Scotland’s new housing minister has run into trouble just weeks after being appointed by First Minister John Swinney.

Màiri McAllan returned from maternity leave to take up the post earlier this month to tackle the country’s ‘housing emergency’.

She was accused of not being on top of her housing brief after being unable to say how many people were currently on the housing waiting list, it is reported.

There are nearly 250,000 on the waiting list, but SNP minister McAllan was unable to give the figure in a television interview with STV News.

It’s not that I don’t know it, I don’t have the figure with me today.”

“It’s not that I don’t know it, I don’t have the figure with me today. We are investing more than ever in the delivery of affordable homes, and… I am turning over every stone that I can to make sure that more homes are available to more people in Scotland, and I’ll be making that my priority.

“So in my office in parliament I have a dashboard that demonstrates to me the number of people who are waiting, who are in temporary accommodation,” she said.

Slap in the face

Meghan Gallacher, the Scottish Conservative housing spokesman, said: “It’s a slap in a face to Scots stuck on housing waiting lists that Mairi McAllan is clearly not on top of her new brief.

“Thousands of people are desperate for somewhere to call home and will despair at the latest SNP housing minister failing to answer such basic questions.”

McAllan previously served as the minister for environment, biodiversity and land reform from 2021 to 2023, and as the minister for transport, net zero and just transition from 2023 until February 2024.

Watch the interview in full

More on Scotland’s housing emergency

Main picture: BBC News