Meeting of the Parliament 15 May 2024
I am struggling for time—I have only five minutes—but I would be happy to pick up the issue with the member after the debate.
That includes a recent boost of £80 million over two years to facilitate the acquisition of existing properties and to help to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation.
Since 2007, we have worked with partners to deliver more than 128,000 affordable homes, more than 90,500 of which were for social rent. There have been 40 per cent more affordable homes delivered in Scotland per head of population than have been delivered in England and more than 70 per cent more than have been delivered in Wales. However, we need to do more—of course we do, and I will not deny that.
We remain committed to delivering our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which 70 per cent will be available for social rent and 10 per cent will be in our rural and island communities. We know that we need more social homes in order to end homelessness. We are taking action to increase housing supply, but some matters are beyond our control.
As I have mentioned, it is not just the Scottish Government that needs to play its part. The UK Government and the incoming UK Government need to play their part. Inflationary pressures, the impacts of Brexit and wider market conditions have contributed to rising construction costs and workforce challenges. We will keep working to mitigate those effects, but the UK Government’s policies continue to shape the housing market and are having lasting impacts. I have already discussed with Mark Griffin what we can do about that and how we can work together if the next UK Government is a Labour Government. He knows that I will continue that approach as we move forward.
Local government also needs to play its part. We know that local authorities are working extremely hard to deliver services for people who are experiencing homelessness, and we urge councils to continue working with us. I am meeting all local authorities in two weeks’ time to discuss the issues of voids, allocations and empty homes.
We have seen tremendously innovative practice in some councils where temporary homes are flipped to permanent tenancies. Others can learn from that. In certain areas, we are keen for local authorities to increase the pace of activity when it comes to empty homes and vacant council properties.
Although it will not completely solve our supply problems, making the best use of existing stock will help to meet local housing needs.