Charity slams Scottish Government as social housing completion rates plummet

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A charity has accused the Scottish Government of deliberately neglecting social housing after the number of local authority new builds completed dropped by 23 per cent in a year.Shelter Scotland said the Scottish Government has its housing priorities “badly wrong”.The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) said the lack of social housing in Scotland should come as a “wake-up call”.New statistics showed there were 23,346 all-sector new build homes completed in Scotland in the year to end June 2023.This is an increase of seven per cent when compared with the previous year, and the highest annual figure to the end June since 2008.There was a nine per cent increase in private-led new build completions, and housing association new builds increased by 18 per cent.But local authority new build completions dropped by 23 per cent.

This was 589 homes.The number of new builds being started decreased by 12 per cent across all sectors. This was the lowest annual figure since 2016.Private-led new build starts decreased by seven per cent, and housing association new build starts dropped by 21 per cent.Local authority new build starts decreased by 32 per cent, with 656 homes in total.Shelter has warned that if ministers fail to speed up the delivery of more social housing, the country’s housing crisis will worsen.The charity said the drop in new social homes will lead to fewer homes being completed in the coming years.Shelter Scotland director Alison Watson said: “The snail’s pace of delivery demonstrates clearly that the Scottish Government has got its priorities badly wrong and is neglecting social housing.“No minister can claim ignorance of what that means; it means more children with nowhere to call home, it means more