A Scottish Labour government will buy up empty homes and sell them off for £1, the party’s leader has announced.
Labour estimates around 27,000 homes in the country are considered to be empty, and Anas Sarwar used the first day of the party conference in Edinburgh to say it would reform compulsory purchase rules if elected at the 2026 Holyrood election.
The homes, he said, would be offered to those on low incomes or first-time buyers in a bid to improve communities and get people on to the housing ladder.
Mr Sarwar said that if elected, Labour would appoint a specific housing minister, with the goal of increasing home ownership.
He told delegates: “While thousands struggle to get on the housing ladder, there are empty and derelict houses blighting our neighbourhoods – there are 27,000 long-term empty homes.
“We believe these need to be put back into use to create new homes and revitalise and re-energise communities.
“This radical policy would buy up these neglected houses and sell them on, for just £1, to future homeowners.”
The new owners, he said, would then be given a Scottish government-backed loan of up to £25,000 to renovate houses, which would carry a low interest rate.
Owners will be limited to one property each, and be required to live in the home for at least five years.
It is estimated the average price for homes in Scotland would be £12,500, the party said, although prices will fluctuate dependent on location.
The party’s housing spokesman Mark Griffin also announced an initiative that would be brought in by a Scottish Labour government that would increase the council tax on empty homes every year up to 500% of the original cost, raising an estimated £71 million that would fund the £1 homes programme.
Using his centrepiece speech at the conference, Mr Sarwar also announced an “Amazon tax” that would introduce increased business rates for large warehouses which do not sell a proportion of their stock to retailers, hitting the internet giant and others like it to the tune of £20 million in the first year.
The funding would be used to “rebuild our crumbling town centres and cities”, the leader said.
Earlier in the day, deputy leader Jackie Baillie told delegates of the party’s plan to cut red tape in the NHS by amalgamating the country’s 14 health boards into just three – understood to cover the west, east and north of the country.
The initiative, the party said, would cut the wages of senior managers, human resources and public relations directors, with savings of around £20 million to be re-directed into health spending.
Ms Baillie told Labour members the money saved could be enough to fund 700 nursing roles.
In his speech, the party leader said: “We need fewer chief executives, more doctors.
“Fewer managers, more nurses.
“By reducing the number of health boards to three, we can cut the number of managerial posts and free up funds to invest in the NHS workforce, in local health centres, in GP surgeries and in hospitals.”
