The co-convener of the Scottish Greens has said she believes only her party can bring the “radical and transformative” change needed to eradicate inequality across the country.
Maggie Chapman, candidate for the North East, has made providing more affordable accommodation for people as one of her key priorities, and yesterday met with housing charities to discuss the current housing crisis in the region.
Mrs Chapman met representatives from Scarf, Grampian Housing Association and the Cyrenians in Aberdeen to discuss ways to tackle the issue.
The 36-year-old, who is rector of Aberdeen University, said: “We know that Aberdeen and elsewhere in the north-east suffer from the lack of affordable housing and we’re wanting bold new changes in Holyrood to make sure we have better regulation, that we actually use the rent control powers that the Greens pushed for in the last session, so that people have the bed rock of society in warm, affordable housing.
“Talking about fuel poverty, that’s a significant issue for many people, there’s over 2,000 cold homes in the north-east of Scotland.
“Really with the wealth of this country that’s a pretty damning indictment of the system we have.”
Addressing the North Sea oil and gas crisis, Mrs Chapman renewed the party’s call for the north-east begin the process of moving away from its reliance on the offshore industry.
The list candidate said: “We need to move into renewables, we need to focus jobs in decommissioning our oil and gas infrastructure because we don’t want our oil and gas workers to be in the same situation as our coal miners were in the 80s with no industry left and no plan for their future.
“It’s about investing now to ensure that we have jobs in renewables, in the energy sector generally in the north-east.”
Last night, Aberdeen Donside candidate Mark McDonald said a move to decommissioning would be a “disaster” for the region’s economy.
He said: “The very last thing that the industry and those who work in it need is for politicians to talk about shutting it down, particularly to speak about early decommissioning which would be an absolute disaster for the local economy.”
A poll, carried out by Survation, yesterday predicted the Greens could win 12 seats.
