SNP MSP Emma Roddick has secured a commitment from the Scottish Government to improve access to the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for young people experiencing homelessness. EMA is a weekly payment issued directly to students and aims to support and encourage young people from low-income households to remain in education and achieve their full potential. [...]

MSP for the Highlands & Islands Emma Roddick has reiterated the urgent need to do more to tackle homelessness in Scotland last month in Parliament. Speaking in the Scottish Parliament at the end of June, Emma noted that the Scottish Government must readjust their policy further in response to the housing emergency in order to [...]

MSP for the Highlands and Islands Emma Roddick has highlighted the need to make sure existing homes are being used as houses, and that people can afford rents and mortgages, alongside housebuilding when preventing homelessness and tackling what the Scottish Government agreed this week [Wednesday 15th May] is a “housing emergency”. The SNP MSP reminded the [...]

Yesterday [20th November], Emma held a roundtable with local organisations that provide housing support to people across the Highlands. The roundtable brought organisations together to discuss the current situation in the Highlands and how everyone could work together with decision-makers and partner organisations to improve the current challenges people are facing. On the roundtable, Emma [...]

Highlands & Islands MSP Emma Roddick has welcomed the Scottish Government’s assurance that work is continuing towards the implementation of long-term protections for private housing tenants, stating that more permanent measures are vital in ensuring the security of renters across Scotland. Ms Roddick pressed the Minister for Tenants’ Rights, Patrick Harvie, to report on the [...]

MSP for the Highlands & Islands Emma Roddick has recently been named as a Centre for Homelessness Impact ‘End it With Evidence’ Ambassador. The UK-based charity champions evidence-led change by better collection and use of data on homelessness. Speaking in the recent online Impact Forum run by the charity, Ms Roddick shared her own experience [...]

  Highlands & Islands MSP Emma Roddick has sponsored a Shelter Scotland event in this Scottish Parliament this week. Attendees of the event, titled Social Housing as the Foundation of Social Justice, heard from speakers Alison Watson, Director of Shelter Scotland, SallyAnn Kelly OBE, CEO of Aberlour, and Shona Robison, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, [...]

Highlands and Islands MSP Emma Roddick has today been appointed as the Deputy Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee after the appointment of the Committee’s previous Convener, Elena Whitham MSP, to the Scottish Government.Ms Roddick has served on the Social Justice and Social Security Committee since its formation shortly after [...]

Emma Roddick, MSP for the Highlands & Islands, has welcomed the news that the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Act has received Royal Assent and is therefore now law in Scotland. The bill, which was passed through the parliament as emergency legislation in early October, will see in-tenancy rents frozen until at least 31 March [...]

Emma speaking in Parliament in the Programme for Government 2022-23 debate Highlands & Islands MSP Emma Roddick has welcomed the announcement of a rent freeze and moratorium on evictions to help people through the cost crisis as part of the Scottish Government’s 2022-23 Programme for Government.  The programme, published yesterday [6th September 2022], contains details [...]