The Scottish Government in 2003 outlined the most progressive housing legislation in the world when it promised to eradicate all unintentional homelessness by 2012.

One of the main issues was the allocation of housing applications as priority or non-priority; families with children always fell into the priority group, which now makes up 83% of applications. So single or childless couples end up being left out.

The main issues of course is houses. In Edinburgh, there are 154 people bidding for every vacant council house, and the waiting list stands at nearly 27 000 people. Nationally the waiting list is 142 000.