Current status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 10 September 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to repurposing vacant listed buildings into housing.
The Scottish Government is committed to supporting local authorities and communities to tackle persistent vacant and empty town and city centre buildings.
Local authorities have responsibility for delivering local housing development and local regeneration. They are best placed to develop the right partnerships to deliver regeneration and to identify suitable sites and funding for regeneration activity.
This is supported through our regeneration investment programmes which are providing up to £52 million in resource and capital programmes for community-led regeneration across Scotland in 2026-27. This may be used to transform vacant empty buildings into homes. For example, previous investment is supporting the reuse of the B-listed Tureen Street School in Glasgow. This is a derelict, B-listed building will be repurposed, retaining the façade and renovating the site to build 42 new homes for social rent.
Local authorities may also choose to use Affordable Housing Supply Programme grant to convert empty properties into housing.
Additionally as part of ongoing work to support the establishment of More Homes Scotland, we are undertaking an exercise alongside local authorities to understand potential opportunities to unlock and accelerate affordable housing delivery on vacant and derelict land and in empty town and city centre buildings.