FIFE Council will be asked to declare a housing emergency amid a claim that the Scottish Government "do not care".
Dunfermline Lib Dem councillor James Calder has backed a motion highlighting the "crisis" in the Kingdom with demand for homes far outstripping supply.
He said it followed a warning in January that an emergency would be declared in Fife if ministers followed through with the proposed 26 per cent in funding for the affordable housing programme, which will "impact" on the council's plans to build more homes.
Cllr Calder told the Press: "We have tried raising the housing issues with the Scottish Government, but they do not care.
"In fact they are wilfully cutting the affordable housing budget despite increasing levels of homelessness and significant shortage of affordable housing.
READ MORE: Number of households in Fife in temporary accommodation is rising
"Already a number of other councils have declared a housing emergency due to their negligence and we sadly believe that Fife must now follow suit."
The motion, to be debated at Thursday's full council meeting, was tabled by Labour councillor Judy Hamilton, the administration's housing spokesperson.
She highlighted "extreme pressures" on housing and homelessness in Fife and, despite agreeing a strategy and making progress on homes available for re-let, said the number of families with children in temporary accommodation "remains worryingly high".
Cllr Hamilton called on the Scottish Government to reverse the "significant" 26 per cent cut in the national affordable housing programme and also blamed the UK Government for a lack of funding.
In January she successfully argued that council leader David Ross should write to the First Minister, Prime Minister and the leaders of all the parties in the Scottish Parliament for help in solving the crisis.
Local authorities in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Argyll & Bute have already declared a housing emergency.
READ MORE: Fife Council to spend £16.5m on buying back 150 homes
Cllr Calder, the group leader of the Lib Dems at the council, said: "We are not pleased to have to put forward this motion, but we feel duty bound to do so to ensure that the housing shortages that we have in Fife are taken seriously."
The SNP's housing spokesperson, Cllr Lesley Backhouse, said they "appear to be waking up 22 months after the election and have finally noticed there is a housing crisis”.
She said they called for emergency talks in May 2022 after a court judgement that forced the council to change how it used temporary accommodation, and "demanded reports" on tackling homelessness the following month, but both requests were denied.
Cllr Backhouse added that they've repeatedly pushed the administration to increase 'buy-backs' and improve the turnaround of empty properties to boost the number of available homes.
She stated: "If there was a time to call a housing emergency, it was in May 2022 when the council was responding to the sheriff court judgement.
"If it wasn’t then, it was after the revelation that the council was breaking the law in October 2022 by failing in its statutory duty to provide homeless accommodation."
She continued: "No doubt councillors Hamilton and Calder will claim this is all the fault of the Scottish Government.
READ MORE: Fife Council to raise rent by five per cent from April
"They will ignore the fact the government have given Fife Council over £100m in the last 10 years alone for building council houses and they will ignore the role of the UK Government who have both caused rampant inflation in the UK economy and subsequently failed to fund the costs of inflation to the Scottish Government.”
The SNP MSP for Dunfermline, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said more than 1,600 new homes were completed across Fife last year and government are putting £556m into the affordable housing programme for 2024/25.
She added: "It is vital we continue to increase the number of good, affordable homes available on the market.
"Of course, we would love to do more but that is extremely challenging while remaining tied to a failed, dysfunctional Westminster system."
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