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Scottish first minister vows to ‘carefully consider’ Grenfell recommendations and confirms £600m affordable homes spend
Scotland’s first minister said his administration will “carefully consider” the Grenfell Inquiry recommendations, and confirmed plans for a building safety levy and £600m expenditure to develop affordable homes.
Announcing his first Programme for Government today, John Swinney told Holyrood a “key aspect” of his plans would be to ensure people have a “safe and secure place to call home”.
His statement came just hours after the wide-ranging and damning final report into the Grenfell Tower fire was published, containing 58 recommendations.
Mr Swinney, who took over from Humza Yousaf in May, said: “The tragic Grenfell Tower fire emphasised how important building and fire safety is.
“Keeping residents and homeowners safe is our priority, and we are taking action to protect lives by ensuring the assessment and remediation of buildings with potentially unsafe cladding is carried out.
“We will also carefully consider all of the recommendations in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s report.”
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Shona Robison, Scotland’s finance secretary, yesterday announced £500m of cuts to balance the devolved administration’s books.
Among this was a £700,000 reduction in spending on cladding remediation.
However, a Scottish government spokesperson told Inside Housing there would be “no change” to its cladding remediation programme this financial year.
“The proposed saving of £700,000 represents a modest adjustment to the total resources made available to the programme, and is in line with revised in-year forecasts of anticipated expenditure,” a spokesperson said.
As part of the 2024 Programme for Government, ministers also committed to provide £100m to support the construction of around 2,800 mid-market rent homes across Scotland.
“This new funding commitment will grow to at least £500m through private investment from a variety of sources, operated by a fund manager to be appointed. This new approach builds on the success of our existing Mid-Market Rent Fund, operated by Thriving Investments, that will deliver more than 1,200 homes across Scotland,” the spokesperson said.
“The £100m investment is a long-term commitment over several years to make public funds go further to provide people with the homes they need, and will form part of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, which already supports the delivery of mid-market rent homes,” they added.
However, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) has warned that the plans fall short of what’s needed to tackle the country’s housing emergency.
Sally Thomas, chief executive of the SFHA, said: “With nearly 10,000 children growing up in temporary accommodation, and the number of homes started by housing associations at the lowest level since the 1980s, we must now see action on funding for affordable rented housing in the Scottish government budget in December.
“We know the Scottish government is facing deeply difficult financial constraints, but affordable rented housing is fundamental to all of the first minister’s priorities, and must be protected. At the SFHA, we are ready to work with government and other partners to achieve this.”
Mr Swinney also confirmed the Scottish government would push ahead with its plans for a building safety levy, similar to the one introduced in England by Michael Gove when he was the housing secretary.
Scotland’s devolved administration, which secured powers in April to introduce the levy, said it will provide “vital revenues” to support the cladding remediation programme.
Mr Swinney also revealed that the Scottish government remained committed to spending £600m on delivering affordable housing this financial year. The majority of this will be directed at boosting the supply of social housing, the administration said.
As part of this, up to £40m will be used to bring existing homes into affordable use through acquisitions and, “where appropriate”, bring long-term voids back into use.
A Heat in Buildings Bill will also be introduced, which Mr Swinney said would set a “long-term direction” on decarbonisation that is “deliverable and affordable for households and businesses”.
This bill will include provisions to “prohibit the use of certain direct emission heating systems after 2045 and to require certain properties to meet a minimum standard of energy efficiency”, the Scottish government said.
Mr Swinney also confirmed the government was pushing ahead with controversial plans for rent controls for the private rented sector.
Callum Chomczuk, Scotland national director at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “We are encouraged by the recognition of the priority for social and affordable housing in the Programme for Government and we welcome the announcement of new funding of £100m to support the development of mid-market rent housing. An additional 2,800 homes will play a key part in addressing our homelessness crisis.
“In addition, the acknowledgement that the rent control provisions in the housing bill must be amended so that the proposals retain investor confidence is a positive sign, and an issue the sector has been campaigning on since before the bill was introduced. While we await further details on whether that is applicable to individual landlords, institutional investors or both, we are encouraged by the Programme for Government announcement.”
