With political party conference season well underway, SFHA CEO Richard Meade spoke to SNP conference last weekend on the actions needed as we head into Scottish elections. 

Hosting a joint event as part of the conference with CIH and Shelter Scotland, alongside the Cabinet Secretary for Housing Mairi McAllan MSP, all speakers recognised the need to properly fund the development of social homes if we are to meet Scotland’s housing need. 

SFHA, Shelter Scotland and CIH spoke to recent joint research that found Scotland must build over 15,000 social homes annually during the next Parliament. The total cost of this would be around £8.8bn. Mairi McAllan outlined her commitment to ensuring Scottish Government supports development at scale, noting recent actions set out as part of the Housing Emergency Action Plan. 

Speaking to a packed-out event with standing room only, Richard outlined why supporting housing associations and co-operatives to build social homes was so vital, not only terms of providing people with the very best housing but life chances. Noting that every party standing for election must put social home-building front and centre of their plans for government, his call to action was simple: ‘The next Parliament can’t be the one that fails social housing’.  

SFHA continue their engagement with political parties throughout the next few months, with Carolyn Lochhead, Director of External Affairs, speaking to Green Party conference this weekend.