After months of campaigning, Shelter Scotland today (Wednesday) revealed the top song that reminds the public of home.

From the 4,000 songs logged by the charity over the summer months, the number one choice was The Proclaimer's foot stomping 'I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)'.

Graeme Brown, Director of Shelter Scotland, the housing and homelessness charity, was due to make the announcement as he handed the thousands of song postcards to Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.

The postcards are all in support of the charity's new Hometime Scotland campaign, which was launched in July, to ensure Scotland delivers on the internationally acclaimed 2012 homelessness target [1]. Support has also been registered online at www.hometime.scotland.org.uk

Scottish party political leaders are among those to have told Shelter what song reminds them of home [2]- and the charity will be asking all MSPSs to come down on Wednesday to register their support for the campaign.

Scottish singer KT Tunstall, rock band Idlewild, and DJ Calvin Harris are also among those to tell the charity what song reminds them of home. Support for the campaign has also come from folk legend Dougie MacLean, whose song 'Caledonia', was in second place in the Hometime Scotland poll. [3]

The Proclaimers said: 'We'd be the ones who'd walk 500 miles to make sure that everyone in Scotland has a home. Having a house is an inherent right for people and one they shouldn't have to fight for, or fork out more than they can afford. We're delighted to be the top Hometime Scotland song and the one that reminds people of home. It's an honour.'

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon  said: 'In this, the 40th year of Shelter Scotland, the Hometime Scotland campaign underlines the need to provide the unintentionally homeless with settled accommodation, which can be a base for themselves and their family.

'Homelessness is a blight on Scottish society and at odds with our ambition to build a modern, successful economy. This Government's commitment to the homelessness 2012 target is unwavering, as are our ambitions for housing more generally.'

Shelter director Graeme Brown said: 'if the 2012 homelessness target seems like 500 miles away, then we're about 250 miles towards meeting it right now. But we need to pick up speed to travel the extra distance. Our next hurdle is the 2009/10 budget. We need to see increased cash for housing through that budget to ensure housing for all. We know times are tough just now, but a home is a right, not a luxury.'

Under the Hometime Scotland campaign, Shelter Scotland want to see:

1. Real progress towards the 2012 target. By 2009, councils need to show the Government that they are making progress in the right direction. [4]
2. 10,000 affordable rented homes a year being delivered by housing associations and local authorities.
3. Big reductions in evictions and mortgage repossessions so that homelessness can be prevented.
4. Reform of the Right to Buy policy and better use of empty homes to make better use of existing stock.

Notes to editors

1. By 2012, all unintentionally homeless people should have access to a permanent home, under Scottish legislation. Currently, only people designated to be in 'priority need'- generally families with children- have the right to a permanent home. All others have access to only temporary accommodation and support. By 2012, there will be no distinction and everyone will have the right to a home.
   
2. Alex Salmond: Song Caledonia by Dougie MacLean. Why? The complete modern anthem of home and homecoming. Iain Gray: Song Sunshine on Leith by The Proclaimers. Why? My family all originate from Leith, and Easter Road is a second home to me, wherever I am living. Tavish Scott: Song The Norseman's Home. Why? The song that reminds me of Shetland and home. This is one of the songs sung at the Up Helly Aa fire festival held in Lerwick every January and at the smaller versions of the festival held elsewhere around Shetland. The Norseman's Home is the Viking funeral hymn sung by the guisers as they stand around the galley after they set it alight with their flaming torches. Annabel Goldie: Song Bobby Sharftoe. Why? As a litle girl, my mother used to sing this to me. Robin Harper: Song Octopus's Garden in the Shade, Beatles. Why? Possibly because it is happy. (Home always was. And bright too.)
3. KT Tunstall: 'My favourite song that reminds me of home would have to be 'Getting Some Fun Out of Life' by Billie Holiday. I love putting it on my old record player. It's the sound of a warm kitchen with a pot on the stove, a bottle of red wine open, and a dance with a good man.' Colin Newton of Idlewild said one special track helps him make it through gruelling international tours. 'Every time we hear 500 miles by The Proclaimers, it brings us back. We have sung it in karaoke bars from Texas to Japan. It's an unoffical national anthem.' Calvin Harris: Too Young to Die by Jamiroquai: 'It was the first record I ever bought and I have vivid memories of crouching down in front of my mum's tape player in Dumfries to listen to it.'
4. By 2009, councils must have made significant progress towards the 2012 target- by being at least halfway where they were in 2003/4 and where they need to be by 2012/13.