SCOTTISH government plans to slash £188.8 million for social homes funding in the midst of a “housing emergency” were slammed by campaigners today.
The SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison published plans for the eye-watering cuts to the affordable housing programme — amounting to a staggering 26 per cent of its budget — in her draft Scottish budget on Tuesday.
The decision comes just weeks after Glasgow joined Edinburgh and Argyll and Bute councils in declaring a housing emergency.
Earlier this month the Scottish government had refused to back a nationwide declaration, arguing that “actions” mattered more than “gestures” — but housing campaigners are dismayed at the move.
Sally Thomas, head of the Scottish Federation of Housing, branded the budget “an absolute hammer blow for tackling homelessness and poverty across Scotland.”
She warned of “long-lasting consequences for the nearly 250,000 people throughout Scotland stuck on a waiting list for a social home, as well as for existing tenants and the housing associations which support them.”
Aditi Jehangir, secretary of tenants union Living Rent, called the decision “totally misguided.”
She said: “One after another, councils are declaring housing emergencies because they simply cannot fulfil their statutory duties to house homeless people.
“Rents are at record level as the current rent cap does not go far enough and landlords are using every opportunity to increase rents above inflation.
“Tenants’ physical and mental health is worsening because of their housing situation.
“Yet the government is cutting the one thing everyone agrees on, that is funding for social homes.
“This shows how the government is just out of touch with tenants’ realities.
“In the meantime, we’ll be paying the price of their utterly baffling and frankly irresponsible decisions.”
Defending her budget on the same programme, however, Ms Robison said the government’s plan to build 111,000 new “affordable” homes by 2032 would now be met with private capital.
She said: “The work we’re doing with the housing minister is to look at how we can lever in innovative finance.
“We recognise that affordable housing is a key anti-poverty measure and we want to be able to deliver on our commitments, but we’ll have to do that in a different way.”
