Are we Building on ‘Firm Foundations' ?

Introduction
On the 31 October 2007, the Scottish Government released Firm Foundations: The Future of Housing in Scotland, a discussion paper for the future of housing policy in Scotland.

The consultation set out proposals to improve Scotland's housing with policies reflecting changes in aspiration and demand for housing, and for sustaining safe and strong communities across Scotland.

Significantly, however, the paper also outlined policies on improving the choice of housing tenure available to homeless people through measures that could encourage private landlords to offer suitable accommodation.

A Summary of the Proposals
The Scottish Governments vision for the future of housing in Scotland is based on the following:

1. Increasing supply of housing across all tenures (to be delivered on the basis of higher environmental and design standards).
2. Greater housing choice for those on lower incomes.
3. Ensuring that developments contribute to the creation of sustainable mixed communities.
4. Making sure social housing provides better value for public expenditure.

The Scottish Government proposes to achieve this by challenging Scotland's local authorities (through improved use of their housing strategies at a regional level), developers and builders to increase the rate of new housing supply in Scotland to at least 35,000 a year by the middle of the next decade.

They intend on launching a Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative to encourage the development of new, sustainable communities of varying sizes that may be much expanded, or new, stand-alone settlements.

The Scottish Government will also establish a Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) to broaden the range of financial products and other forms of assistance available to help people achieve and sustain home ownership.

Perhaps most significantly, it is proposed that the private rented sector will play a greater role in meeting housing need in urban and rural areas and increase the choice of housing available to homeless people, by encouraging landlords to provide good quality accommodation for private rent.

The Scottish Government will introduce measures to safeguard all new social housing (local authority or housing association) by ending the Right to Buy for new social housing properties (except in tightly defined circumstances).

Finally, among others, there are proposals to modify the current housing association subsidy process for housing associations, introduce incentives and measures for local authorities and housing associations to build houses for mid-market rent and enable them to adjust the mix of their stock.

SCSH Recommendations for the Scottish Government
In response to the Scottish Government, SCSH listed a comprehensive range of recommendations. The recommendations are broadly based on discussion points in the response and a sample of these are shown below –

1. In order to help meet the 2012 homelessness target, SCSH believes the Scottish Government should commit to building 30,000 affordable rented homes every 3 years.
2. SCSH believes the Scottish Government should commit to building more units of ‘lifetime’ and adapted homes in order to meet the requirements of our ageing society and to meet the shortage of accessible adapted homes currently available.
3. SCSH opposes the Scottish Government’s proposed £2000 grant to 1st time buyers, and instead would like to see the Government commit to better supply of affordable rented housing and provision of shared equity and flexible tenure schemes.
4. For the PRS to play a bigger role in housing those affected by homelessness, SCSH would propose a period of review and debate about the standards required to discharge a homelessness duty to the PRS (including security of tenure) with a view to a possible change to the SAT.
5. The Scottish Government and LAs should take a strategic approach when determining the use of the PRS for vulnerable individuals while also considering the general ‘affordability’ and ‘accessibility’ implications.
6. The Scottish Government should liaise with the DWP to determine the possible implications of forthcoming housing benefit reforms (for example, LHA, single room rent and housing benefit sanctions).
7. The Scottish Government in its consideration of using the PRS more to house vulnerable individuals must understand that the PRS is also a source of homelessness.
8. The Scottish Government should consider granting LAs maximum control over the RTB in their area (e.g. through securing ‘pressured area status’ and by varying discounts).

To download SCSH’s response to the Firm Foundations consultation click here. (Clear print document)