In conversation with Aileen Campbell: Housing to 2040 and the future of housing policy in Scotland
Last week the Scottish government published its long-awaited ‘Housing to 2040’ strategy, which sets out the government’s vision for housing over the next 20 years. Lucie Heath talks to Aileen Campbell, cabinet secretary for communities and local government, about the plans
The short-term thinking of politicians is a common complaint from people working in the housing sector in all parts of the UK. Now the Scottish government is attempting to tackle this issue by launching Housing to 2040, its 20-year strategy for housing that was finally published last week.
“I think a lot of the time you hear from housing about that need for longer-term certainty,” Aileen Campbell, Scottish cabinet secretary for communities and local government, tells Inside Housing. “So there was an opportunity, a real eagerness, I think, across the sector to think, well, how do we try to effectively solve some of the challenges that are in the housing system – and to do so in a timeframe that enables us to make the big substantial changes that we need to see?”
The long-awaited strategy, which was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, includes a number of headline-grabbing policies, such as a commitment to build 100,000 affordable homes over the next decade and for all homes developed by councils and registered social landlords (RSLs) to emit net zero carbon by 2026.
Beyond the headlines, the strategy is far-reaching and includes visions for the private rented sector, homeownership, placemaking and the incorporation of a new right to adequate housing.
Inside Housing dives into the proposals and finds out more from Ms Campbell about how the government’s vision will translate into practice.
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More homes at the heart of great places
Housing to 2040 is split into four sections, the first of which largely covers the supply of new homes.
At the forefront of these plans is a commitment to deliver 100,000 affordable homes in the 10 years up until 2032, of which at least 70% will be for social rent.
This builds on the commitment made by the Scottish government to build 50,000 affordable homes over the current parliamentary term, which will end this year. This target was missed, which the Scottish government has said was a result of the pandemic. It now expects to complete the remainder of the 50,000 homes in 2021/22 before moving on to its next 10-year target.
Ms Campbell says that to meet the target, the Scottish government will “continue to work with housing associations, with local authorities, in the way that we have” but will also “explore other ways in which we can deliver affordable housing”.
Housing to 2040 places an emphasis on attracting private investment into the housing sector and the government has said that the newly launched Scottish National Investment Bank will be “a key partner in attracting private investment and exploring alternative financing models for housing”.
“How do we try to effectively solve some of the challenges that are in the housing system – and to do so in a timeframe that enables us to make the big substantial changes that we need to see?”
Of course, grants will still play an important role in ensuring the delivery of affordable housing. A number of Scottish housing bodies, including the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, have previously warned the government that grant rates must rise due to the higher standards social landlords are required to meet when building new homes.
Has the Scottish government factored higher grant rates into its plan?
Ms Campbell says that her department “needs to continue to work with the sector around reviewing whether there’s any adjustments required for the current subsidy benchmark levels”. She adds that the government plans to “make sure that we can strike the right balance between making the necessary and important changes, alongside making sure that rent is maintained to be at an affordable level”.
In addition to the volume of new supply, the government has said it is also keen to ensure that new homes are built in the right places.
Policies to support this ambition include a ‘place-based investment programme’ worth £325m over five years, alongside the implementation of the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), which is currently being drafted and will provide a new spatial strategy for Scotland. NPF4 will focus heavily on the concept of the 20-minute neighbourhood, which is the idea that residents should be able to meet their daily needs without having to travel far, for example to out-of-town shops.
Affordability and choice
The next section of Housing to 2040 deals with making sure Scottish residents have access to a home that is affordable, while also having choices about where they live.
At the heart of this sits a plan to ensure that the right to an adequate home is enshrined in Scottish law, something that the Scottish housing sector has long been campaigning for.
The government has said that to achieve this, it will undertake “a comprehensive audit” of its housing and homelessness legislation to “identify where there are any gaps” and “where remedies for violations for housing rights can be strengthened”.
When asked what this might look like in practice, Ms Campbell (pictured below) emphasises that it is the government’s goal to ensure “that people do have a choice about where they want to live” and that individuals are not “restricted unnecessarily” because of their means.
Ending homelessness will be key to meeting the government’s goal of ensuring everyone in Scotland has the right to an adequate home.
The Scottish government has a good track record of implementing legislation that gives strong rights to homeless people. For example, Scotland does not use the concept of ‘priority need’, meaning that, unlike in other parts of the UK, all homeless people are entitled to temporary accommodation.
However, the implementation of these rights has been patchy. Before the pandemic, for example, the Scottish Housing Regulator launched an investigation into Glasgow City Council after it repeatedly failed to meet its duties towards homeless people.
When asked whether there is more the Scottish government needs to do to ensure that people’s rights can be realised in practice, Ms Campbell insists that it has “a strong record of tackling homelessness with investment, with action and with legislative underpinning as well”.
Ms Campbell reiterates the government’s commitment towards scaling up Housing First, a model whereby rough sleepers are offered a permanent home with wrap-around support rather than spending long periods of time living in temporary accommodation. Housing to 2040 states that Housing First will “be the default option for people with multiple and complex needs”.
As part of this section, the government has also committed to developing a new ‘rented sector strategy’, parts of which will be implemented via a new Housing Bill early in the next parliament.
This includes a commitment to reforming the government’s ‘rent pressure zone’ legislation, which allows councils to apply to have private rents restricted in their area. There are currently no rent pressure zones in Scotland and the policy has previously been criticised as ineffective.
In stark opposition to the UK government, Housing to 2040 also sets out the ambition to ensure that homeownership is “not the only way to achieve security”, in a move that it says will bring Scotland in line with European countries where “homeownership has not been the default tenure of choice”.
While the government has said it will still provide some support for first-time buyers, its goal is to “shift the focus to those who are either purchasing high-standard new build homes or purchasing an existing home with the intention to renovate or adapt it to improve its energy efficiency”.
Part of achieving this goal will include the complete phasing-out of Help to Buy.
Affordable warmth and zero-emissions homes
This section of the Housing to 2040 plan deals with housing’s role in meeting the Scottish government’s target to become carbon neutral by 2045.
As outlined in the strategy, the social housing sector will be expected “to lead by example”, meaning that all new homes delivered by RSLs and local authorities will need to be “zero emissions homes by 2026”. Meanwhile all new buildings that receive planning consent in Scotland from 2024 will be required to use zero direct emissions heating.
The government also plans to develop a “zero emissions new build affordable strategy” this year, which will focus on greater use of offsite construction and “the introduction of a new business model for the delivery of affordable homes based on collaborative procurement”.
When it comes to existing social homes, the government has said it will “seek the agreement of the social housing sector” to bring forward the review of the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing 2 (EESSH2) to 2023.
“We’ve set the direction within Housing to 2040. We’ve set all the ambitions that we have. Now there will be a need to think through: how do we make that happen in practice?”
Currently under EESSH2, all homes in the social sector will be expected to achieve a minimum of Energy Performance Certificate band B by 2032, but the government said that the purpose of the review will be “strengthening and realigning the standard with net zero requirements so that social housing leads the transition to zero emissions buildings”.
A ‘zero-emissions social housing taskforce’ will also be established this year to “advise on requirements in social housing to meet net zero targets and, longer term, inform what is required in the private rented and owner-occupier sectors”.
There is no doubt that achieving Scotland’s net zero targets is going to cost the housing sector a lot of money. Ms Campbell acknowledges that more work needs to be done to figure out how this will be funded in practice.
“We’ve set out that this will require investment and that we need to be creative and innovative on what that investment would look like and how it can be made and how some of that might be public and some of that might be private,” she says.
“We’ve set the direction within Housing to 2040. We’ve set all the ambitions that we have. Now there will be a need to think through: how do we make that happen in practice at the scale and pace that we need to see it happening? But some of this won’t happen overnight and it will require careful planning going forward.”
Improving the quality of all homes
The final section of Housing to 2040 deals with housing quality. To improve the quality of housing across all tenures, the government plans to introduce a new housing standard that will cover all homes regardless of tenure.
The government has said the standard will “move beyond traditional models for fitness for human habitation to a new model that meets expectations for housing as a human right and delivers homes that underpin health and wellbeing”.
It aims to publish a draft standard in 2023 and introduce legislation in 2024/25.
In its bid to improve quality, the government will also attempt to enhance the “digital connectivity” of households in Scotland. From 2021/22, all new build social rented homes delivered through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme will be required to be “digitally enabled”, while the government has said it will also work with social housing providers to deliver internet services to all tenants.
Finally, the government has said it will take action to support those with long-term conditions and disabilities, for example by introducing a new focus on “increasing the supply of accessible and adapted homes and improving choice”.
“I think what COVID did for me was it amplified all the things that we knew made housing so important”
Overall there is a lot for Scotland’s social housing sector to be excited about in the government’s Housing to 2040 document. However, as is often the case with policy documents as wide ranging as this, crucial details remain to be added and many in the sector will be left wondering how these bold ambitions will be funded.
What is clear from this document is that housing still remains a top priority for the Scottish government, a priority that Ms Campbell insists has only been strengthened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What COVID has shone a spotlight on is the inequality that persists in Scotland and across the UK despite a lot of good efforts. It’s been traumatic, it’s been a harsh experience for everybody, we’ve been telling people to stay at home and that has been far easier if you’ve got a safe, warm, secure home… so I think what COVID did for me was it amplified all the things that we knew made housing so important,” she says.
By the time 2040 comes around COVID-19 will, hopefully, feel like a distant memory. With this document, the Scottish government has laid out plans to ensure the lessons of the pandemic are enshrined in policy for decades to come. It is now up to them to ensure that these ambitions are translated into reality.
