Sector bodies urge Scottish government to prioritise housing following £4.9bn Budget boost

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) have urged the Scottish government to keep to its promise to prioritise affordable housing with the devolved nation’s additional funding announced in yesterday’s Autumn Budget.

Both housing bodies have pointed out that the Scottish government has pledged to prioritise housing, yet in its 2024/25 budget passed in February, it cut funding for affordable housing by £196m.

In March, the deputy first minister and finance secretary Shona Robison said she would make reversing cuts to affordable housing her “number one priority” if new funding from Whitehall became available in the Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget on 6 March.

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The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, allocated an additional £1.5bn to the Scottish Government for the current financial year, along with a £3.4bn uplift for 2025/26 through the Barnett formula.

The £3.4bn includes £2.8bn for day-to-day expenses and £610m for capital investment, and will bring the Scottish government’s total settlement for 2025/26 to £47.7bn.

The Scottish government has promised to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which 77,000 will be for social rent and 10% will be in rural and island communities.

Government statistics showed that housing associations made starts on 2,073 homes in 2023, the lowest number since 1988.

Local authorities started building 1,192 homes, the lowest number since 2013.

Over the last year, seven Scottish councils have declared housing emergencies, and MSPs voted through a Labour-led motion to declare a national housing emergency.  

Callum Chomczuk, national director of CIH Scotland, said: “Today’s announcement by the chancellor provides some welcome flexibility for the Scottish Government as we seek to end the housing emergency.

“The finance secretary previously cited housing as her priority ahead of March 2024 UK Budget which did not deliver any capital uplift.”

Chomczuk added: “Now that an increase has been confirmed we hope that social and affordable housing spending will remain the priority for the Scottish government so that the sector can get building, get buying and deliver the affordable homes Scotland needs to end the housing emergency.”

Sally Thomas, SFHA chief executive, said: “The Scottish government has repeatedly said that affordable housing would be its number one priority in the event of an increase to its capital budget, it must now keep that promise and build a better future for the thousands of people across Scotland in need of a safe, affordable home.”

Thomas said that with record levels of homelessness, and the number “With homelessness at record levels, and the number of housing association homes built last year at its lowest since 1988, it’s clear that recent cuts have had devastating consequences for many of Scotland’s citizens. However, by investing today’s additional capital funding in affordable housing, we can take the first significant step to ending our national housing emergency.”