GLASGOW City Council has announced the allocation of £115 million to build new social and affordable homes across the 2025/26 financial year.
The funding, an increase of 20% on the previous year, will support the construction of around 1,600 new properties already programmed in, with a further 850+ to be approved this year.
New figures also show that in the past financial year, the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) funded the completion of almost 1,000 new homes and the start of work on a further 750.
Councillor Ruairi Kelly, convener for housing, development, and land use at Glasgow City Council, said the funding would make a ‘significant’ contribution towards addressing the city’s housing emergency, as well as the regeneration of neighbourhoods across the city.
While the majority of the AHSP funds the building of new affordable homes, it is also used to acquire private sector properties for use by housing associations, as well as supporting the transformation of non-residential buildings into homes.
Although Glasgow City Council is not a landlord it is the strategic housing authority, which gives it responsibility for allocating government funds to housing associations in addition to setting the strategic priorities.
The figures for last year show that in addition to the starts and completions, 90% of the new approvals were for homes for social rent, including 59 wheelchair-adaptable properties and over 100 three and four-bedroom family homes. A further 175 properties were either acquired or brought back into use to support homeless households.
This year’s programme will see around £104 million allocated for over 1,150 starts, 940 completions, and 870 approvals, with almost £12 million to acquire more vacant and void properties.
Councillor Kelly said, “Demand for homes, costs of labour and materials and increased standards all put a squeeze on budgets, and while the city has not known pressures like these in generations we are maximising our efforts to deliver homes as quickly as possible. Innovative approaches to bringing vacant properties back into use and our social house building programme, which is by far the best in the UK, are just some of the ways we are tackling the housing emergency.
“The affordable housing supply programme allows the council to support housing associations to build more social and affordable homes of all sizes and we are doing that across Glasgow – changing lives and transforming communities. Glasgow City Council and our RSL partners will also be in a position to accelerate this should more funding become available.”
