‘What the SNP has done is catastrophic’: Scottish homes boss's fury

Unsurprisingly, then, she now leads the fight for every Scottish citizen to have the right to a decent home amid a grinding national housing emergency. Thomas is chief executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA).

Unglamorous though housing associations may sound, they’re essential to Scotland. They build and maintain affordable homes – also known as social homes – across the nation. They’re the backbone of our housing system. If you can’t afford private rent or a mortgage, a housing association will most likely put a roof over your head.

Right now, 12 Scottish councils have declared a housing emergency – as has the Scottish Government. Around 250,000 people are on waiting lists. There are10,000 children homeless and living in temporary accommodation.

Meanwhile, the SNP – while promising to tackle child poverty – cut nearly £200 million from the affordable housing budget earlier this year. Over the last two years, the affordable housing budget suffered cumulative cuts of 37%.

The housing crisis, Thomas says, “is a catastrophe”, and the number of people on waiting lists is “devastating”. Government’s budget cuts are “absolutely unconscionable” and have “fatally undermined” the SNP’s own ambitions on both housing policy and plans to end homelessness.

Homelessness in Scotland is, she says, “an absolute scourge and disgrace”.

Sally Thomas, Head of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland. ©Duncan McGlynn 

For Thomas, these are strong words. She’s not usually so outspoken, priding herself on being “even-handed” and cautious when it comes to criticism, but what’s happening in Scotland is affecting her. “I get very upset at the unfairness and injustice. I just go back to my own personal situation.”

Her father was born into “abject poverty” in a Welsh mining community. He had to “share a pair of shoes with his father”, and “regularly went hungry” throughout the 1930s. “He had such a hard start in life,” Thomas says. As a child, his parents got by “just scraping the rent together and fearful of eviction at any time, until the family got a council house”.

Thomas grew up in council housing and became the first in her family to go to university. Her father would also eventually reap the dividends of post-war social mobility, going on to become a town planner, and playing a significant role in the creation of “new towns” like Peterborough.

Homeless

However, after Thomas graduated, life didn’t go according to plan. She moved to London but found herself homeless. “I just couldn’t afford to rent,” she says. Thomas ended up living in empty buildings which were about to be demolished. One flat was in King’s Cross, then a “really rough red light area”.

While there, Thomas set up a housing co-operative with others in the same predicament. That was a stepping stone to “secure accommodation”, she says, adding: “I was able to rent my home from the co-op I was a member of – that absolutely saved me. I’d security and stability and was able to get a permanent job and make my way from there.

“I can’t begin to describe how important it’s been for me to translate my life experience, beliefs and values into what I do, and be able to give back.”

Thomas, a considered and thoughtful woman, is clearly emotional as she recounts these life experiences. Her father, once he became a town planner, “was driven by the determination to do what he could to provide the safe and secure homes everyone needs and deserves”.

Says Thomas: “He passed on to me that same drive and passion for a home for everyone, and what I do feels like – in some small way – honouring his life and legacy.” Her father gave Thomas a “purpose I wouldn’t have had without him and which has been the touchstone for my professional life”.

Once her background becomes clear, Thomas’s career providing social housing for people at the sharp end makes perfect sense. Housing associations, it’s important to note, are not for profit and plough any surpluses back into their properties.

Housing associations view the notion of a home from a “social justice perspective”, she explains. Their purpose is to give “people at the lower end” of the income scale an affordable home to call their own.

A view of housing in Possilpark, Glasgow. Photograph by Colin Mearns

In Scotland, between 2020/23, housing associations built 13,435 homes while councils built 6,678. The average rent for a two-bedroom affordable home costs £380. The average rent for a private two-bedroom home is more than double at £841.

However, cuts to the affordable housing budget are crippling the sector. Housing associations depend on money from government to build and maintain their properties. The number of homes being built by housing associations in 2023 was at the lowest level since 1988 – and that was before what the SFHA calls “the huge budget cut”.

In 2021, the SNP set a target of 110,000 affordable social homes built by 2032. To do that would require an average of 7,700 homes built annually. In 2020, 5,038 new homes were started, by 2021 the figure fell to 3652, in 2022 it reached 2,672 – and by last year it was down to 2,073.

A “huge amount” of old council properties ended up being run by housing associations after Margaret Thatcher introduced “right to buy”. Aside from rent and government funds, housing associations can borrow on the open market to build, but their interest rates are no different to any citizen seeking a mortgage.

Given they always need money in the bank to be able to borrow, housing associations run a tight financial ship. They have no shareholders and – because they’re charities – are tightly regulated.

Decline

FOR Thomas, the cause of Scotland’s housing crisis is simple: “We’ve not been building enough homes to meet housing need. The money the [Scottish] Government has put into social housing has declined over the years.”

In the 1980s and 90s, grants for social housing ran between 70-90% of the cost of a home, “whereas now the grant the Scottish Government puts in probably hovers at 50%”. The less money government invests, the more housing associations need to borrow. That has knock-on effects. “Borrowing has increased, therefore costs have increased,” Thomas adds. “That makes it ever more difficult to provide affordable rents, and so affordable homes are more costly to provide.”

Thomas says she “cannot overemphasise” the importance which housing associations place on “maintaining affordable rents – we’re driven by that”.

The cut in government funds is being seen across the country as “many housing associations are doing much less development, and some have decided not to develop at all”.

The reason to halt building is down to the fact that housing associations want to be able to maintain the condition of “their existing stock” and not increase rents. They can’t build, maintain, and keep rents low on the existing funding model. The sums just don’t add up, so something has got to give.

The rationale is: “If they can’t provide affordability, they’re better off not [building] – as they don’t want to provide homes that aren’t affordable, that’s completely outside their frame of reference. The core purpose is to provide great homes on a sustainable basis for those who need them, but they also have to survive as a business. If they didn’t survive, they couldn’t provide those homes. So there’s a continual tension there.”

Thomas is a reasonable woman and accepts that the government is dealing with “social and economic challenges” which have exacerbated the housing crisis. However, she adds: “But it’s clearly the government’s job to respond to and anticipate economic and social challenges, and do the best by its citizens in the wake – and in anticipation – of those challenges

“The government has struggled to do what it needs to do with housing – to give it the importance and priority on a planned and predictable basis that it could have done. That’s really coming home to roost now. The government hasn’t done as much as it needed to. The government has a case to answer.”

And what does she make of cuts to affordable housing budgets while there are 10,000 children homeless? “It’s unconscionable – absolutely unconscionable. I try to see both sides. That’s important when you have to work with government. It doesn’t suit anyone to damage that relationship unduly.

“But what we’re talking about here is the importance of a home. That cannot be overstated. A home is central to every aspect of our lives.

“ If we don’t have a home we don’t have health, education, employment, we don’t have anything that makes life worth living. That’s why I do this job. So for me it’s unconscionable that you’d cut the provision of an affordable, decent, warm, stable home for everyone who needs one.”

Not enough affordable housing is being built in Scotland

Gaslighting

Alison Watson, director of Shelter, Scotland’s homelessness charity, recently – during a Herald on Sunday Big Read interview – accused the SNP of “gaslighting” voters with claims that it prioritised child poverty while simultaneously cutting the affordable homes budget. Does Thomas agree?

“I wouldn’t use those words, but I wouldn’t disagree with Alison either. From her perspective, she’s right. What I’d say, if I’m trying to see it in the best way possible, is that the Scottish Government doesn’t understand the correlation between cutting the budget so dramatically and the absolute vital and important value of housing.

“If I was being more negative, I’d say they were shooting themselves in the foot – aspiring to something on one hand, while on the other sabotaging it.”

She adds: “There’s a lack of understanding and awareness about how social housing works and the consequences of the decisions they take

– a naive belief that it’ll all be okay as housing associations never fail as they’re strong, resilient businesses. There’s a degree of complacency about the impact of their decisions.”

Thomas adds that the SNP may also think that because housing associations “depend” on the Scottish Government for funding, “they wont make too much noise”. Like many experts on public sector policy, Thomas sees a clear disjoin between what the SNP says and what it does. “I’m hearing more recognition of the importance of housing, but what I’m not seeing are the actions that follow on – that’s what I’m interested in. Words are important, but they don’t mean anything unless there’s action.”

Thomas fears that failing to tackle the housing crisis will play into the hands of the far right. Holland’s far right recently won elections after linking housing shortages with immigration. “A home is very emotive as it’s so fundamental to everyone’s life,” she says.

The housing crisis could be “used as a weapon” by extremists. She notes how, during the riots in England, the far right attacked hotels housing refugees.

Housing shortages can “feed into a sense of injustice” and see immigrants turned into scapegoats if the narrative becomes “there are not enough homes for people who need them and the homes we’ve got are going to the wrong people”.What does she make of the levels of homelessness in Scotland? “It’s a catastrophe,” Thomas says. “There’s nothing worse than not having a home.”

Homelessness, she points out, doesn’t just mean rough sleeping on the street. That’s only the most brutal, visible sign. Homelessness often means “sofa surfing” – staying with friends and relatives, and moving from B&B to B&B in a cycle of low-quality, temporary accommodation.

Families with children can now spend two years in temporary accommodation. “There’s nothing more unsettling, stressful, or anxiety-producing than not having a settled home. “It affects mental health, physical health, children’s education, the ability to hold down a job – even the ability to see friends and family, and keep up social relationships which are absolutely fundamental to our success as human beings.”

Sally Thomas says that her own upbringing and experiences have shaped her views about the ‘unfairness and unjustice’ surrounding housing in Scotland ©Duncan McGlynn 

Devastating

REGARDING the 250,000 people on waiting lists for social and affordable homes, Thomas says: “The numbers are devastating. Behind each number is an individual, or family, who desperately needs a decent home.”

She says the Scottish Government’s “flagship plans” – the “Housing to 2040” policy of getting everyone an affordable home, and the policy of ending homelessness – “have been fatally undermined by spending cuts at Holyrood and Westminster, the absence of accountability for delivery, a lack of political will, and poor government choices”. Without “action” to back up “good, well-intentioned” policies, “the housing emergency will only get worse”.

Thomas adds that she “wouldn’t want to believe, and I don’t believe, the Scottish Government sets out to be malevolent or cruel. What I do believe is that they haven’t made the right choices”.

She adds: “So, for example, the First Minister talks about child poverty being his key priority. Who can disagree with that? I certainly wouldn’t. But clearly you can’t solve child poverty if children haven’t got homes. I’m not seeing the strategic actions that are going to result in that ambition.”

The Scottish Government, she says, has behaved “like a pinball machine. They knock between different buffers, react to different demands and who’s shouting loudest”. While she’s still waiting to see how John Swinney performs, Thomas says that “recent administrations have been too reactive – too focused on trying to please too many interests. They haven’t planned on a strategic basis, and haven’t wanted to be as unpopular as you might need to be to do things that are right.”

However, with the Swinney government she does see “dawning recognition and appreciation that housing is critical”, although the problem remains that “we haven’t seen that translated into action”.

“We’ve seen some marginal good words and the beginning of some small steps in terms of activity, but nothing major and nothing substantive enough for the country to find its way out of this crisis,” she adds.

“I’m still waiting for the action and commitment we need to see.”

Thomas suggests that “being in power for a long time has its consequences and downsides. What I do experience sometimes with government – both at ministerial and official level – is a lack of, a reduction in, energy, enthusiasm, morale, and the purpose and direction we need to get out of this crisis, and the other crises we’re facing. What I haven’t experienced in recent times is enough leadership”.

She says: “Leadership isn’t only about money. In fact, money is the least important thing about leadership. Leadership is about purpose, concerted action, working together, focus, and making unpopular decisions because you know there are right things to be done.”

Mission

THE Housing Minister Paul McLennan should be “fighting for more money to build more new social homes”. That should be his “number one mission” and he should be “using everything in his power to bring that about”.

Thomas says the Scottish Government appears to “have only just understood” that building homes grows the economy. However, yet again, “the right words need translated into action”. Rhetoric “doesn’t mean anything unless the government says ‘we recognise housing is a driver of economic growth, therefore we’ve got to build more housing, and therefore here’s the money to do it’.”

Investing in housing will require money taken from other budgets by the government. However, she insists building homes will mean a “more prosperous and better country”, and so choices must be made to get “much better outcomes and bang for your buck”.

Those spending choices will be “unpopular” and inevitably someone will be upset. On the issue of governments making financial decisions which affect the poor more than the rich, Thomas says: “Very often, completely wrongly, it’s easier to upset people who are marginalised, maybe don’t vote, and their voice isn’t heard.”

Despite her often scathing criticism of the Scottish Government, Thomas makes clear that she moved to Scotland seven years ago “as she was fed up working in England in a housing sector that was on its knees. I saw no prospect of it getting off its knees because the previous government was anti social housing. So I came to Scotland because I was disillusioned with England”.

She adds: “Also I could see that Scotland was a much better place – more socially just, fairer, the politics was more consensual. It felt a place I could make a difference. I was hitting my head against a brick wall in England.

“I proved myself right. I wasn’t prepared for how different Scotland is, I didn’t get that until I was here. I mean different in a good way – a greater understanding of social justice and fairness, a greater consensus about what’s right and wrong.

“So I’ve had a really positive experience. I love it here. But the political shine came off things.” She now worries that “Scotland is in danger of being what England was”.

“That’s extreme, as the recent past administrations in England have been a shambles – complete basket cases. The Scottish Government isn’t in danger of being anything like that, but I do feel it’s losing the shine it had, the passion, the commitment, the intention and purpose.”

Thomas feels matters began going awry around the time Nicola Sturgeon quit. “There was a correlation around her leaving office and the problems the SNP had and issues they’re still dealing with. Being in power for a long time takes its toll. It requires self-awareness. You need to look at yourself and understand ‘am I running out of steam?’.”

She thinks, however, that John Swinney understands this and is encouraged by the “post-mortem” at the recent SNP conference after the party’s hammering at the election. “Hopefully that soul-searching will result in the reemergence of energy and enthusiasm.”

First Minister John Swinney

Independence

MANY have criticised the SNP for spending more time on the question of independence than social policy. Thomas says she “won’t comment on the constitutional issue, but what I would say is that we need to get back to bread-and-butter issues – what people get out of bed thinking about.

“The vast majority get out of bed thinking ‘where am I going to live today, is my child okay at school, can I get a job, can I get the operation I need?’ They probably don’t get out of bed thinking ‘should Scotland be independent’. The First Minister must get back to an absolutely committed, concerted focus on what people care about.”

There are plenty of lessons to be learned from overseas. Finland, for instance, simply has “no homelessness. It’s a huge priority for them”.

Perhaps the biggest shift required, though, is cultural. She notes that in Germany and Austria, there is a “completely different attitude towards renting”.

Far more people rent affordable homes, meaning neighbourhoods often have greater social diversity with families from mixed economic backgrounds all living in the same area.

The Thatcher era ushered in “an obsession with home ownership, which doesn’t do us any good at all. It emphasises the importance of home ownership above all other housing”. In 2024, when buying a home is out of reach for many, that obsession is no longer “realistic”.

The right to buy led to a culture which “stigmatises social and rented housing. If you became a homeowner you’d made it, if you couldn’t you were underclass. That created a completely unequal playing field. In fact, we don’t even have a playing field”.

She adds: “We’ve a hierarchical system where home ownership is best, private rent is the middle, and social housing at the bottom because that’s seen as being for people who have to rely on the state. It’s one of the worst things that happened. We’re now in a situation where not everyone can aspire to own their own home. Home ownership is falling.

“We created a rod for our own back. Being a property-owning democracy has been built into our psyche by politicians. But it’s not real. It’s not the truth. We need a ‘property democracy’, not a ‘property-owning democracy’. Home ownership is important – of course it is

– but so is private rent and social rent. This hierarchy is no longer fit for purpose.”

Thomas wants more affordable homes built on “greenfield – the interim land between greenbelt and brownfield. The obsession with building on brownfield is completely wrong – we’re on a hiding to nothing. Every government, irrespective of its political nature, when they talk about building they talk about building more on brownfield”.

“But either it’s gone, there’s not enough of it around, or it needs intense remediation to recover from being used for industrial purposes,” says Thomas.

“Also, why should people in social housing end up on brownfield sites? It’s not fair. You shouldn’t have to think ‘we’re in a poorer strata of society so we’ve got to accept living on an ex-brownfield site’. Why shouldn’t everyone be able to live in a nice environment, when people with money can?”

Dream

THE struggle to reclaim empty properties and turn them into social homes exacerbates the housing crisis. Stronger powers of compulsory purchase against “absentee landlords” are needed. The government is exploring that. Part of the problem is the difficulty in working out who actually owns empty properties.

However, there’s also the issue of utility companies failing to connect empty properties which could be used for social housing to the energy grid –thereby leaving them uninhabitable.

Brexit also means there’s far fewer contractors to do the necessary repair work to get empty properties ready for occupants. “A lot of that labour has just gone,” Thomas says.

Despite her campaigning zeal, she’s not blind to the faults of housing associations or social housing. There have been some shocking reports regarding conditions.

Grenfell Tower was council-owned. A child died from respiratory problems caused by prolonged exposure to black mould at a housing association property in England. “Nothing is perfect,” Thomas says. “I won’t sit here and defend every housing association doing everything right all the time.”

However, “the failures we’ve seen, at least at a catastrophic level, have been mainly in England. But there will be examples in Scotland of housing associations tackling mould and damp, or having safety concerns, or trying to improve their old stock and bring it up to modern standards”.

She adds: “What’s different in Scotland to England is that Scotland has a better record, and higher level, of building regulation, control and safety standards.”

Scotland also has much smaller housing associations than England, where some providers look after more than 100,000 homes. That has an effect on standards. In Scotland, the largest housing association has 60,000 homes, and the smallest just 15.

In the face of such a dire housing landscape, however, Thomas remains optimistic.

“Even when things look awful, we’ve got to have hope. Having a home is about having a dream. As human beings, we dream of a better future for ourselves and our children.

“For me, a home is about being able to dream – it’s about being able to have a life and dream what your future can be. I want a government which enables us to dream.”