Young mothers from Royston Wardiburn’s ‘All Abut Me’ group and their supporters are to stage a protest outside Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson’s constituency office on Roseburn Terrace this morning. The women are protesting against changes to the benefits system that will see at least eleven local families – and 42 children – evicted from their homes.
A spokesperson for the group explained: “Some of our familes have already been evicted and have been housed in appalling hstels and bed and breakfast accommodation. Many more families in Edinburgh and throughout the country are in this situation, and unless urgent action is taken immediately many more will become hhomeless as they are unable to pay their rent due to drastic reductions in their housing benefits. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
The welfare reforms were introduced by the Tory government at Westminster and protesters will present a list of demands to the Conservatives’ Scottish leader Ruth Davidson when they lobby her constituency office this morning.
Their statement reads: ‘We, the people of North Edinburgh, call on Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Tories in Scotland, and the Westminster government, to halt their attacks on the most vulnerable sections of our society.
We demand the following:
- that Westminster scraps the Benefits Cap immediately
- that Westminster provides adequate funding to build social housing as an emergency requirement. It was done in the post-war period and it can be done again in 2017
- that Westminster fully funds local authorities to allow them to pay full Discretionary Housing Payment to prevent more families from the trauma of losing their homes and being made homeless.’
The protest will take place at 10am outside the Scottish Conservative and Unionist constituency Office on Roseburn Terrace.
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