I’m guessing that Scotland News Editor Neil Pooran is less informed on this than he should be or he wouldn’t be hurting us this way, informed as we are, in our ribs.

He writes, under that rib-tickly headline:

Homeless Network Scotland, which is made up of 40 organisations in the sector, wants to see at least 15,700 quality affordable homes completed each year in order to end the housing emergency.

It comes after Andy Burnham pledged the “biggest council house building programme since the post-war period”.

The coalition of charities is calling on the Scottish Government to commit to matching the Prime Minister’s ambition and ensure that any additional funding as a result of Barnett consequentials are spent on council housing.

Barnett consequentials are additional money which the Scottish Government receives when the UK Government increases spending south of the border.

Just parroting them, Pooran forgets to research and to inform his readers of these key facts on Burnham’s track record on this.

In the period, May 2017 to June 2026, when he was Mayor of Greater Manchester, official figures show 2 368 homes for social rent were completed across the 10 Greater Manchester boroughs between 2017/18 and 2024/25. https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/andy-burnham-reform-manchester-housing-fact-check-b3014003.html

The comparable figure for Scotland was 46 114. https://www.gov.scot/publications/quarterly-housing-statistics-march-2026/pages/social-sector-new-housebuilding/

Scotland thus built nearly 20 times (19.5) as many social rent homes as did Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester.

Great Manchester has a population of 3 million, just over half that of Scotland at 5.5 million so, let’s say 10 times?