Homes group calls for issue to take top priority in next Holyrood election
The Herculean efforts to tackle Scotland’s housing emergency have moved up a gear with a major national campaign entitled ‘Homes Build Futures’.
Jane Wood, Chief Executive of Homes for Scotland, is launching this call to action that intends to elevate the housing discussion as the top priority in Scotland’s parliamentary election in May 2025.
“No-one has owned the issue of housing across all tenures – and on behalf of civic society. We think it should be the number one topic for the next Scottish government to be tackling.
“There have been great campaigns on homelessness, and really good social housing campaigns, but we are tackling the full range of issues, and what it really means to have your own home, be that rented or owned. It is exciting for us to be leading from the front.”
It is an ambitious challenge for this not-for-profit organisation, celebrating its 25th year representing home builders of all sizes from across both private and social sectors, and indirectly Scotland’s housing need.
The campaign follows the announcement of the Scottish Government Housing Emergency Action Plan which Wood describes as “reflecting positive change in both engagement and tone from the Scottish Government, greatly enhanced by the leadership and definitive direction that we now have.”
The plan addresses several Homes for Scotland requests related to the need for an all-tenure approach, multi-year funding commitments for affordable housing, planning interventions and proportionality for SME home builders.
This links to a dedicated session with Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Màiri McAllan at the annual conference which was keenly anticipated amid concerns about shrinking land supply and the cost of regulation.
Also at the event, Professor Duncan Maclennan, Glasgow University’s expert on housing, is due to set the context of the emergency, while Professor Sir John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, is giving a wider political perspective.
Wood says we need to educate all Scots to understand the issues of housing in Scotland.
“We want to move the dial and engage people across civic society in Scotland about the discussion on homes. We need the public to ask what is being done to build quality homes for future generations and families in Scotland.”
Homes for Scotland points out that one in four households have a housing ‘need’ and are ‘living with issues’ related to housing.
“It has been in the too-hard-to-do box because it is so complex, so regulated, multi-faceted: it’s across local level and national level. We are in a national housing emergency in Scotland and we have 13 local authorities in housing emergencies and none on them have come out of this, since the emergency was announced.”
No-one has owned the issue of housing across all tenures. We think it should be the number one topic for the next government to be tackling
- Jane Wood
In 1970, the highest number of homes built was 43,126, a post-war record, with 34,906 of these in the local authorities and social sector. In the 1980s through to 2010, private housing took up the slack as local authorities shrank their housing stock. From a peak total completions figure of 25,747 in 2007, only 19,988 homes were built across Scotland in 2024, not including conversions and change of use, with approximately 250,000 people currently on housing waiting lists.
The blame game has gone on for a long time. Margaret Thatcher’s ‘right-to-buy’ scheme has been demonised as a cause for the fall in social and council housing, sold off and never replenished, but in reality there has been little investment in social housing at a time when land prices and building costs have sky-rocketed.
Wood points out that a recent survey found increasing levels of regulation on new homes in Scotland adds an average extra cost of £20,000 per home.
But while McAllan and John Swinney can talk the talk, ministers are stymied by their own Verity House partnership agreement with Cosla which states that local authority powers will be reviewed regularly but are otherwise considered full and exclusive and may not be undermined or limited by another, central or regional authority, except as provided for by the law.
This ‘local by default’ approach to the national emergency makes it hard for a new housing secretary to make any headway, unless the Scottish Parliament amends legislation.
With councils having resources within their planning departments decimated, and the level of understanding about housing delivery among councillors at a low ebb, there is a great deal of education required.
“There is a requirement for housing needs assessments at local levels that are fit for purpose. For too long need has been underestimated. If planning at a local level does not account fully for the future population and societal needs, then how can you have a national economic strategy for the whole country?” asks the Homes for Scotland chief.
“The solutions are multi-faceted that we need both national and local government to work collectively and collaboratively with the sector in a more effective way.”
On the need for sustained public investment, Wood rails: “When the affordable housing budget was cut in 2023, almost immediately building across the country was stalled because there was no guarantee of funding to deliver the affordable homes element of mixed tenure developments where typically about 25 per cent of homes are affordable and they need to be delivered in lockstep.”
With this budget axed by the Scottish Government, sites could not viably be built to plan. Local authorities and social providers couldn’t build, nor could private sector because they were reliant on ensuring these affordable homes could be funded, built and planning conditions
fulfilled.
Industry data showed that 5,000 houses were stalled, across all tenures. As a result of Homes for Scotland’s call out on this, there is now a Stalled Sites Working Group. In England, the UK Government has recently announced 100,000 homes have been unblocked through its accelerator programme.
Homes for Scotland has been lobbying for a separate housing minister in the Scottish cabinet, a role taken on by McAllan.
“We believe passionately this is a leadership issue, it is about intervention, and transformational change from the top,” she says.
Ahead of next year’s Scottish Parliament election, Homes for Scotland has identified the key actions required to reverse the downwards trajectory in housing starts and completions:
- 25,000 all-tenure target recognising the interconnected nature of private and affordable housing delivery;
- The reset of housing governance to restore appropriate accountability;
- An enabled and supportive planning and consenting system that encourages and facilitates residential development – including reinstatement of the presumption in favour of sustainable development;
- A supportive and focused policy environment that encourages long-term investment in housing;
- Targeted support for SME builders in Scotland to increase sector capacity, especially in rural, Highland and Island areas;
- Housing policy fully integrated and understood as driver for the Scottish economy;
- A sustainable growth plan addressing the net zero transition, aligning Land and Buildings Transactions Tax with energy-efficiency and implementing a sector skills plan to build the homes of the future.
The Homes Build Futures campaign can be found on
www.homesbuildfutures.scot
Visit our Events or official conference page, The Business of Housing 2026 for more information on the upcoming housing conference.