SNP-GREEN Scottish government plans to slash housing budgets have been slammed as “the worst possible decision at the worst possible time” by housing and anti-poverty bodies.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) have joined forces with constructors at Homes for Scotland, the Chartered Institute for Housing and anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to write an open letter to First Minister Humza Yousaf demanding he ditch the eyewatering £196 million cuts.

The letter was published in today’s Daily Record newspaper on the eve of today’s Holyrood vote, which would axe more than a quarter of Scotland’s housing budget.

SFHA’s Sally Thomas said: “Almost one in 20 people in Scotland are on a waiting list for a social home, 30,000 are homeless and nearly 10,000 children are growing up in temporary accommodation.

“We just aren’t building the homes that Scotland needs.

“The budget proposals represent the worst possible decision at the worst possible time and are a hammer-blow to the First Minister’s priority of reducing poverty.”

Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Chris Birt said: “There is still time for the First Minister to do the right thing and reverse this massive cut to the affordable housing supply budget.

“This budget risks being a poverty-causing budget rather than a poverty-solving budget — and in the face of looming child poverty reduction targets is difficult to understand and even harder to defend.”

SNP Housing Minister Paul McLennan said: “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 2024, 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.”