The housing and homelessness charity has published a budget briefing urging ministers to restore the Affordable Housing budget to at least £3.5 billion over the course of this parliament, as a minimum, and make housing the government’s top national infrastructure priority.

It also highlights the urgent need for investment in local homelessness services, many of which are under severe strain, to ensure people can retain their homes.

Shelter Scotland said that this was a binary choice, and passing another budget that doesn’t adequately support housing is endorsing homelessness and failing children who are already without a permanent home.

Director Alison Watson said: “The Scottish Government has a choice to make in this budget: reverse the cuts to housing and invest in local services or allow homelessness to rise.

“More than 10,000 children are living in temporary accommodation—the highest number on record and more than double the figure from a decade ago. It’s children who are paying the price for the government’s failure to tackle the housing emergency.

“If MSPs pass another budget that fails to adequately support housing, then they’re endorsing homelessness and condemning even more children to spend their childhoods without a permanent home.

“Of course, we accept there are budget pressures but if the Scottish Government wants to be taken seriously when it tells us it’s still committed to tackling child poverty then it needs to prove its serious about ending child homelessness.

“Social housing is the only way to end Scotland’s housing emergency—and the government knows this.”