This week, Carolyn Lochhead, Director of External Affairs, attended the launch of the 2025 UK Housing Review at the House of Lords with event host Lord Richard Best urging all political parties to engage and utilise the publication when setting future housing policy.

The Review, in its thirty-third year, brings together the most important housing statistics from across the UK, helping to paint a clear picture of housing supported by over 200 charts and tables of statistical analysis.

Carolyn said:

“Homelessness across the UK is at record levels, rural households face particular challenges in accessing decent, affordable housing and inequality is growing ever-wider. Those were just some of the difficult messages I heard at the launch of CIH and Glasgow University’s UK Housing Review, held this week at the House of Lords. Introduced by Lord Best, whose interest in housing dates back over fifty years, the review presents the latest data from every housing sector – all of which are facing challenges.

In a particularly hard-hitting presentation, Lynn McMordie of Heriot Watt University told us that temporary accommodation was at “breaking point”, and that without determined action, the crisis in this area – which has seen record levels of homelessness across the UK – will define yet another decade.

And on equality, Professor Susan J Smith shared data showing that the post-millennial drop in owner occupation has created a huge disparity in the percentage of total income required to cover housing costs: in 2020, the poorest people in the country spent almost 40% of their income on housing, compared to just 7% for the wealthiest.

So what can be done? All of the presenters were clear that further decline is not inevitable. Here at SFHA, we’re focused on securing stability and certainty for the sector, so our members can plan both maintenance and development, adding as many new affordable rented homes as possible while keeping existing homes in good order. That means multi-year funding for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, as well as certainty early in the financial year about allocations from other funding sources, such as aids and adaptations. And it means taking every opportunity to invest in new homes. Last week’s milestone of £500m invested in Charitable Bonds has seen over 4,000 new homes delivered. We need to see more of this sustained investment, with lower interest rates if at all possible.

Standing on the House of Lords terrace in the early spring sunshine while listening to tales of homelessness and inequality may have felt incongruous, but the event was a stark reminder of just how important SFHA members’ work really is. As we move towards next year’s Scottish Parliament elections, we need a sustained focus on housing to ensure next year’s report doesn’t tell us more of the same."