TRADE body Homes for Scotland (HFS) has claimed the passing of the Scottish Budget 2024 – 2025 will ‘perpetuate housing inequality across the country and limit the number of new homes coming forward across all tenures’.
With a cut of 27.7% to the housing and building standards budget and further cuts of 26% and 43% to the affordable housing supply programme and planning budget respectively confirmed, HFS director of policy Fionna Kell believes the budget will deepen housing inequality.
She said, “Whilst we welcome the deputy first minister’s commitment that housing will be treated with priority should further funds become available as a result of announcements by the chancellor next week, the budget passed today will only serve to deepen the housing inequality being felt across the country and risks losing the significant socio-economic benefits that come through increased home building across all tenures.
“The cuts come at a time when multiple local authorities have declared housing emergencies and recent independent research has shown that there are 693,000 Scottish households facing at least one form of housing need.
“Instead of cutting housing budgets, now is the time to maximise the wide-ranging socio-economic benefits offered by ensuring Scotland has the homes it needs to meet the needs of its people.”
Dr Caroline Brown, director of Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Scotland, said the cuts to the Scottish social housing budget signify a ‘significant setback with tangible consequences’ for communities.
“Central government funding is crucial for the delivery of new housing,” she added. “The Scottish Government’s ambitious housebuilding goals are already lagging behind, and these cuts will exacerbate the situation, placing additional pressure on Scotland’s already overworked and overstretched local planning authorities.
“This budget cut will have a tangible impact on housing delivery across Scotland, and create further tensions in local authority budgets. Our research has found that the budget for planning services has already been slashed by 38% between 2010 and 2022 and a quarter of planning department staff was cut between 2009 and 2022. At the same time, new duties and responsibilities are falling on planning authorities, requiring them to do more with less.”
