Scottish Parliament debates housing crisis
This week the Scottish Parliament discussed declaring a national emergency
Yesterday (Wednesday 22 November) the Scottish Parliament held a debate brought forward by Scottish Labour on whether Scotland should declare a national housing emergency.
Ahead of the debate, SFHA briefed MSPs on why support for social housing was key to solving the crisis and what needed to be done going forward - highlighting that the number of social homes being started in the year to June 2023 dropped by 26% compared to the previous year. This continues a trend that sees the number of approvals and starts both down on the year to December 2022 and March 2023.
Much of the debate focused on the scale of the challenge where nearly 700,000 people across the country are in some form of housing need. With record levels of homelessness, close to 1 in 20 people on a waiting list, and nearly 10,000 children growing up in temporary accommodation, there were strong calls to declare a nationwide housing emergency. This comes on the back of two very different local authorities already declaring a housing emergency in their locales; Argyll and Bute and Edinburgh.
We know that the strain on the supply of new affordable homes is coming at a time when the need for social homes is only becoming more acute. Although there has been good progress made on the number of homes completed in recent years, we are now at real risk of going backwards and missing our target to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.
The significant challenges facing the sector were well understood by MSPs; higher borrowing costs and other costs up across the board, shortages in labour caused in part by Brexit, austerity measures squeezing budgets, the need to decarbonise our homes, and long-term demographic changes.
Across the board there was an understanding of the importance of social homes and growing understanding of the issues, with a number of members mentioned. There is also an acknowledgement that behind each statistic is a person’s life on hold as they wait for a home, a child not knowing what it means to grow up in a secure home, or a disabled person stuck in a home which is not suitable for their needs. We will continue to advocate for our members in Parliament as we work towards the forthcoming Housing Bill to help solve Scotland’s housing crisis.