‘We will invest £556m in affordable housing’

Housing minister Paul McLennan said: “The Scottish Government has led the UK in housing by delivering more than 126,000 affordable homes since 2007, over 89,000 of which were for social rent, including almost 24,000 council homes. We will invest £556 million in affordable housing in 2024-25, the majority of which will be for social rent.

“The UK Government failed to inflation-proof its capital budget and this has resulted in nearly a 10 per cent real-terms cut in our UK capital funding between 2023-24 and 202728.

“This is on top of the disastrous impact Brexit has had on construction supply chain issues, labour shortages and the inflationary pressures driven by UK Government financial mismanagement.

“We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and to support that we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026-27 to 2024, which will concentrate on deliverability. We are working with the financial community in Scotland, and elsewhere, to boost private sector investment and help deliver more homes.”

On homelessness, the minister said that the situation has been made worse by “the UK Government’s Local Housing Allowance freeze, cuts to the Scottish Government’s budget and the bedroom tax”.

He said: “Despite this, Scotland continues to have the strongest rights anywhere in the UK for anyone who becomes homeless, but we are determined to ensure no-one need become homeless in the first place and ensure people can stay in their homes.

“I regularly engage with Scotland’s local authorities and work with them to find solutions to the housing pressures they are facing.”