Stark evidence of Scotland’s growing housing emergency
Highlights long-term societal risks as number of children and households in temporary accommodation reaches another record high
Official statistics published today showing that starts and completions across all sectors fell by seventeen per cent evidence that Scotland’s housing emergency is growing and further emphasise the need for urgent action by the Scottish Government to address what is now becoming an all too familiar picture of continuous decline in the country’s housing supply.
With both private and social activity in freefall, the figures highlight the clear interdependency between sectors and reveal the lowest starts for all-tenure homes across quarters one and two since records began.
Jane Wood, Chief Executive of sector body Homes for Scotland (HFS), which represents members delivering the majority of the country’s new homes of all tenures, said:
“It has now been four months since the Scottish Government conceded that the country was facing a national housing emergency, and sixteen months on since Argyll and Bute Council declared the first local housing emergency. We now find ourselves in the quite incredible position that over half the Scottish population are living in local authority areas with a housing emergency, when the number of children and households in temporary accommodation have reached new record highs.
“Less than a week ago, we heard from the Deputy First Minister at the Homes for Scotland Annual Conference who spoke of the need for policy certainty and positive rhetoric, as well as ‘identifying affordable actions that deliver the biggest impact’. Today’s housing statistics illustrate how urgently these are required if we are to stop the haemorrhaging of inward investment into the sector and the loss of any further home builders in Scotland.
“The Scottish Government often highlights the ongoing challenges of Brexit, cost price inflation and Westminster as the main drivers of the housing crisis, but we have seen in recent months that positive action can be taken with real leadership, such as the proposal to create a National Outcome on Housing for the first time, or recognition of housing as a key pillar within the National Strategy on Economic Transformation.
“Whilst there remain obvious budgetary restraints within the Scottish Government, now is the time, as the Deputy First Minister said, to find the affordable actions that can have the biggest impact. We have been encouraged by the recent change of tone we have heard coming from Ministers and officials and are working closely with them to co-create solutions but are urging them to get to grips with the planning system (which 248 of the 250 senior industry attendees at our conference last week said was ‘broken’ and not ‘fit for purpose’) and review the cumulative impact of new and proposed regulation (which is now estimated to be adding c£30,000 in additional costs to the building of a new home) as top priorities.”
ENDS
24 September 2024
Notes:
The latest Scottish Government housing statistics are available here.
Click here to access the official time series revealing that all-sector starts across quarters one and two are the worst start to a calendar year since records began.