Last week, West Dunbartonshire Council approved our Rapid Re-housing Transition Plan for the next five years.

I welcome this very much and believe that it will significantly reduce homelessness and improve our response to it.

However, I did query the fact that the Scottish Government funding for the Transition Plan is limited and the council has applied for over 20 per cent of the total funding available.

If we do not receive the £4.6million we need, funding will need to be found from elsewhere to carry forward this vital work.

Of course, as I pointed out, reducing homelessness improves people’s lives generally, as it reduces demand on other services.

So, going forward, we need to be more joined-up in how we fund services from limited resources.

For example, joint working between housing, the health and social care partnership and education services is needed to address child poverty or mental health issues.

As my colleague, Councillor David McBride, pointed out, however, the council’s budget is constantly being squeezed by the Scottish Government.

Year on year, they apply greater reductions to our budget than are made to their budget by the Tories in London.

As an area of deprivation with a declining and ageing population, West Dunbartonshire needs more funding – not cuts.

So, I hope that the SNP administration bear this in mind at the budget meeting tomorrow.

Labour is committed to funding councils to deliver vital services for our young, our elderly and our disabled residents, and a good living and working environment for all.

That is why we invested so much in schools, housing and infrastructure for the regeneration of Clydebank when we were in power.

In two years’ time, we will have the chance to elect a new Scottish Parliament. Will we choose more of the same inaction of the last 14 years? Or a Labour government for the many, not the few?