“Dundee is not typical” Heather Anderson on the university, drug crisis and independence

Three days before the election we spoke to Heather Anderson, the Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate for Dundee City West in the upcoming Scottish Parliamentary Elections on the 7^th of May.  She spoke to The Jute Journal about the issues facing higher education in Scotland, the cost of living, the drug crisis and housing.  

Heather started her political journey with the SNP in 2022 by getting elected to the Dundee City council for the Coldside ward, a seat she still holds. She also served as a member of the European Parliament for only 5 days in January 2020 before the UK left the EU. 

When asked what issues come up most often on the doorstep, Heather pointed to the cost of living. Inflation has pushed up the price of everyday goods and rising energy bills putting pressure on households. 

“I think people are worried financially. They’re worried about the cost of living. They’re worried about the cost of oil. They’re watching what’s happening on the news. They’re worried about inflation”. 

She spoke about what this looks like for families in Dundee: 

“They’re concerned about how they’re going to cope, how they’re going to put petrol in their cars, how they’re going to feed their families, how they’re going to heat their homes. The cost of living is something that is really making people anxious”. 

A major issue facing the city is the financial crisis at the University. It was recently announced that a further £20m in savings would be necessary and a further round of voluntary severance has taken place.  

We asked Heather what the government needs to do to support Higher Education, given that the SNP Government has cut funding for home students by 20% over the last 13 years.  

“Dundee University is not typical in that the Gillies report found there was mismanagement. So it’s not just that there’s a general problem with universities, there are very, very specific problems with the University of Dundee around transparency and governance.” 

“The Scottish Government stepped in, they’ve put in 62 million to keep things going… The money from the Scottish Government was completely clear, it wasn’t to sack people, it wasn’t for compulsory redundancies.” 

Heather believes the problem lies within the governance of Westminster, pointing to the handling of student visas. 

“The decisions from the Home Office on students coming into Scotland have inflicted enormous delays. It’s cost tens of millions, because students who were coming haven’t been able to get visas.” 

She speaks on the importance of the University of Dundee to the wider community in the city.  

“About one in five of the population are students. So we have to make sure that students know they’re welcome in Dundee, and that it’s the best place to come.” 

We asked Heather about how her party would approach lowering the number of deaths by drugs to ultimately save lives. 

The SNP treat drugs as a public health issue rather than a criminal one, Heather says that her work as a councillor in this city makes her credible on a community level at understanding the drug crisis in our city.  

“In the SNP, we look at the drug issue as a public health issue rather than a criminal issue.” 

In 2019 the Dundee Drugs Commission released a report including recommendations on how to tackle the drug crisis. Many of these recommendations weren’t taken on board. Labour and Greens both mentioned the report when we spoke to them, however no party has pushed enough for these recommendations to come to effect. 

“There was a big review a number of years ago with the Dundee Drugs Commission, and they had a whole load of recommendations that weren’t accepted. We should go back and look at that to see how we support the people who are being adversely affected by this trade.” 

Dundee has the second highest drug deaths per capita for cities in western Europe, second only to Glasgow. 

“I’m a councillor in Dundee, so I spend a huge amount of time dealing with anti-social behaviour issues in our communities, working with the local community policing team. We know where people are, we know where they live, we know who their dad is. Dundee’s a village.” 

Housing remains one of the pressures that hits young people the hardest, many people often live pay check to pay check because of the costs of renting. Heather traced the roots of the problem back to the sale of council houses under the Thatcher government.  

“In Dundee we used to have 45,000 council houses, and we’ve now got 12 and a half thousand. A lot of people who bought those properties then rented them out, so you’re ending up with individual flats and the whole issue of factoring, maintenance and repair.” 

She pointed to recent legislation that introduced rent controls under the Housing Act, which strengthens the rights on tenants and introduced rent caps. The SNP also committed £4.9 billion to build 110,000 affordable homes by 2030. The party’s manifesto aims to give first time buyers up to £10,000 in the form of a joint equity contribution. The government will provide funding in exchange for a proportionate share of ownership. 

“The key thing is we’ve got to build houses, we’ve got to build more houses and good quality houses.” 

Heather spoke about her recent campaigning around Dundee to make a case that the housing problem is visible on the streets.  

“I’ve been driving round the whole of Dundee City West delivering supporter letters, and you spend time thinking, we really need to do something about this estate.” 

When we asked Heather what she would do about people who own 6 houses like Scotland’s leader of Reform UK, Malcolm Offord, Heather told us: 

“What we’re doing is progressive taxation. We’re taxing people with higher incomes more money.”  

“The problem we’re dealing with is not just people living in poverty. It’s people who are working and living in poverty.” 

Independence remains the SNP’s defining mission, Heather argued that a pro-independence majority in Holyrood after the upcoming election should mandate the question of independence to be asked again. She looked back to her brief time in the European Parliament. 

“I was a member of the European Parliament for that last month because I was so determined that we would submit our vote not to be withdrawn from the European Union.” 

She argued that Scotland is being denied its right to ask the question. 

“Over 50% have been supporting independence. It’s not that we’re not being given independence, we’re being refused the right to even ask people, if they would want to express that.” 

Heather was also asked what Dundee can offer that other cities in Scotland cannot, she pointed to the city’s resilience and its ability to change.  

“Dundee is profoundly resilient. Dundee keeps picking itself up. Now we’ve got the games industry, we’ve got the biosciences. The resilience of Dundee is to say, yeah, we could do that, we could make something of that.” 

Young people often don’t see a reason to vote and are commonly overlooked in politics. We asked Heather why young people are scared to go into a world where they struggle to  get on the property ladder, struggle to find a job and face a rising cost of living. 

“The first thing is vote. The pensioners vote. Actually exercising your democratic right and getting involved in politics is essential. You have to make the world that you want to live in.” 

Scotland goes to the polls on Thursday the 7^th of May. Whatever the result, the issues we raised in this interview won’t disappear on Friday morning. Heather’s closing line was clear, 

“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” 

Get out and vote, for whatever you believe, to ensure the future works for you.