Charity wants the Scottish Government to build 30,000 affordable rented homes by 2012

On the 10th July the BBC reported the publication of Shelter's Building Pressure Report - the report marks the start of a campaign by the charity to secure a commitment from the Scottish Government to build 30,000 affordable rented homes by 2012. This is the date set by the government for ensuring all homeless people have the right to permanent accommodation. The BBC article reported:



"The number of council and housing association homes for rent is at its lowest for 50 years, according to Shelter Scotland.


The charity has warned of a "growing chasm between the number of homes needed and the number available".


The Building Pressure report said there were 142,000 households on the waiting list for council homes.


The housing and homelessness charity said the right to buy scheme was partly to blame for the shortage.


Its report said the number of social homes for rent last year was at its lowest level since 1959.



In 2001, there were 3.9 people on council waiting lists for every let.



By 2008, this had risen to 6.6 people. The charity said that on current rates it would take almost seven years to find a house for everyone already on housing waiting lists.


The number of people in temporary accommodation had increased by 135% between 2001 and 2008.


In real terms, Shelter Scotland said this meant at least 17,000 people, including 7,000 children, were in temporary housing - enough to fill Tynecastle Stadium in Edinburgh.



The figure had dropped to 599,000 in 2008, which represented an 18% fall since 1998.


The report said that 135,000 homes had been sold through right to buy over the previous decade."



Back in April 2008, in their response to the Government's consultation on Housing Planning Policy (SPP3 Planning for Housing) the charity wrote:



Shelter welcomes the Scottish Government’s ambition to build more homes. However, we question an assumption that increasing building across the board will increase the proportion of affordable housing that is built. It is not clear to what extent simply increasing overall supply will lead to a reduction in house prices.

While there is a good case for ensuring that more houses are built across all tenures, the Scottish Government priority should be to ensure that a minimum of 30,000 affordable homes for rent are built over the next three years. The statutory commitment that all homeless people should be entitled to a home by 2012 adds extra urgency to the case for additional affordable homes.

Changes to the planning system to encourage a renewed focus on development are timely. Shelter welcomes the elevation of quotas for affordable housing in new developments, contained in Planning Advice Note 74, into Scottish Planning Policy.

And in another section of their response they advised:

By following the Scottish Housing Need and Demand Assessment Guidance and planning for need on a cross-regional basis, without a clear sense of locally where the houses need to be built, we are in danger of failing to meet housing need and exacerbating the problems people face in finding homes where they need to live.

http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/49720/SPP3Consultation_Response_1.pdf