Around five decades ago, council housing made up more than half of all homes in Scotland with many areas enjoying a strong community spirit that has all but disappeared.

Many are still there, with handsome stone-built houses and large gardens a feature of towns and cities across the country.

Of course there are many which aren’t like that and theses fell victim to successive governments completely going off the idea of building council homes.

The first council  estate in Scotland sprung up in 1920 in Logie, Dundee, with the homes still standing to this day and very much sought after they are.

But overall, the number of people living in Scots council homes has fallen to around 23% of the total  while the number of homeless families has steadily risen.

Is this a coincidence?

Well, there is certainly an overwhelming case to argue that building more council houses would result in more homes available homes for the families concerned.

So why are more not being built? The answer to that appears to be two-fold. A lack of serious political will being one and a shortage of cash being the other.

Many, of course, blame the Thatcher Government’s right to buy policy in the 1980’s for the shortages, and while it has played a part, it is certainly not the only reason.

Introduced in 1980, two million tenants across the UK were able buy their council homes at generous discounts. 

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This led to the best of council stock being bought and taken out of local authority ownership.

The arguments for the scheme say it helped........

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