THE Scottish Conservatives will today announce a £1billion plan to upgrade Scotland's cold, damp homes as they unveil a manifesto aimed at winning over Labour voters and defeating the party in the Holyrood election.
Leader Ruth Davidson will make a pitch to traditional Labour voters with pledges on housing, hospitals and schools.
In a related measure, she will reveal proposals to make it easier for developers to build new homes on derelict land in towns and cities.
The Tories' manifesto launch in Glasgow follows a poll suggesting Ms Davidson is failing to turn her personal appeal into support for her party.
The YouGov survey found Labour restored its slight lead over the Conservatives, after trailing the previous month.
With the Nationalists remaining a long way in front, polling expert Professor John Curtice predicted a parliament of 70 SNP MSPs, 24 Labour, 23 Conservatives, eight Greens and four Liberal Democrats on the basis of the results.
The result would represent the Tories' best ever Holyrood election performance, though falling short of Ms Davidson's goal of defeating Labour and becoming the main opposition to the SNP.
However, in a personal boost, a third of people (32 per cent) thought Ms Davidson would do a better job of holding an SNP government to account than Ms Dugdale, whom 13 per cent rated as the best person to take on Nicola Sturgeon.
Ms Davidson, who believes she can influence the Scottish Government from opposition, will call for new energy efficiency targets for homes.
At present, six out of 10 are rated average or worse, resulting in higher fuel bills often for less well off households.
The Tories will call for £1billion from Holyrood's increased capital budgets to be invested in insulation and other schemes over the next five years.
Ms Davidson said: "Today's manifesto is packed with fresh ideas that we believe can make a positive contribution to our country."
"We believe that making every home a warm home should be one of the Scottish Government's key priorities for infrastructure over the next five years.
"A real focus on this would cut fuel poverty, increase jobs, and would do so much to help us meet our carbon reduction obligations."
She added: "It's an example of the kind of positive contribution we want to make to Scotland over the next five years."
"We will say no to another referendum on independence, and we will counter the SNP on their plans to break up Britain."
"That way, as a party of opposition, we will seek to focus the government on the things that matter – on schools, on hospitals and on housing."
The manifesto will also call for councils to be obliged to compile registers of brownfield sites in order to help developers.
The Tories want planning laws to be changed to create a presumption in favour of granting permission to housing proposals on brownfield sites.
A source said: "The housing shortage across Scotland is well documented.
"By making it easier and more attractive to develop on brownfield sites, additional homes would be built more quickly, and that's in everyone's interests.
"It would also provide a major boost for Scotland's construction industry, which has been struggling for some time.
"And what's more, by making it easier to build on brownfield land, this would protect greenfield areas from unpopular development."
Ahead of the manifesto launch, the Tories came under fire from the SNP and Labour over plans to bring back prescription charges and to charge graduates a £6000 contribution
towards their tuition.
Labour's equalities spokesman Neil Findlay said: "Ruth Davidson’s Tories need to spell out the costs of their plan for secret taxes on the sick and on students.
"This is the real test for Ruth Davidson’s party – she can’t hide behind daft photo ops forever."
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