Latest News –  Martin Whitfield MSP

Martin Whitfield MSP is calling on local grassroots organisations to consider applying for new grant funding opportunities from Asda’s charity, the Asda Foundation. The Asda Foundation has announced up to £500,000 of funding to help transform and improve community spaces across the UK. Grants awarded will be worth between £500 and £3,000 and are aimed at helping grassroots groups improve or transform their local outdoor community spaces. Funding can be used to transform an outdoor area, create or enhance community growing projects, and enable community clean ups. Martin Whitfield MSP said: “The Asda Foundation has been supporting people in local communities [...]

Martin Whitfield MSP has warned the Scottish Government is presiding over “a decade of decline” of childminding in Scotland as new figures show numbers halving. The number of childminders in Scotland has plummeted by 49 per cent between 2012 and 2023 – a drop of more than 3,000. This figure has fallen for seven consecutive years, dropping by 8 per cent between 2022 and 2023 alone. Mr Whitfield warned that this decline risks doing lasting damage to childcare services in Scotland.   Overall the capacity in Scottish early learning and childcare fell between 2022 and 2023. Martin Whitfield MSP said: “The [...]

Martin Whitfield MSP has warned that people in East Lothian and other parts of South Scotland are being “priced out” of the housing market as one in four Scots say they cannot afford to move. The most recent Scottish Household Survey has revealed a sharp rise in the proportion of Scots unable to move to their accommodation of choice because they cannot afford the rent or mortgage. In 2019, just 13 per cent of respondents said being unable to afford the rent or mortgage was a barrier to moving, but by 2023 this figure had jumped to 24 per cent. [...]

Martin Whitfield MSP has called the failure to extend rates relief to retail businesses a “hammer blow” to high streets, as new figures reveal that the number of employees in the retail industry in Scotland has hit a 15-year low. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, more than 10,000 jobs were lost from the industry – almost 1 in 20 retail jobs. Despite the challenges facing retail, the Scottish Government snubbed the industry in its budget by choosing not to follow the UK government’s lead and extend 40 per cent rates relief. While all hospitality, retail and leisure businesses in England [...]

2024 will be remembered as the year the public voted for a change of direction. That change has now begun, and we have already started to see the benefits of electing a new government for the UK. However, we are now only just over a year away from another election, for the Scottish Parliament, which will afford the electorate the opportunity to vote for change here too. I will be making the case for that change throughout the next year and up to May 2026 when voters will have their say on Scotland’s future. In the meantime, as we head [...]