THE Scottish Green Party’s autumn conference closed yesterday with messages of solidarity with striking workers, support for land reform and for the introduction of rent controls. 

Members voted on policy issues ahead of next year’s Holyrood election and MSPs unveiled plans to overhaul Scotland’s housing system.

In a keynote speech, Lothian MSP Andy Wightman set out a “new deal” for housing which would give tenants the right to request a rent reduction and could bar landlords from evicting people in order to sell a property.

Mr Wightman called for a “significant expansion of affordable housing,” claiming that the system was failing “because housing is framed as a property rights issue rather than a human rights issue.”

On the environment, a new campaign aimed at making Scotland a “woodland nation,” with woods covering 40 per cent of the country by 2040, was unveiled.

Members also offered solidarity to the University and College Union’s Heriot-Watt branch, which is striking to oppose 130 job cuts in Orkney and Galashiels.

A motion to begin adopting the manifesto of tenants’ union Living Rent as party policy also passed, having been proposed by the Greens’ trade union group.

Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater claimed that the party could catch Labour in next year’s elections and said that hers is the only party with the policies to tackle the climate emergency.

“The Scottish Greens know Scotland has the potential to be a positive role model for the world-leading efforts to tackle the climate emergency and restructuring our economy to build a secure future for us all,” she said.