Latest news with #HomelessProjectScotland
The Herald Scotland
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
New housebuilding hits five year Scottish low in housing emergency
Some 20,364 new houses became available in Scotland in 2023/24 - the lowest number outside the Covid pandemic year of 2020/21 since 2018/19. It comes as the number of homes completed under the Affordable Housing Supply Programme has slumped to 8,180 in 2024, again the lowest outside the pandemic year of 2020/21 since 2018. And the number of housing association new homes, typically aimed at the affordable market has dropped from 5,020 in 2022/23 to 3,378 in 2023/24. In the pre-pandemic year of 2018/19 there were 4086 new homes. READ MORE: The Scottish Government officially declared a national housing emergency in May last year, after a number of local authorities had already done so. Housing minister Paul McLennan said he recognised these are "exceptionally challenging times" but accentuated the positives, saying that affordable housing starts and approvals have "increased" in the year to December 2024. Approvals went from 6,191 in 2023 to 6,440 in 2024 while starts rose from 6247 to 6501. But the number of approvals in 2024 is still almost half that agreed in the pre-pandemic years of 2018 when there were 12,478 agreements in place and in 2019 when there were 11,885. Mr McLennan said that the Scottish Government would "continue to work with partners to increase these levels even further". It comes after the First Minister John Swinney was asked to intervene as numbers sleeping rough on the streets of Scotland's biggest city while seeking official help has tripled in the space of just over a year while a key night shelter operated by Homeless Project Scotland faced closure. The number of households officially reporting that they had slept rough in the three months before they sought homeless help in Glasgow shot up from an average of 28 a month in 2022/23, before the city declared a housing emergency to 86-a-month in the first 11 months of 2024 after it. In 2019/20, the year before the Covid pandemic it was at 43-a-month. The Scottish Tenants' Organisation said that Mr McLennan's role should be given Scottish cabinet status to develop an urgently needed national housing action plan to build tens of thousand of new homes to tackle a "housing disaster". "Tackling the housing and homeless emergency has to become the number one priority of the Scottish Government, " they said. "Unless the above is implemented the Scottish Government will continue from one disaster to the next." Affordable housing The Scottish Government has increased funding for affordable housing with a budget of £768 million in 2025/26. But critics say that this has not made up for past cuts and the ability to keep up with of last year, the Scottish Government's affordable homes budget took a cumulative hit of over £280m over the previous three years without taking inflation into account - based against the 2021/22 allocation of £779.776m - despite a pledge by outgoing First Minister Humza Yousaf of a £80m uplift for affordable housing over the next two years. Housing campaigners had been staggered by a £196.08m (26%) cut to the budget in the 2024/25 alone, without taking into account inflation, with the spending plans set at £555.862m before an extra £40m was promised by Mr Yousaf. If the budget had kept up with inflation since 2021/22 in 2024/25, the spending plans would have been at an estimated £985.32m. When inflation has been taken into account, it was estimated last year that instead of getting £2.631bn over the three years - the affordable homes budget was at £2.058bn - a drop of £573m. "Mr McLennan said: "Providing everyone in Scotland the right to a warm, safe and affordable home is essential to our key priority of eradicating child poverty. "We have a strong track record in affordable housing, delivering 136,000 affordable homes including 97,000 for social rent between 2007 and 2024. That's 47% more per head of population than England and 73% more than Wales as of March 2024." The Scottish Government has fallen way behind in a key target in its 2021 Programme for Government to deliver 110,000 social and affordable homes by 2032 with 70% for social rent. As of the start of last year there were had been 19,980 affordable homes completed, that received some sort of public money support in the first two years till March 31 - meaning it was at that point already 2,620 short of an 11,300 homes a year target As of the end of June, with seven-and-a-half years of the target to go 87,527 homes remained to be completed to meet the target, at an average of over 11,670 a year. Mr McLennan added: "Since we declared a housing emergency last May we have been working at pace a range of stakeholders across the housing system to take urgent action. This has involved working closely with those local authorities who are experiencing the greatest and most sustained homelessness and temporary accommodation pressures. We are also engaging the expertise of the Housing to 2040 Strategic Board and Housing Investment Task Force to support the response. Paul McLennan (Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire) 'Throughout the development of the Housing (Scotland) Bill we have made sure to strike the appropriate balance between protecting tenants and providing incentives for continued investment in the private rented sector through measures such as rent control areas.' 'Throughout the development of the Housing (Scotland) Bill we have made sure to strike the appropriate balance between protecting tenants and providing incentives for continued investment in the private rented sector through measures such as rent control areas.'
The Herald Scotland
03-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Swinney urged to act over 'disastrous' rise in Glasgow street sleepers
Now campaigners have written to John Swinney asking for his intervention in the rough sleeping 'crisis' which comes after the city declared a housing emergency in November 2023. There are also concerns that things could get even worse with the closure of a homeless shelter and support hub in Glasgow which supporters say are placing 33 vulnerable people back onto the streets every single night. The facility, operated by Homeless Project Scotland in Glassford Street since December 2023, is purported to be the only source of hot food for up to 350 people every day. It comes as the Glasgow City Council refused planning permission for the 24-hour shelter. The Scottish Tenants Organisation, which has been tracking the numbers sleeping rough, has called for urgent action from the First Minister about the soaring numbers or people sleeping rough saying: "The increasing numbers rough sleeping in Glasgow is a complete disaster. We need the intervention of the First Minister so that the Scottish Government can give better funding to Glasgow to deal with all the problems related to homelessness in the city." Glasgow declared a housing emergency while the numbers seeking council help for homelessness rose by 27% since before the Covid pandemic from 6074 in 2019/20 to 7725 in 2023/24. Read more: Why is Glasgow struggling to handle the homeless? 'Boils the blood': 30,000 demand women-only Scots homeless refuge as deaths rise 'Can't cope': Two thirds of homeless children in housing emergency digs are refugees 'Heads should roll': Economist group indicates FM's homeless crisis action not enough 'Wake up call': New report offers damning findings on children in homeless system The Herald previously revealed that the UK's immigration system is being plunged into uncertainty as Glasgow has sought to pull the plug on the acceptance of asylum seekers as the taxpayer costs of dealing with refugees are set to treble in three years. Costs in the Glasgow area alone are snowballing from an estimated £26.5m in 2024/25 to a projected £79m in 2027/28 and the city council has been seeing urgent financial support from UK ministers to deal with the influx caused they say by a speeded up asylum dispersal process to address a significant backlog of UK-wide immigration decisions and reduce the numbers of applicants. Refugees make up around 41% of Glasgow homelessness applications - who have a right to at the very least makeshift emergency accommodation - with councils becoming increasingly reliant on hotels and bed and breakfasts. Glasgow, while in the midst of a housing emergency, has become the number one UK hotspot for acceptance of asylum seekers caused in the main by a north-south divide in the law over how they are treated. The city was the UK local authority with the most housed asylum seekers with over 4,193, or around 67 per 10,000 residents. Across the UK there are typically just 16 asylum seekers per 10,000 of population. Some 70% of the 6,057 asylum seekers being housed in Scotland are being supported in the nation's biggest city, with 30% running across 21 of the 31 remaining Scots local authorities. A study by the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (GCHSCP) - which administers social care, addiction, homelessness support, child protection and criminal justice services - warns that there were "unprecedented numbers" of refugees travelling to Glasgow from outwith the city, from mainly Belfast, Manchester and London, with 650 recorded in January 2024 alone. And the number of homelessness applications in Glasgow from people who have been granted refugee status or the leave to remain in the country has doubled in a year from 1384 in 2022/23 to 2,709 in 2023/24. John Swinney (Image: Duncan McGlynn) The STO has written to the First Minister asking for his intervention in the wake of the "shocking" increase in the numbers of people that are forced to sleep rough, saying that the Scottish Government needs to plough more money into Glasgow to tackle the crisis. They say: "We demand from you that you make tackling the housing and homeless emergency your number immediate one priority and to make Glasgow a special case for extra resources to eradicate rough sleeping. Nothing else will do." It has also said that the refusal of planning permission for the shelter by the council is "cruel and vindictive based on nothing more than prejudice and disdain for homeless people in Glasgow". Campaigners believe that the rough sleeping numbers could be even worse, as many are not seeking council help and so would not declare that they were sleeping rough. Tenants' rights group Living Rent said in response to the rise in rough sleepers: "Our politicians have fallen asleep at the wheel. Despite declaring a housing emergency in 2023, Glasgow City Council continues to fail in its responsibility to house its residents. It is clear the government needs to step in." Homeless Project Scotland say that the "deeply shocking" council decision over its facility cites 'fear of crime' and 'obstruction of footways' as reasons to shut down the service – "despite the "overwhelming humanitarian need" it meets in the heart of Glasgow". The shelter organisers say that it is operated with no funding from council tax payers and is run entirely by dedicated volunteers who they say work around the clock to protect those society has left behind. Colin McInnes, of the project, said that "people will die as a result of the decision" as there was no alternative provision. The project has called on the Scottish Government to step in to "protect the rights and lives of homeless people". Homeless Project Scotland (Image: Colin Mearns) Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator of the STO added: "The increase in rough sleeping in Glasgow is a testament to the catastrophic failure of the authorities to deal with homelessness in recent years resulting in an increase in men and women living in abject destitution. "A housing revolution has to occur in Glasgow with the Scottish Government injecting tens of millions of pounds extra into the city so that the city council can directly build thousands of good quality public sector homes including temporary accommodation for men, women and children so that no one sleeps rough on the streets of Glasgow." Glasgow City Council has confirmed that progress to address homelessness in the city has been classified as red, which indicates major slippage due to the challenges. And the owners of hotels that used to house homeless people in Glasgow have seen a huge increase in income from the council. In the last year, from April 2024 to March 2025, the council paid more than £45 million to private hotels and B&B owners in the city. In 2023/24 it was £26,724,422. Living Rent secretary Ruaraidh Dempster added: "The Housing Bill offers a huge opportunity to help combat the homelessness crisis. Strong, effective rent controls that bring down rents would ensure that people are not being forced into homelessness. "But the government needs to go further. Tenants need stronger protections against eviction and greater support to stay put. And the government needs to deliver more social housing, through more funding for stock buy back and for social and council house building programmes, to ensure people have a stable, secure, long-term place to live. "Scotland has the resources. The failure to combat homelessness is a choice that our politicians continue to make. It is time they took action and committed to solving the housing and homelessness crisis." A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "We have been clear about the pressures facing Glasgow and we remain in contact with both Governments about these pressures.' Paul McLennan, housing minister (Image: Together/NQ/BD) Housing minister Paul McLennan said: 'This year we have targeted funding of £40m to local authorities with sustained temporary accommodation pressures, taking our investment in affordable housing to £768m. In 2025-26 we are providing Glasgow City Council with over £1.68bn to fund local services, including homelessness services - an additional 5.5% compared to 2024-25. 'Night shelters do not provide a safe or dignified way for people at risk of rough sleeping to receive support and we are committed to phasing out this type of accommodation in Scotland. We have provided over £1.2m of funding since 2020 to support the delivery of rapid rehousing welcome centres as an alternative to night shelters in Glasgow and Edinburgh over winter. In 2024-25 we provided £87,141 to ensure additional supportive measures were in place to support people at risk of rough sleeping in Glasgow. 'We have also provided over £256,000 of personalised budget funding to third sector organisations across Scotland since 2020 so staff can provide people who are rough sleeping with support in a dignified and person-centred way.'
