What do you think about housing?

If you’ve fled the nest, or are thinking about doing it in the next few years, you’ll know that leaving home to live by yourself isn’t easy. For young people it can sometimes be very difficult to make that first move, with long waiting lists for council or housing association flats, private landlords that are more interested in taking your money than making sure you’re OK or having to find a big wad of money to buy a place of your own.

The Scottish Government has made a commitment to make more social housing (ie. council and registered housing association houses) available. Money has already been made available to build new houses and flats, and now the Government is planning reforms to the ‘Right to Buy’ system and regulations for social landlords, through a new Housing Bill.

The availability of affordable housing for young people has been an issue for a number of years, and there is a strong feeling that more should be done to tackle homelessness. One of the Scottish Youth Parliament’s strong beliefs is that “no young person in Scotland should be without a home”, so we’re really keen to tell the Government what you think of their plans and whether you think they’d work for the benefit of young people.

So we want to hear from you! Please give us 5 minutes of your time to tell us what you think – and we’ll take your views straight to the Government!