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Scottish landlords blame underfunding as social home completions fall by a quarter
Scottish housing associations have blamed underfunding from the government as social home completions fell by a quarter in 2024.
The latest statistics from the Scottish government showed that the social housing sector completed 4,772 homes between September 2023 and September 2024, down 26% from the previous year.
Excluding 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic impacted housebuilding, this was the lowest figure for social housing completions since 2017.
Starts of new social homes, meanwhile, remained relatively consistent with 2023 at 3,071. However, this was still the lowest figure for starts since 2013.
Callum Chomczuk, national director at Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, said the figures showed the impact of rising construction costs and “an underfunding of Scotland’s affordable housing supply programme”.
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Last year, the Scottish government’s affordable housebuilding programme was cut by £200m, or 26%, for 2024-25. However, it has been restored to 2024 levels for the next financial year (2025-26).
Mr Chomczuk said the latest Budget was “an important step in the right direction”, but “still means that next year we are spending less in real terms on affordable housing than we were in 2023-24”.
The Scottish government statistics showed a wider slump in housebuilding, with a 12% decrease in all sector starts and 10% decrease in completions between September 2023 and September 2024.
In the 12-month period, a total of 19,828 homes were completed and 14,768 were started. Excluding 2020, private sector completions were the lowest since 2018 and starts the lowest since 2013.
In terms of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, in the year to the end of September 2024 there were 6,682 approvals, 5,925 starts and 8,413 completions of affordable homes.
The numbers of completions and starts were down by 22% (-2,373 homes) and 8% (-514 homes) respectively compared with 2023. However, approvals increased by 9% (524) between 2023 and 2024.
The Scottish government has continued to affirm its target to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be for social rent and 10% will be in rural and island communities.
By September 2024, 24,382 affordable homes had been completed towards the target. These completions consist of 18,539 (76%) homes for social rent, 3,501 (14%) for affordable rent, and 2,342 (10%) for affordable home ownership.
The Scottish government also released new data on vacant council homes. There were 325,477 council homes in Scotland as of March 2024, of which 11,751 (3.6%) were vacant. However, this number includes homes that will be demolished or cannot be currently let as they require modernisation.
Meanwhile, in Scotland there are 21,606 second homes and 43,538 properties empty for more than six months. There was a 10% decrease in second homes in Scotland compared with 2023, the biggest annual fall in 10 years, largely due to the 100% council tax premium on second homes that came into effect in April 2024.
Scottish housing minister Paul McLennan said: “More than 135,000 affordable homes have been delivered since 2007, with more than 95,500 of those being for social rent. That is 47% more per head of population than England and 73% more than Wales.
“We will continue to build on that record by increasing the affordable housing budget by over £200m next year to £76m, but the only way to unlock that funding is for parliament to back the budget.
“We are continuing to deliver affordable homes in innovative ways and I have seen the difference our charitable bonds programme, which is a type of loan given to registered social landlords, has made to delivering homes in one development in Wallyford.”
Mr McLennan added that next year, the Scottish government will invest £2m into bringing more privately owned empty homes back into use, and work with partner organisations to identify how the planning system can help to provide solutions.
In July, Inside Housing investigated the impact of the cut to Scotland’s Affordable Housing Supply Programme and how social landlords were responding.
