Policy engineered social housing decline

Sir, – The decline in social housing in Dundee, and other parts of Scotland, is part of a deliberate plan begun over a decade ago. Across the UK there was a consensus among the main political parties that social housing should be reduced to a minimum safety net.

Academics at Heriot Watt University were commissioned to calculate the housing needs of Scottish local authorities. Their calculations were based on the assumptions that people should only get social housing if they could not afford to buy or rent in the private sector without their income sinking below basic benefit levels, and that those households already in need could wait for up to 10 years.

With those assumptions in the equation, the academics argued that social housing need could be more than met by the ongoing turnover of tenancies, and even places such as Dundee, with a housing waiting list of thousands, had ‘surplus’ social housing that should be demolished.

When these policies were first implemented, the expectation was new housing built on the sites would be predominantly private, but that was before the economy crashed in 2007.

There has been renewed support for building social housing, but not to the extent that this will begin to replace the number of homes lost, and politicians have introduced additional confusion with ‘affordable housing’, which is far from affordable to many families.

As the political classes began to wake up to the misery these policies have caused, Social Bite commissioned a report into homelessness in Scotland’s four largest cities. One of the authors was the main proponent of the disastrous housing need model.

A critical rethink of housing policy and major investment in social housing is long overdue. Sarah Glynn. Castle Terrace, Broughty Ferry, Dundee.

A correspondent argues that decline in Dundee’s social housing began as part of a deliberate plan.