Research highlights need for key worker housing in south of Scotland

A new report has highlighted the significant impact of a shortage of the right homes in the right places for recruiting and retaining key workers in the south of Scotland.

Research conducted by South of Scotland Community Housing in partnership with Dumfries & Galloway Council, Scottish Borders Council, South of Scotland Enterprise and Scottish Futures Trust, has revealed the significant impact of housing shortages on both employers and employees throughout Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders.

Several SFHA members also took part in the research.

The report looks at demand for key worker housing in the region, across three main groups of key workers:

• Essential public services /critical infrastructure/ strategic economic sectors – including health, social care, education, policing, and tourism and land based industries to quantify and detail demand.
• The report found more than three quarters (77%) of employers surveyed across South of Scotland say that a lack of suitable housing is significantly affecting staff recruitment and retention.

Key priorities for action have been identified from the report findings to deliver more key worker homes where they are most needed. The report makes a series of recommendations for how these actions can be implemented.

These include:

• Housing grant schemes should be reviewed to enable social landlords and community housing providers to deliver more affordable key worker homes.
• South of Scotland Enterprise should fund and otherwise catalyse and support innovative collaborative projects to deliver key worker homes and demonstrate the viability and benefits of new approaches and models.
• Local Authorities, South of Scotland Enterprise and others should (continue to) give definition and status to key worker housing needs through Local Housing Strategies, Local Development Plans and other local and regional policies and plans.

For SFHA members, the research discusses current barriers of social housing allocations and priority preferences, challenges with MMR, cumbersome planning processes, and legal challenges to using short-term lets for key workers.

It also includes a case study of Eildon Housing, NHS Borders, and Scottish Borders Council’s key worker demonstrator project in Galashiels. 

Eildon has introduced lease agreements for 10 homes at McQueen Gardens for the NHS and Council to use as short term lets for hospital and social care recruits.

 The full report can be viewed here.