Labour calls for second homes to be stripped of additional heating payment

A debate is to take place in Parliament next week calling for the Scottish Government to strip second home owners of multiple payments designed to help with increasing costs.

The UK Government announced that households will receive a £400 payment to help with energy bills amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Those who own more than one home will receive a payment for each property.

Scottish Labour has called on the Scottish Government to use council tax powers to “claw back” payments for second homes after obtaining figures which showed that £9.6 million is being “wasted” on the scheme.

The party’s housing spokesman, Mark Griffin, said the Scottish Government cannot “keep pleading poverty”.

“As people across Scotland struggle to put food on the table, others are being handed double payments to the tune of £9.6 million,” he said.

“The SNP-Green Government have been asleep at the wheel throughout this cost-of-living crisis, but now they need to wake up.

“They cannot keep pleading poverty and peddling austerity while lining the pockets of those who need it least.

“We can claw back this money and put it back into struggling local communities, so we can spend it on something more useful than a subsidy for holiday homes.

“We have the powers – all that is missing is the political will.”

Labour will submit a motion to the Scottish Parliament on the issue on Wednesday June 22.

The proposal would affect second homes and not main residences.