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SNP manifesto calls for housing benefit to be devolved to expand social housing delivery
The Scottish National Party (SNP) will push for the UK government to devolve housing benefits to expand the delivery of social housing, according to its general election manifesto.
Alongside more devolution, the SNP said its MPs at Westminster would urge ministers to change their approach to housing asylum seekers and restore cuts to the Scottish government’s budget.
The party believes that devolving both housing benefit and Local Housing Allowance will “allow the Scottish government to take an innovative approach to tackle child poverty, expand the delivery of social housing and to help fund and encourage investment in housebuilding”.
SNP MPs at Westminster will also push for an annual uplift of Local Housing Allowance, while “ensuring rental costs are taken into account”. A four-year Local Housing Allowance freeze ended in April, but a new freeze is set to start in April 2025.
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The SNP said it would urge the UK government to tackle the nationwide housing emergency declared by the Scottish government in May.
According to the manifesto, this emergency was caused by “decades of Westminster underinvestment, a hard Brexit and a £1.3bn cut to the Scottish government’s capital budget from the UK government”.
Earlier this month, Scottish housing minister Paul McLennan blamed this capital budget cut for the Scottish government’s decision to slash its social housebuilding programme by nearly £200m in 2024-25.
The UK government “must restore the cut to our capital budget”, the manifesto added.
The document also called for the UK government to scrap the bedroom tax, which “punishes people claiming Universal Credit or housing benefit if they have a spare room in their rented council or housing association home”.
SNP MPs will ask for “a single, flexible fuel poverty scheme” in Scotland that combines the existing Warm Home Discount and Energy Company Obligation and “better reflects our definition of fuel poverty”.
They will also demand that the UK government grant asylum seekers the right to work and “fundamentally change their approach to housing asylum seekers, ensuring accommodation is safe, suitable and dignified”.
Finally, the SNP manifesto called on the UK government to scrap its fiscal rules and introduce new ones to allow more investment in infrastructure and services.
“We have already invested in key infrastructure projects like the Borders Railway and the Queensferry Crossing and delivered over 128,000 affordable homes, but without a change in approach to fiscal rules we are reaching the limits of what can be done,” it said.
The SNP currently runs the devolved government in a minority administration, with the next Scottish parliament election taking place no later than 2026.
In June, the housing sector assembled in Glasgow for the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations’ annual conference after a pretty bruising 12 months. Inside Housing has the key talking points here.
