SCOTLAND’S First Minister must face Parliament over an SNP-Green government “in denial” on the nation’s housing emergency, Scottish Labour have said.

Despite councils such as Edinburgh and Glasgow taking the unprecedented step of declaring a housing emergency, the SNP-Green Scottish government have so far resisted calls from homelessness charity Shelter and opposition politicians to make a similar national declaration.

Criticism intensified when the Scottish government’s recent budget slashed spending on housing by a staggering £205 million — from £738m to £533m — for the coming year, prompting Labour housing spokesman Mark Griffin to join Shelter’s calls for Humza Yousaf to face Parliament on the issue.

Mr Griffin said: “The Scottish government are in complete denial about the scale of the housing emergency in Scotland.

“In the face of record high homelessness, rents and mortgages spiralling, and housebuilding plummeting, the Scottish government response has been to cut the housing budget by 26 per cent.

“This is a bitter blow to the nearly 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation in Scotland today, without a home to call their own.

“Such a devastating cut to the housing budget will only result in more and more children forced into homelessness, their calls to find them a home simply falling on deaf ears.

“Humza Yousaf must wake up, listen to the demands of Shelter Scotland and outline to Parliament how he intends to respond to what can only be described as a housing emergency.”

SNP housing minister Paul McLennan responded: “We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, and to support that we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026-27 to this year, which will concentrate on deliverability.

“We are working with the financial community in Scotland, and elsewhere, to boost private-sector investment and help deliver more homes.”