Extra cash ruled out to help tackle housing emergency
Another council joins list of authorities citing homes shortage
MINISTERS have offered no hope of a rethink over spending curbs for the provision of affordable homes in Scotland, despite issuing a national housing emergency.
It comes as The Herald can reveal one in four of the country’s 32 local authorities has declared their own housing emergencies due to the shortage of homes.
The Scottish Government response has led some housing campaigners to warn they will embark on a series of disruption protests facing up to ministers in public.
It comes after activists and housing industry figures demanded more money was ploughed into constructing more homes at a time when the number being approved for building has slumped.
Eight councils have now declared a symbolic housing emergency – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Argyll and Bute, Fife, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian and the Scottish Borders, all citing housing shortages.
The latest to make a declaration is South Lanarkshire after a council motion found there was a 28% annual increase in the number of people applying for assistance due to homelessness.
Concerns remain that a Scottish Government pledge to deliver 110,000 social and affordable homes by 2032 has been delivered a “fatal blow” by the cuts.
Professional standards body the Chartered Institute of Housing said ministers need to agree to commit to hundreds of millions of pounds extra each year on providing affordable housing to resolve the housing and homelessness emergency.
However, First Minister John Swinney warned: “We have to recognise that the government does not have a limitless amount of money and we can’t invest everything if our capital budget is being reduced by the UK Government.”
UK ministers said the Scottish Government receives about 25% more funding from Whitehall than other
parts of the UK. The SNP previously voted against a Labour motion declaring a housing emergency in November.
Activists in their “resistance campaign” demanded in a letter sent to the First Minister that the Scottish Government urgently bring forward millions of pounds to build the homes that are so desperately needed, saying “nothing less than a housing revolution is needed to rescue the dire situation”.
However, a response from the Scottish Government’s More Homes section gave no hope of any money to back up the housing emergency pronouncement.
A letter seen by The Herald said the financial cut was “one of the most difficult choices” taken in the latest Scottish Government budget.
It said the government was “profoundly disappointed at the UK Spring Budget’s failure to provide additional capital funding, which we could have used for vital infrastructure, including affordable housing”.
It said the block grant for capital spending on such projects from the UK Government was now expected to reduce in real terms by 8.7% by 2027-28 – a cumulative loss of more than £1.3 billion. There was no more money on the table, over and above the £80 million in the wake of the Scottish Government’s declared housing emergency.
The Scottish Tenants’ Organisation (STO) said the failure to offer any hope to reverse the cuts was “unacceptable” in the wake of the Scottish Government’s declared housing emergency and said “blaming Westminster is being less than truthful”.
As of December, Scotland has been averaging 633 affordable housing starts a month since setting the target. To meet a 110,000 homes target it has to deliver at an average of 894 homes a month.
Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator for the STO, said: “Homes for the homeless should be the highest priority.”