SCOTLAND is in the grip of a housing emergency, according to a council chiefs’ report.

The Housing in Scotland report, published by the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (Solace), describes what it terms the “unsustainable pressure” creating an “emergency” in Scottish council housing, citing a “critical lack of capacity.”

The paper reveals that almost a quarter of a million people languish on housing waiting lists, and that councils are increasingly in breach of their statutory duties towards homeless — numbered at the 28,944 last September.