Ending the Housing Emergency: SFHA at Green Party Conference

Last Saturday the SFHA team were at the Scottish Green Party Conference in Greenock, hosting a fringe event on the housing emergency. This continues our engagement with all the major political parties in Scotland. 

Our event focused on the measures needed to end the housing emergency and deliver the social homes we need. Jen Gracie, our Public Affairs and Media Manager, chaired the panel and was joined by Alana Durnin from Cloch Housing Association, Chloe Campbell from the Poverty Alliance, and Ariane Burgess MSP who convenes the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.  

Jen opened the session by laying out the context of the housing emergency; with the huge number people on waiting lists, households in temporary accommodation, and the difficulties we’re facing in delivering the number of social homes we need. This all requires urgent action – particularly from the Scottish Government – and action to address the housing emergency can’t be divorced from both the cost-of-living crisis and climate emergency. 

There was an insightful and measured discussion on why social housing is such an important investment, the holistic impact it has on people’s lives, and what can be done by various stakeholders to map a way out of the emergency. 

Chloe from the Poverty Alliance laid out the positive impact that social housing has on poverty rates and the fact that Scotland has in recent years seen lower rates of poverty than the rest of the UK, in part because of a higher density of social housing and lower housing costs. She also highlighted the disproportionate impact the housing emergency is having on certain demographics of people, for example those living with a disability. The different impacts of housing on rural and urban poverty were also discussed and how these interact with other parts of people’s lives like transport and food. 

Alana from Cloch began by laying out some important local context and the specific challenges that they face as a housing association in Inverclyde. For example, 79% of children in the area are entitled to Free School Meals due to the high rates of poverty, and they are also dealing with a declining population despite being a broadly urban area. Alana highlighted the difficulties they are having in developing new homes because of increased costs and reductions in grant funding. Because of this, they are shifting away from new build social homes and towards acquisitions. 

The wider benefit that housing associations can provide as community anchor organisations was also a key part of the discussion. Alana shared a video which showed the work that Cloch do to tackle poverty on the ground and the impact that their community investment programme has had on their tenants, which clearly made most of the room emotional. She also shared how by using local contractors, in partnership with other housing emergencies, Cloch has been able to bring employment to Greenock and a new depot.  

Ariane identified two areas of particular interest to her in terms of the housing emergency. The first is the issue of making great places and communities for people to live in, rather than just delivering houses without considering this. In a rural context this is especially important with the need to deliver homes in smaller towns and villages to enable people to stay in places they want to, instead of concentrating development in more urban areas in the Highlands and Islands. The second question of interest to Ariane is how we can use existing buildings to end the housing emergency, rather than exclusively building new homes? There was discussion on how partnership working between Government, Councils and RSL’s could help deliver this and work deliver new social homes by converting existing buildings, especially commercial ones, into homes.  

The conversation extended to the audience through questions and this opened up the discussion. There were questions on the density of housing and where we should be building new homes as well as the supply chains and skills needed to deliver the retrofitting of homes. The significant cost of retrofit also formed a large part of the discussion and the difficulties that RSL’s will have in meeting their climate obligations without pushing social rents up. 

As we move towards another seismic budget in December, it’s more important than ever that we discuss the solutions with all political parties – and we’ll continue to do so.