Miles Briggs: Homeless emergency across Edinburgh and the Lothians

Lothian MSP Miles Briggs, has called on SNP Ministers to declare a homeless emergency across Edinburgh and the Lothians.

At General Questions in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, Miles Briggs MSP asked Ben Macpherson MSP, Minister for Social Security and Local Government “Will he today now act and declare a homeless emergency here in the capital?”

Figures release on Wednesday showed that the number of estimated homeless deaths across Lothian had increased dramatically over the last three years.

Across Lothian estimated homeless deaths have gone from 26 in 2019, to 41 in 2020 to 63 in 2021. [Figures below]

The number of homeless applications has significantly increased over the last three years with 8,165 applications across East Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian and West Lothian in the quarter ending 30^th September 2021, compared to 6,334 applications for the quarter ending 30^th September 2019. [Figures below]

There has been an unprecedented number of children living in temporary accommodation in East Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian and West Lothian. Across Lothian 2,990 children were living in temporary accommodation at 31^st March 2022, this compares to 2,140 children living in temporary accommodation at 31^st March 2019. [Figures below]

Lothian list MSP Miles Briggs, who is the Conservative candidate for Edinburgh Southern, said: “The number of people who have died while homeless here in the capital has increased by nearly 150 percent over the last four years.

“Shelter Scotland have said the situation pointed towards public services failing people and a broken housing system.

“It is simply not acceptable, and Edinburgh City Council do not have the resources to deliver a solution.”

These figures come from the data section of the publication : Homeless Deaths 2021 | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)

Area	2019	2020	2021
Identified deaths	Estimated deaths	Estimated death rate (per million population)	Identified deaths	Estimated deaths	Estimated death rate (per million population)	Identified deaths	Estimated deaths	Estimated death rate (per million population)
Scotland	173	216	52.2	215	256	61.9	222	250	60.4
City of Edinburgh	17	21	51.3	28	33	80.1	39	44	105.5
East Lothian	0	0	0.0	4	5	60.0	3	3	42.6
Midlothian	3	4	54.9	1	1	17.4	10	11	164.2
West Lothian	1	1	9.1	2	2	17.3	4	5	32.7
Lothian (total)	21	26		35	41		56	63

Table 6a: Open homeless applications by local authority
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	2019	2020	2021		Comparing 30 Sept 2020 with 30 Sept 2021
	31-Mar	30-Jun	30-Sep	31-Dec	31-Mar	30-Jun	30-Sep	31-Dec	31-Mar	30-Jun	30-Sep		Number	%
Scotland	21,575	21,674	22,458	22,074	22,907	25,650	27,036	25,331	24,835	25,370	26,001		-1,035	-4%
East Lothian	704	688	663	658	676	687	728	733	746	768	789		61	8%
Edinburgh	3,350	3,607	3,818	3,859	4,112	4,478	4,732	4,860	4,933	5,132	5,147		415	9%
Midlothian	904	846	878	856	849	862	920	870	810	769	738		-182	-20%
West Lothian	1,035	881	975	821	851	1,023	1,152	1,129	1,216	1,374	1,491		339	29%