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More Affordable Homes In Scotland

11th December 2018

80,000 affordable homes delivered since 2007.

Latest figures show a 21 percent rise in the number of affordable homes delivered in Scotland during the last year.

Official Statistics released today find:

8,767 homes delivered for the year to September 2018

A total of 80,104 affordable homes have been provided since 2007

Per head of population, 50% more affordable homes and more than five times as many social rented properties in Scotland than in England since 2014

There were 5,340 social rented homes delivered, an increase of 864 homes, or 19%, on the previous year

Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said:"Making sure everyone has a safe, warm and affordable home is central to our drive for a fairer and more prosperous Scotland.

"That is why I am proud that this government has now delivered more than 80,000 affordable homes since 2007. This is a significant achievement - boosting the supply of affordable homes in communities right across the country.

"During the course of this Parliament we are investing more than £3 billion to deliver our target of at least 50,000 affordable, high-quality homes, including 35,000 homes for social rent.

"While we know this is an ambitious target, we have shown we can deliver on housing and we will continue to do so."

Since 2014, Scotland has seen 50% more affordable housing units delivered per head of population than in England (an annual average of 137 homes per 100,000 population, compared with 86 in England). And since 2014 there have been more than five times as many social rented properties delivered in Scotland per head of population than in England (an annual average of 84 homes per 100,000 population in Scotland compared to just 13 in England).

A recent Shelter article

Tackling the challenge of providing temporary accommodation in the Highlands

Coping with a shortage in housing

In most parts of the Highlands we have a massive undersupply of affordable housing. House prices have been rising beyond the reach of first time buyers, many communities face competition in the housing market from those buying second homes or moving here (often to retire) and many rural homes are rented out by the week to holiday makers.

On the other hand, because many people don't have enough money or secure enough incomes to buy housing, renting from the council or housing associations is their only choice.

Reduction in housing stock

Our council housing stock is reducing each year because of the 'right to buy'. However, housing associations, because of the limited funding that is available to them and because of problems accessing land that can be developed at an affordable price, can't build enough to replace these houses. For every three houses that have been sold, only one has been replaced.

This has led to great increases in the numbers of people waiting for council or housing association housing. It has also led to massive increases in the numbers of people applying as homeless. Four years ago, almost 900 people applied to the council as homeless and, by last year, this had more than doubled to 2051 people.

Without an increase in the supply of housing, it's a revolving problem. As pressures on all housing have been mounting, this has not only made it increasingly difficult to find temporary accommodation to meet our new duties but also increasingly difficult to access permanent accommodation. More and more we are dealing with log jams - people staying in temporary accommodation for longer and we're increasingly using less suitable accommodation, such as bed and breakfasts, when ideally we'd rather not use it at all.

This typical example illustrates our difficulties. Recently, knowing that all other temporary accommodation in Skye was full, our Homeless Duty Officer had to make around 30 phone calls to bed and breakfasts one night, all of which were full or wouldn't house homeless people, to find accommodation for one household.

Supply challenges

So how have we been dealing with these supply challenges? In the last three years we have increased the number of properties we use as temporary accommodation by almost 100 units. We have done this in several ways by:

designating more of our council housing stock as temporary housing and furnishing it;

using funding to acquire and refurbish housing that we are now leasing from our housing association partners as temporary accommodation;

increasing the amount of housing that we lease from private owners both for temporary and permanent use and furnishing it;

leasing, from our Registered Social Landlord partners, more of their mainstream housing stock; and

setting up two small scale hostels in Inverness.

Source - https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/practice_solutions/practitioner_articles/challenges_of_providing_temporary_accommodation_in_the_highlands/4