Funding doubled for council homes

Funding for new council homes in Scotland will be doubled to £50m, deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.

She told the SNP spring conference the move would help build 2,000 new houses and support 3,000 construction industry jobs, at a time of recession.

Ms Sturgeon also said 600 extra cleaners would be employed in hospitals to tackle infection on the wards.

She urged delegates to work hard to win seats in the European elections.

Ms Sturgeon told the conference in Glasgow that the responsibility to stand up for and lead Scotland had never been greater than it was now.

Tough times

"We live in the toughest of economic times," she said.

"People are worried about their jobs, their mortgages and their pensions.

"But let there be no doubt - no doubt at all - that as a country, we've got what it takes to get through these tough times."

The economic imperative of protecting construction jobs and the driving social need for more affordable housing go hand in hand Nicola Sturgeon Deputy first minister

Ms Sturgeon added: "We must reassert out traditional values of probity, thrift and a commitment to hard work."

She said the new council house plan, which will be supported with additional cash from councils, would deliver the practical action people wanted to see, adding: "The economic imperative of protecting construction jobs and the driving social need for more affordable housing go hand in hand."

Turing to health, Ms Sturgeon, also health secretary, told the conference that the hundreds of extra full and part-time cleaners across Scotland, would employed directly by the NHS, rather than contractors.

"Nothing is more important to me personally than driving down the rates of infection in our hospitals," she said.

"Hospital infections cause pain, distress and suffering for patients and their families - and they undermine confidence in our NHS.

And, arguing against privatisation of the health service following her trip to the US last week, she told delegates: "I know the NHS is not perfect. I'd be the last person to suggest that it is.

"But it is a million times better than what I saw last week."

European vote

As the SNP was celebrating its 75th anniversary, Ms Sturgeon rallied party activists ahead of the European polls, in June.

"We have a fantastic team of candidates," said the SNP deputy leader, adding: "They believe Scotland's rightful place in Europe is not in a side room, but at the top table as an equal, independent nation.

"So let us work as hard as we can to win that election for Scotland."

Turning her sights to her political opponents, Ms Sturgeon said nobody wanted to see a return to the "fear and hopelessness of redundancy and unemployment" that marked the Thatcher years of Conservative government.

"But, through their incompetence, their sleaze and their arrogance, Labour has opened the door to another Tory government," she went on.

"That is a betrayal of the people of Scotland and Labour should hang their heads in shame."

Ms Sturgeon also challenged Gordon Brown to reverse what she described as Westminster's £1bn efficiency savings cut to Scotland in his forthcoming budget - and challenged him to provide £500m for housing north of the border.

Colleagues remembered

Ahead of the conference, senior party figures attended the funeral of SNP veteran Sir Neil MacCormick.

The former Nationalist MEP and long-serving law professor recently died from cancer at the age of 67.

Ms Sturgeon described Sir Neil as "one of the country's finest intellects", while also paying tribute to SNP Glasgow MSP Bashir Ahmad - the first Scots-Asian at Holyrood - as a "trailblazer", following his death earlier this year.

But she went on: "Neither of them would want us to mourn their loss for too long.

"They would want us instead to build in the legacies they leave, to redouble our efforts and to keep moving Scotland forward."

Ms Sturgeon told the conference: "We've got what it takes to get through the tough times, to prosper again when things get better.

"And there is no doubt Scotland has got what it takes to be independent.

"So let us now prove that we've got what it takes to win that independence for our country."

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