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Scotland’s Housing Emergency

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Post updated 12 November 2024

The Scottish Parliament has declared a national “housing emergency” and some councils have also declared a housing emergency in their areas.

This blog looks at why a housing emergency has been declared and what it means.

When was a national housing emergency declared?

On 15 May 2024 the Scottish Parliament debated Scottish Labour motion (S6M-13197) – “That the Parliament believes that Scotland is in a housing emergency.”

Representatives from Scotland’s housing sector, local government, and the trade union movement wrote an open letter to all MSPs before the debate, urging them to come together to declare a housing emergency and commit to taking action to end it.

The SNP had voted against a similar Scottish Labour motion in November 2023. However, during the debate on 15 May 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, confirmed the Government now supported a declaration of a housing emergency:

“It is clear that the Scottish Government has recognised for some time that there is a real and genuine challenge in the housing sector. As my colleague Emma Roddick rightly put it, it is very important that we move past debating how we define a problem and move on to the solutions. That is why I am very happy that we do so today and that we all collectively declare that there is a housing emergency… “

The motion, as amended, was agreed to by division (95 for, 29 against, 0 abstained, 5 did not vote).

Where else have housing emergencies been declared?

The national housing emergency follows a similar declaration in some council areas.

Thirteen of Scotland’s 32 councils have now declared a housing emergency, beginning with Argyll and Bute Council in June 2023, with the most recent being East Lothian Council on 12 November 2024:

There’s no standard definition of what constitutes a housing emergency. Each council has its own reasons for declaring a housing emergency in its area. While the reasons are complex and varied, common themes include pressures on homelessness services, high levels of people in temporary accommodation and a lack of affordable homes compared to high waiting lists.

Other factors are more specific to some areas, for example, Glasgow City Council has referred to pressures on the homelessness system from the UK Government’s streamlined asylum process. 

The declarations are intended to focus attention, at both the local and national level, to the significant housing and homelessness pressures local authorities are facing.

Responses to the local declarations have also varied. Some councils have, or are in the process of developing, action plans.  Argyll and Bute Council, for example, held a summit with its partners in November 2023 and the outcomes from that will be used to develop an action plan. Actions which have been undertaken or are in progress include specific site investigations for affordable housing development.

Why has a national housing emergency been declared?

During the debates on a national housing emergency, reference was made to a range of factors, including a shortage of affordable housing in Scotland. Contributory factors include:

  • demand for social housing outstripping supply
  • rent increases in the private rented sector
  • higher mortgage interest rates.

The motion on Scotland’s housing emergency points to some contributory factors outside of the Scottish Government’s control, including:

What is the Scottish Government doing in response to the housing emergency?

The declaration of a national housing emergency has no legal effect. However, campaigners hope it will create an imperative for the Scottish Government to act.

During the debate on the motion on 15 May 2024, Miles Briggs MSP (Con) called on the Government to produce an urgent plan to tackle the housing emergency:

Ministers must act. They must urgently outline to the Parliament what will change across all Government portfolios and what fresh leadership will be brought to tackle the housing emergency… Scottish ministers also need to produce an urgent housing emergency plan. [Official Report 15 May 2024 c60]

On 20 June 2024, the Minister for Housing, Paul McLennan MSP, made a statement to the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Government’s response to Scotland’s housing emergency. 

The statement set out high-level actions to increase housing supply and tackle homelessness. The key actions, organised under three strategic pillars, include:

More high quality, permanent homes

The right homes in the right places

A permanent home for everyone

  • consulting with COSLA, the representative body for local authorities in Scotland, to determine how best to allocate additional support to local authorities with the greatest temporary accommodation challenges
  • helping local authorities and registered social landlords to better understand what they need to do to reduce turnaround times for empty homes and voids
  • widening responsibility for homelessness prevention through the Housing (Scotland) Bill and investing in rapid rehousing transition plans.

Many of the actions outlined have previously been announced or are already underway.  New announcements included the rescheduling of work on a new tenure-neutral housing standard – rather than introducing legislation in 2025, there will be a public consultation on the matter in 2025.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government will seek views on the implementation of proposed new legislation on homelessness prevention duties and will consider taking a phased approach to its introduction.  

Crucially, since the declaration of the emergency, no additional money for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme budget has been made available this year. In 2024-25, the Scottish Government’s affordable housing supply programme (AHSP) budget is almost £600 million, a cut of 22% in real terms from the previous year.    

A coalition of housing and anti-poverty organisations has expressed disappointment at the Minister’s statement suggesting it was a ‘business as usual approach’ and put forward their own emergency action plan. One of their recommendations is to fully reverse the ASHP capital cuts over the last two years by pausing spending on other capital projects if necessary. 

More recently, in the Programme for Government, the Scottish Government announced it was providing £2 million in additional support to local authorities facing the most significant and sustained temporary accommodation pressures to maximise the use of existing housing stock and minimise turnaround times for vacant social homes. A longer term commitment to invest £100m in mid-market rented homes was also made.

In a parliamentary statement on Delivering Homes that Scotland Needs, the Minister for Housing recapped on action the Scottish Government was undertaking and announced investment of £22m on charitable bonds for affordable housing. This provides loans to social landlords to construct new affordable homes, with the interest being reinvested by the Scottish Government into the affordable housing budget to support more homes for social rent.

The Scottish Government has also been clear that tackling the housing emergency requires a joint approach between UK, Scottish and local government and housing providers.

The new UK Government’s budget published at the end of October 2024 has resulted in additional funding for Scotland – there will be much interest in how the Scottish Government intend to use this additional funding to help tackle the housing emergency in its forthcoming budget.

Rebecca Bartlett, Kate Berry and Hannah Cromarty

SPICe

Picture: SPICe