Scotland to reduce time spent on temporary housing

Scotland is aiming to boost their affordable housing supply by acquiring properties to bring into use and help reduce homelessness with an £80 million uplift over the next two years.

The funding, announced by first minister Humza Yousaf, will increase the Affordable Housing Supply Programme budget to nearly £600 million in 2024 to 2025.

Investment will help reduce the time spent in temporary accommodation, including by children, and will also accelerate discussions with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) in relation to the number of local authority void properties.

Yousaf said: “Housing is essential in our efforts to tackle child poverty and reduce inequality across Scotland, and it supports jobs and growth in the economy. 

"Providing good quality, affordable housing is at the very core of what my Government is doing to make Scotland a better place.

“While there is a single person homeless in our country, it is simply not acceptable to have houses sitting empty – so I am determined that we remove the barriers, and provide the money that will enable councils to buy properties so they can become affordable homes again."

He said the funding will build on the success of Scotland's National Acquisition Programme, which spent more than £60 million and delivered more than 1,000 affordable homes.

"This is one of a number of actions we are prioritising to help to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation. We will also accelerate discussion with COSLA in relation to the number of empty council homes,” he added. 

Homelessness charity Shelter Scotland found that in the year 2022 to 23, there were just over 39,000 homeless applications made to local authorities, of these 32,240 households were assessed as being homeless or threatened with homelessness. 

The number of households that became homeless this year rose by 10 per cent compared to the year before.