selecting to extend homelessness in Scotland – Shelter Scotland Weblog

The 2023/24 Scottish Price range represented a vital alternative for the Scottish Authorities to point out that it’s severe about decreasing reasonably priced housing want and tackling the backlog of hundreds of homeless households residing in limbo in momentary lodging. Sadly, it has didn’t seize that chance and, in our opinion, is failing to understand the seriousness of Scotland’s housing emergency and its affect.

TL;DR: By our calculations, we will see a vital 16% year-on-year minimize (£112.8m) to the housing capital funds in 2023/24, which has the potential to utterly derail the Scottish Authorities’s potential to scale back housing want on this parliamentary time period. We predict this alternative is the fallacious one in a worsening housing emergency.

The Scottish Authorities’s method to the funds doesn’t recognise how central housing is to so many facets of our society – together with well being, schooling, little one poverty, and assembly our net-zero targets. The Scottish Authorities usually talks about residing as much as the preventative ambitions outlined within the Christie Fee, but selecting to not make investments sufficient in social housing damages well being and schooling and can depart kids trapped in momentary lodging for lengthy durations of time.  It can additionally price the federal government extra in the long run.

For these of you who’ve campaigned with us for some time, we have now constantly referred to as on the Scottish Authorities to acknowledge the urgency of the housing emergency. The problems are well-documented – not solely rising inflation, the unlawful invasion of Ukraine, the continuing affect of the UK authorities’s disastrous ‘mini-budget,’ provide chain disruption, and the implications of Brexit, but additionally the cost-of-living disaster and file numbers of homeless kids struggling in momentary lodging. The Scottish Authorities could make the alternatives required and take motion to deal with these housing challenges head-on. It’s disappointing that they’ve chosen to not.

Because the Scottish Price range progresses via its varied phases of scrutiny earlier than it’s finalised, we’re calling on the Scottish Authorities to:

• Reverse its deliberate cuts to the housing capital funds to make sure 38,500 social properties are delivered by 2026 to scale back housing want.
• Prioritise funding within the Reasonably priced Housing Provide Programme solely to ship properties for social lease and introduce a nationwide acquisition programme.
• Totally fund native authorities and native homelessness companies, together with finishing up a full audit of present homelessness spend
• Create a brand new Homelessness Emergency Fund to direct cash the place it’s most wanted.
• Assure the proper to a house for everybody experiencing homelessness.

Right here’s the techy bit.

We’re actually involved in regards to the 16% year-on-year minimize to the housing capital funds in 2023/24. Cuts to the funds for social housing at a time when rising prices and inflation are already consuming into the spending energy of native authorities and housing associations will show disastrous for makes an attempt to construct the social properties we urgently want in Scotland.

We acknowledge the present challenges in assembly social housebuilding targets throughout Scotland – that’s the reason we’ve already provided artistic options to the Scottish Authorities in our Social Housing Emergency Motion Plan to assist make sure the social properties we want are nonetheless delivered:

• redirect all public subsidy within the AHSP solely to properties for social lease
• develop a nationwide acquisition programme to extend the provision of social properties
• reverse the cuts introduced within the draft funds, which can show doubly devastating for the supply of social properties within the present inflationary surroundings.

So what does Scottish Authorities say?  It claims that the minimize ‘solely’ quantities to 4.7%. We consider this declare to be inaccurate.

Scottish Authorities calculations:

The federal government’s figures don’t examine budget-to-budget however as a substitute examine beforehand deliberate spending for 2023/24 within the Capital Spending Evaluation with the draft Price range 2023/24. It is a comparability of two potential cuts slightly than a year-to-year change.

The Scottish Authorities’s calculations additionally think about varieties of funding that don’t ship social properties however the broader class of ‘reasonably priced housing.’ Now we have been clear that this emergency requires a concentrate on the supply of social properties, in order that a part of the funds is completely essential. The Scottish Authorities has sought to reassure by saying that they’re mitigating the minimize with funding from Monetary Transactions (which don’t ship social properties), funding from the zero-emissions heating funds (which don’t ship social properties however will enhance the standard of these already being constructed), and funding from the Charitable Bonds scheme which we perceive is a part of the Monetary Transactions funds. Whereas a welcome addition, the Charitable Bonds scheme isn’t any substitute for a 16.2% year-on-year minimize to the capital funds for social properties. The Scottish Authorities should reverse this minimize.

Now could be the time for daring motion, not taking our foot off the fuel.  The Scottish Authorities can select to lastly ending homelessness. These cuts have to be reversed – Scotland must construct extra social properties to deal with the worsening housing emergency.  Greater than 9,000 kids with no dwelling are relying on it. 

1 Scottish Price range 2022/23, Desk 5.03, p.40.
2 Draft Price range 2023/24, Desk 5.03, p.45.
3 Draft Price range 2023/24, Desk 5.11, p.48.