THE Scottish Government has been urged to ‘seize the opportunity’ from the Spending Review and announce a long-term funding plan for Scotland’s housing associations.
Responding to UK chancellor Rachel Reeves’ announcement of a £39 billion settlement for housing in England, to be delivered over 10 years, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) said additional money Scotland receives from the announcement must be invested in the country’s social and affordable homes programme.
The chancellor’s announcement came a day after Scotland’s first minister John Swinney addressed SFHA’s annual conference. He told delegates he was confident of introducing multi-year funding for housing associations providing similar measures were announced for England in the Spending Review.
He said, “We’ve not had the opportunity to provide that longer term certainty but I am confident with what we will receive in financial information from the UK Government tomorrow in their spending review, that we will be able to replicate that and provide longer term certainty as a consequence. Because what I want to make sure and what the finance secretary is committed to doing is creating mechanisms to improve the level of certainty on medium term funding for key sectors where that medium term certainty has a beneficial impact on forward planning.
“We do all of this because we recognise how important warm, safe and affordable housing will be to achieving the government’s central vision of eradicating child poverty.”
Following the chancellor’s announcement of a 10-year funding settlement for England, SFHA said it expects the Scottish Government to end the ‘uncertainty’ of yearly budgets.
SFHA chief executive Sally Thomas said, “Today’s Spending Review represents a considerable boost for housing in England and enables the Scottish Government to back the country’s housing associations on a long-term basis. We expect the Scottish Government to seize this opportunity and chart a course out of the housing emergency by introducing a multi-year funding package for housing associations.
“This was something the first minister told SFHA’s annual conference he was confident of, pending the chancellor’s Spending Review, which now gives him the opportunity to deliver on. It’s time to end the uncertainty of budgets which change one year from the next and empower our housing associations to build a better future for everyone who needs a safe, warm and affordable home.”
