Fourth Scottish council declares housing emergency

“Despite this, Fife did not receive any of the £2m revenue funding for temporary accommodation announced by the Scottish government prior to December 2023.”

The council recently agreed a three-year plan to tackle homelessness, which highlighted the need for an estimated £67.3m to help the escalating number of families without permanent housing.

Ms Hamilton added: “We have written to the UK government ahead of their Budget, we have written to the Scottish government, and I have met with the housing minister to highlight that we are in a difficult situation in Fife and call upon them for assistance.

“Despite giving ourselves the best chance, we now have no choice but to declare that we are in housing emergency. The pressure on our services is relentless.”

Ms Hamilton explained that the biggest contributor to solving homelessness was to continue to build new social housing. However, she said that the Scottish government had cut the support for the council’s affordable housing programme by 26%.

She said: “This is extremely concerning, and will have a negative impact on the number of new affordable houses the council and the Fife Housing Association Alliance can provide to support homelessness needs.”

The council has built 7,400 social homes since 2012 and has committed to building a further 1,250 council houses over the next five years. “Our ability to keep building is now compromised,” Ms Hamilton added.

Sally Thomas, chief executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, said: “It’s unlikely that Fife will be the final local authority to make this declaration. Until the Scottish government commits to sufficient funding for the affordable, secure, rented homes Scotland needs, then its long-term strategy for housing will continue to unravel. 

“During the Scottish government’s Budget process, the deputy first minister repeatedly said any additional funds that became available would go to affordable rented housing. Now that Scotland is to receive around £295m of consequential funding from the UK government Spring Budget, we are calling on [finance secretary] Shona Robison to keep her word.”

Scottish housing minister Paul McLennan said: “I regularly engage with Fife Council to find solutions to the housing pressures they are facing, including making sure they work with the Empty Homes Partnership to bring more empty properties back into use to increase housing stock.

“The UK government failed to inflation-proof their capital Budget and this has resulted in nearly a 10% real-terms cut in our UK capital funding between 2023-24 and 2027-28.

“Likewise, our Financial Transactions budget – key to delivering affordable housing – has been cut by 62%. This is on top of the disastrous impact Brexit has had on construction supply chain issues, labour shortages and the inflationary pressures driven by UK government financial mismanagement.

“We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and to support that, we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026-27 to 2024, which will concentrate on deliverability.”

Earlier this month, the Chartered Institute of Housing declared a housing emergency across Scotland, warning that the government’s homelessness plans are at risk without a strategy for the private rented sector.

In February, an Inside Housing investigation found that last financial year, Scottish councils spent over £160m on temporary accommodation for homeless people – a rise of 50% in only three years.

Several English councils have also declared a housing emergency in recent months, including Eastbourne Borough Council and Crawley Borough Council.