Scottish Executive affordable housing plans

SCSH comment

Minister for Communities, Margaret Curran MSP, today announced plans to expand the numbers of affordable houses built in Scotland.

The Scottish Council for Single Homeless (SCSH) warned that the increased investment was not enough to halt the overall decline in social rented housing in Scotland at a time when pressure on the sector is increasing.

Commenting, SCSH Director, Robert Aldridge said:

"Any increase in investment in social rented housing is welcome. However the figures announced will not meet the growing gap between demand and supply which we have identified.

As more and more homes are lost through the ‘right to buy’ and demolitions local authorities in Scotland have identified a need for a building programme of around 12000 new rented homes per year, compared to the 6400 announced by the Minister. We fear that, despite the good intentions, this announcement will not plug the gap in affordable housing for rent in Scotland .

The announcement on low cost home ownership – 5000 homes over three years - is peripheral to the real issue. Such schemes may only be low cost on one occasion, since the houses are normally sold on at market value.

We fear that without a further increase in investment in rented housing the result will be more households trapped in temporary accommodation for longer periods of time and the Executive’s targets to tackle homelessness not met."

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• SCSH is the national membership organisation for individuals and organisations working with homeless people.
• This comment relates to an announcement by Margaret Curran of additional investment in housing today.
• Since the turn of the year, the Executive has been carrying out a wide-ranging review of affordable housing in Scotland .  The review has examined the functioning of the Scottish housing market and its impact on housing affordability; assessed affordable housing requirements; and considered measures to improve supply and affordability; and ways to address the imbalances between supply and requirements in local areas. 
• The figure of 12000 new affordable rented homes required each year is based on local authority estimates from their Local Housing Strategies submitted to (and approved by) the Scottish Executive and included in a report by the Scottish council for Single Homeless earlier this year (‘Mind the Gap’)