SFHA hit out at Scottish Government’s ‘hammer-blow' cut to affordable homes
SFHA Chief Executive Sally Thomas says cut to affordable housebuilding programme announced in the Scottish Budget will have ‘devastating’ consequences.
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) has warned that the Scottish Government’s affordable housing programme is at serious risk amid a huge funding cut in today’s budget.
It comes as Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Shona Robison MSP, announced that the budget for building social homes would be slashed by almost £200million for 2024-25 – a reduction of 26%.
The SFHA said that funding through the AHSP was crucial in allowing housing associations to deliver new homes and meet the Scottish Government’s target of building 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. It also warned that today’s cut will not only see this target missed but will also have serious consequences for those impacted by Scotland’s housing crisis.
The budget also saw the Fuel Insecurity Fund, used to support social tenants who are unable to afford energy costs, scrapped.
SFHA Chief Executive Sally Thomas said: “Today’s budget is an absolute hammer blow for tackling homelessness and poverty across Scotland and will have 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.
“More social homes quite simply mean fewer children growing up in poverty. Over 20,000 children in Scotland are kept out of poverty because of social housing. It is therefore devastating that the First Minister would abandon his defining mission to tackle poverty by failing to support people who need social homes. It is the worst possible budget at the worst possible time.”
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