More than 4,000 children will be without a home this Christmas and Shelter is calling on the Scottish Government to tackle the chronic shortage of housing in Scotland.

The charity said that at least 10,000 new homes need to be built each year to address the problem and begin to reduce social housing waiting lists.

As part of the campaign, MSPs were asked to decorate a Christmas tree outside the Scottish Parliament with little red houses which double up as collection cans for the charity’s fundraising appeal.

Jackie said: “I welcome Shelter’s call for the Scottish Government to build a minimum of 10,000 social houses a year to begin the fight back against homelessness. Last year the government built only 4,403 new social houses — a number which has fallen every year since 2009.”