budget to focus on empty homes, of which there are far too many. We continue to work with the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership to turn around as many homes as we possibly can.”
“It is absolutely appalling that, every single day, thousands of kids are living in the conditions that we hear about in the report. That is despite the Government’s promises to reduce numbers. Every six months, the statistics show that the number of kids in temporary accommodation is growing and growing. Given the report’s findings and the absolutely awful conditions that children are living in, can the minister give a guarantee that, when the next set of statistics is released, we will see a reduction in the number of children living in temporary accommodation? Paul McLennan: I think that we are starting to see some investment around, for example, voids and acquisitions. I mentioned the reduction in voids that we have had in Fife, West Lothian, South Lanarkshire and Edinburgh.”