Delivering Affordable Homes

Tackling the Housing Crisis

The number of social homes delivered under SNP governments in the past 18 years in Scotland passed the 100,000 mark last year.

The statistics on affordable housing showed that, since 2007, the Scottish Government has helped deliver 140,346 affordable homes, with 100,064 of those for social rent.

This is a clear demonstration of the SNP’s strong commitment to supporting affordable housing across Scotland.

Social housing is a key cornerstone in our efforts to tackle the housing emergency and achieve our goal of eradicating child poverty. These numbers show that thousands of families have been provided with a warm, safe and affordable home.

However, demand is outstripping supply, and these latest quarterly statistics paint a stark picture of the challenges that the cost of living, inflation and Brexit have placed on the housing sector – not least construction inflation having reached an incredible 24% in recent years. That is why the SNP Government last year published its ambitious Housing Emergency Action Plan, backed by up to £4.9 billion of investment to deliver a major affordable housing programme.

This will support around 36,000 affordable homes over the next four years, providing homes for up to 24,000 children. This is additional to the £808m we will spend this financial year to deliver around 8,000 affordable homes.

Moreover, the Scottish Government’s is taking forward recommendations of the Housing Investment Taskforce report on ways to increase investment across the social, affordable and private housing sectors. This includes attracting other funds in addition to public money for affordable housing, and creating conditions to support more shared home ownership.

The SNP is determined to tackle the housing emergency and ensure that everyone in Scotland can have somewhere to call home.