MORE than 12,300 children were homeless across Scotland last Christmas, figures indicate.

Scotland’s Housing Minister Kevin Stewart released statistics showing 12,343 children were part of live homelessness applications on Christmas Day 2018.

The figures were released in response to parliamentary questions by the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

The party has said the numbers are “tragic” and called for a “revolution” in social rented housing.

The number of children homeless across Scotland had been rising since the 2015 figure of 10,508, until last year when it fell by 424 to 12,858.

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The local authority with the largest number of children on its live homeless applications last Christmas was Glasgow City Council at 2475, followed by Edinburgh City Council on 2153. Outside these cities, figures dropped sharply, with South Lanarkshire Council having the third largest number at 796.

Scottish Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Caron Lindsay said: “Housing is a basic human need and it is a key responsibility of any government to ensure that people have a warm and secure home, especially at this time of year.

“Scotland needs a social rent revolution to help fix the housing market. Building more homes for social rent would re-establish it as a valid long-term option for people, and help drive down the cost of other types of housing.

“The Conservatives must also fix their cruel policies which are putting people at greater risk of homelessness, starting with the broken system of Universal Credit.”

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Stewart said: “Scotland has some of the strongest rights in the world for anyone experiencing homelessness, including the right to emergency temporary accommodation when homeless. While this provides an important safety net, we are clear such arrangements must be for as short a time as possible and be of good quality.

“That is why we have invested £32.5 million into rapid rehousing and Housing First to minimise the length of time people spend in temporary accommodation.

“We are proud of our record on delivering social housing.”