First minister John Swinney said that Scotland has a “deep problem” with drugs and the government will “consider attentively” action to address an increase in deaths. He was speaking the day after national statistics revealed a 12% rise in drug deaths during 2023, claiming a total of 1,172 lives. Social housing rents will rise by more than inflation over the next decade as part of UK government plans to boost affordable housebuilding and shore up the finances of struggling landlords. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is working on plans to introduce a 10-year formula to calculate social rent on homes that will result in rents increasing every year by the rate of the consumer prices index – which is now 2.2% – plus 1%, removing an existing cap on rises. Reeves is facing further challenges ahead of her first Budget in October after official figures revealed government borrowing jumped by far more than expected in July. The ONS said public sector net borrowing stood at £3.1 billion last month - £1.8 billion more than a year ago and the highest July borrowing since 2021. Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones said the unexpected increase in government borrowing means abolishing the two-child benefit cap is unaffordable. Yvette Cooper indicated she will press ahead with the previous government’s plan to reopen two immigration centres in an attempt to achieve the highest rate of removals since Theresa May’s premiership. The plans include 100 more new intelligence officers to target people smuggling gangs. Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International’s refugee and migrant rights programme director, described Cooper’s new package as “dismaying”, and warned a “securitised” approach could put off genuine asylum seekers from crossing borders if they needed to. The Green party’s co-leader, Carla Denyer, described Labour’s plans to reopen immigration removal centres in Hampshire and Oxfordshire as “shocking”. The chief inspector of probation, Martin Jones, said that staffing levels and excessive caseloads could cause problems for the overstretched and under-resourced probation service when thousands of prisoners are released early next month. Thank you for reading and all your comments today. This blog is closing now but you can read all of our politics coverage here.