A DECENT house - the most basic of human rights.

£21,000. That is a lot of money in anybody’s book.

But according to the Halifax that is the sort of money that first time buyers in Scotland are having to find to make their first home purchase.

However, you look at it there needs to be a lot of money on the table these days if you are young, or a young couple, looking to set up home.

That makes many young Glaswegians, in the 18-30 age bracket, part of what is called ‘Generation Rent’.

In another report by the Halifax bank, about ‘Generation Rent’, half of non-property owners in Scotland said it was the size of deposit they needed that stopped them reaching that first rung on the property ladder.

My council is determined to do what we can to help.

That’s why we have promised to help first time buyers who can afford to pay a mortgage, but struggle to raise the tens of thousands of pounds needed for a deposit.

We’ve got a partnership with the Glasgow Credit Union which, in a small way, does just that.

The Glasgow Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, set up last year, is helping first time buyers overcome the problem of having to find hefty deposits before they can buy.

This scheme is open to new applicants and details can be found by visiting www.glasgowcu.com.

There will be much more help available if Labour win the Scottish Parliament elections in May, because Kezia Dugdale has promised even more help towards that first down payment.

Only a quarter of young Scots under 35 own their own home now, compared to almost half 15 years ago. However, not all young Glaswegians can be expected to solve their own personal housing crisis by buying a house or a flat.

The real answer to their housing problems is building more and more affordable houses for them to rent from a public sector provider.

I am proud to say that in my previous time as Labour leader, along with a radical Labour Government, we took the first important steps in Glasgow’s history to improve the quality of social housing in the city - the housing stock transfer which wrote off £1bn of the city’s housing debts.

I put the first proposals for the transfer to the Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown when I was Glasgow’s leader in the late 1990s.

It was a bold move and historic move which has transformed Glasgow’s housing.

Housing schemes - like Castlemilk, Easterhouse and Drumchapel - were once described Glasgow’s famous son, Billy Connolly, as ‘deserts wi windaes’.

The quality of the stock now - thanks largely to the long term efforts of the city’s housing associations, and more recently the work of the Glasgow Housing Association - has been developed some of the finest social and affordable housing in Europe.

A trip round any of the schemes today would testify to that.

It is a legacy that we are rightly proud of but one which we need to build on.

Glasgow’s Labour council set the target between 2012 and 2017 of building 3500 new houses with our housing partners.

We are now on track to outstrip that target by more than a 1000.

I have made a new promise that on top of that achievement an additional 5000 new homes will be built in the next five years.

And we have ambitious plans to do even more than that.

One of the most basic human rights is the right to a decent house.

These pledges will be fulfilled but much more is needed to tackle the large areas of blighted housing that still scar the city.

Our planners are working today to identify much more unused land held by a host of public bodies to provide the essential land capital for new build.

A recent example is the City Council’s partnership with Link Housing Association which has funded the purchase of the “Power Station” site, in Dalmarnock, from Clyde Gateway.

That will free up land for almost 550 new houses - ensuring that the legacy of the Commonwealth Games and its Athletes Village is, if you don’t mind the pun, built upon.

Hackney council has undertaken a housing revolution using exactly this type of approach.

Hackney is engaged in 18 major estate redevelopment schemes, far more than any other of London’s 33 boroughs.

A key partner is one of England’s largest housing associations, which is in the process of doubling in size with 50,000 new homes planned or in the pipeline.

That is the type of audacity in planning Glasgow can emulate.

What is good enough for Hackney must be made good enough for Glasgow. We have to try to make that happen. I give you my word on that.