Political ‘turmoil’ threatens response to housing emergency

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) has said political turmoil at Holyrood cannot distract from Scotland’s housing emergency as it called for an urgent reset of the Scottish Government’s affordable homes programme.  

It comes as the Bute House Agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Green Party collapsed earlier today after First Minister, Humza Yousaf MSP, dismissed Scottish Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater from his Cabinet.  

The Scottish Government’s record on housing has been under intense scrutiny following a huge £196 million cut to the country’s affordable housing budget, whilst figures published last month pointed to the lowest number of homes started by housing associations last year than at any point since 1988. 

This led SFHA to state that the government target of delivering 110,000 homes by 2032 was “all but over” amid “absolute freefall” in the supply of new homes and record levels of homelessness. 

Reacting to the end of the co-operation agreement between the SNP and the Greens, SFHA Chief Executive Sally Thomas said that the country’s housing emergency transcended party politics.  

She said: “The turmoil we are seeing at Holyrood cannot distract from the real and present threat of Scotland’s housing emergency. 

“Amid record homelessness and with 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation, the need for safe, warm, and affordable rented homes grows ever greater. 

“The First Minister has said that the end of the Bute House Agreement represents a ‘new beginning’ for the Scottish Government, and we’d therefore call for an urgent reset on the huge cut to the affordable housing supply programme which is already faltering due to a lack of investment. 

“Irrespective of which political parties are in government, Scotland is in desperate need of more social homes- this can only be delivered through sustained public investment.”