Margaret Jean Burgess (born 7 December 1949) is a former

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

(SNP) politician. She was the Minister for Housing and Welfare from 2012 to 2016, and the

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; ; ) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The additional member system produces a form of proportional representation, where ...

(MSP) for the Cunninghame South constituency from 2011 to 2016.

Early life

Burgess was born on 7 December 1949 in

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

, Scotland. She worked as a

Citizens Advice Citizens AdviceCitizens Advice is the operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, which is the umbrella charity for a wider network of local advice centres. The abbreviation CitA is sometimes used to refer to this natio ...

manager in East Ayrshire.

Political career

She was elected in the 2011 election. On 5 September 2012 she was appointed as Minister for Housing and Welfare, a portfolio intended to reflect the important role of housing in aiding economic recovery and the challenges that face those in poverty. During her time in office, the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

remained on course to exceed its affordable homebuilding target and improvements were made to the planning system. In June 2015, Burgess announced that she would retire from Holyrood at the 2016 election. She pledged "full support for whoever is selected" as the new SNP candidate for her seat, and said "I look forward to joining the new candidate on the campaign trail. On 18 May 2016 the housing and welfare junior ministerial briefs were reallocated as part of a Cabinet reshuffle.

References

External links

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archive
of personal MSP webpage {{DEFAULTSORT:Burgess, Margaret 1949 births Living people People from East Ayrshire Scottish National Party MSPs Members of the Scottish Parliament 2011–2016 Ministers of the Scottish Government Women members of the Scottish Government