At a time when housing is the number one topic in just about every newspaper, the Scottish Government, led by the SNP and the Green Party coalition, plans to reduce its housing assistance budget by £196 million, nearly one third of its budget to help the building of new and affordable houses.
On the face of it, this looks like the worst possible decision in the entire budget.
The Scottish Government has laid the blame for this action at the feet of the UK government, citing that their overall budget has been reduced by approximately 10%
Leading housing experts say this is a disaster on top of a tragedy. The lack of housing in Scotland is a scandal that will now only get worse.
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, Homes for Scotland, the Chartered Institute of Housing and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have all voiced their deep concerns over these cuts. They have pleaded with the First Minister to think again on this decision.
Surely they cannot all be wrong?
As already reported in The Herald, three local authorities – Argyle & Bute, Glasgow and Edinburgh – have already declared housing emergencies. Surely there is a huge hint to the gravity of this situation in the word ‘emergency’?
Homes for Scotland carried out research that showed nearly 700,000 households were facing some sort of housing need.
On top of all this, there are plans to bring a new housing bill through parliament that I guarantee you will be a huge barrier to attracting investment into housebuilding in Scotland.
We will find ourselves in a much worse position in relation to tackling the housing shortage, if there is not a major change in policy.
If we continue down this path, a housing emergency will be declared by many more local authorities.
It is not to late to reverse this decision. I have mentioned in the past I believe the two biggest challenges we face are climate change and a major shortage of social and affordable housing.
In fact, I am never again going to use the word ‘social’ when referring to housing. It is a label. Let’s just build nice, sustainable houses for everyone with different degrees of affordability that people will be proud to call home.
Why don’t we take these two huge negatives and turn them into one enormous positive?
The climate and housing crisis tackled together, head on, could put Scotland on the map – let’s be the first country in the world where every house is powered by 100% clean energy, building quality homes that are sustainable and, more importantly, are affordable.
We should move to the European model where it is not that important to own your house. We need hundreds of thousands of houses that are built for rent only.
It is ironic that in a time of a housing emergency declaration, which by the way is UK-wide, the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation into eight major housebuilders. The allegation is there has been collusion through sharing of information. This is a very serious charge. If it is found to be true, it could have major ramifications in our quest to solve the housing crisis.
We must find a formula for building sustainable houses that are bigger, better, and more affordable than ever. All these houses should be for rent.
We must try to drive construction costs down without reducing size or quality. This can absolutely be achieved. Thousands of meaningful jobs and apprenticeships could be created in housing projects.
A recent survey showed that 48% of the young people trying to get on the property ladder would be unsuccessful.
The “property ladder” term is generally used for people trying to buy a home, however this phrase can now also be used by people trying to rent because of the major shortage of rental properties.
It is heartbreaking to see so many people sleeping on the street.
Unfortunately these cuts to the housing budget and introducing new policies like the new Housing Bill will only add to this problem.
I am pleading with the First Minister and his partners in the coalition, please listen to all these experts who understand more about the housing crisis than we do.
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