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Scottish Government announces funding for affordable housing
The Scottish Government has announced how it will allocate £1.75bn of funding for affordable housing between councils, as it seeks to hit its target of 50,000 affordable homes by 2021.
The £1.75bn of funding allocated today will cover the next three years, with £532m available in 2018/19, £591m in 2019/20 and £630m in 2020/21. This is the first time the Scottish Government has allocated affordable housing funding three years in advance.
The cash is first allocated to local authorities, which can then use it to develop themselves or allocate it to housing providers and builders in their area.
The total size of the programme is £3bn over five years and will fund social rented, affordable rented and affordable home ownership units. The government has committed to building at least 35,000 social rented homes by 2021 as part of its 50,000 affordable homes target. The five councils with the largest allocations are Glasgow City, Highland, Edinburgh City, North Lanarkshire and Fife.
The full list of allocations is available here.
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Kevin Stewart, housing minister in the Scottish Government, said: “Today’s announcement will provide the certainty that local authorities and the sector need to accelerate this progress and ensure we keep up this momentum to reach our goal of 50,000 new affordable homes by 2021.”
The announcement comes as government figures published today show 6,495 social rented homes were approved in Scotland in 2016/17, a 34.2% increase since last year and the highest figure since 2010.
The government said 10,276 affordable homes of all tenures, including home ownership, were approved in 2016/17, a 29% increase and also the highest number since 2010.
Across all tenures completions are at their highest level in six years, with 16,498 homes built in the calendar year for 2016. This remains below pre-recession levels when close to 25,000 homes were being built each year.
“Today’s announcement will provide the certainty that local authorities and the sector need," Kevin Stewart
Annie Mauger, executive director for CIH Scotland, said: “A 29% rise in the number of approvals for affordable housing over the year ending March 2017 is to be welcomed, particularly when we consider the Scottish Government’s ambitious target to deliver 50,000 new affordable homes by the end of the current Scottish Parliamentary term in 2021.
“There are always challenges in building capacity to deliver when significant investment is forthcoming. Be it in terms of land supply, planning policy or finance and investment, we are bound to encounter obstacles on the road to delivering that commitment in what continues to be a challenging economic environment.”
