Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to progressing a Fairer Funding approach for the third sector to improve the transparency and consistency of our funding relationships.

Improving grant-making practices across the Scottish Government is a significant undertaking and we are at the beginning stages of this process. The measures that we have prioritised to date – early notification of funding, increased multi-year agreements, improved relationship practices and grant conditions – do align with the SCVO’s principles. However, we have been clear that the implementation of Fairer Funding within the current financial context is challenging and that our ability to deliver on every aspect of SCVO’s ask is constrained.

I set out progress towards our priorities, the challenges that we have met and our next steps, in a letter to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee of 20 May and have committed to keep them updated as our work continues.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28339 on 10 July 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers.

Between 2020 and 2023 the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations worked in partnership with the Scottish Government to administer the Homelessness Prevention Fund.

The time-limited fund, which ended in December 2023, provided a total of £1.5 million to support the work of housing associations across the country to prevent homelessness for low-income families in Scotland.

We have not extended this particular scheme as the work required to end homelessness has evolved. In particular, the commitment to introduce new homelessness prevention duties points to the need for more targeted funding fully aligned with the aims of the legislation.

Transport Scotland has invested £86,956,343 on maintenance and improvement of the A83 between financial years 2016-17 and 2023-24. This figure is up to March 2024.

This is broken down in the following table.

I recently met with Housing Convenors across Scotland to discuss the challenges that have contributed to longer turnaround times for empty council properties, delays in reconnecting energy supplies was one of the key issues raised.

Although energy is a reserved matter, Scottish Ministers imminently intend to send a joint letter with COSLA to individual energy suppliers on the impacts delays in reconnecting utilities is having on void turnaround times. This will be followed by official level engagement with energy suppliers over the summer.

The declaration of a housing emergency asks all partners to play their part, therefore, I hope organisations in the energy sector heed this call to action and respond quickly and satisfactorily to the concerns local authorities have raised.

We will continue to work with local authorities and registered social landlords to help reduce turnaround times for empty homes and voids and will support efforts at a national level where we can to address this problem.

I welcome the work that local authorities already undertake in ensuring the data they share is accurate, allowing offers to homeless households can be made swiftly – but we also recognise that more can be done here to improve the accuracy of data provided. Data published by the Scottish Housing Regulator shows that 60% of registered social landlord lets to homeless households come through section 5 referrals, when a local authority requests that a registered social landlord provides the household with permanent accommodation. However, around 15% of offers to homeless households are declined due to the right information about the household’s needs not being provided. We want that situation to improve.

The Scottish Government produced the Code of Guidance on Homelessness to help guide local authorities in their duties to assist people who are threatened with or are experiencing homelessness. Local authorities must take account of this statutory guidance, which sets out how the legislation and related policies should be implemented, when making an assessment of the hosing support needs of the household. The Code of Guidance states that, to facilitate effective case management, local authorities should establish protocols and procedures for the sharing of information about people making homelessness applications between housing departments, social work, housing support providers and other relevant agencies. The protocols developed should set out the type of information to be shared and the stage at which this should be carried out.

In declaring a housing emergency, the Scottish Government expects action to be taken in response to the issues identified by organisations across the sector, which contributed to this situation. Local authorities have a key part to play in ensuring comprehensive and adequate data is passed to registered social landlords through the referral process to support the transition of a homeless household into a settled home, helping to ensure as little time as possible is spent in temporary accommodation.

As set out in the Minister for Housing’s statement to Parliament on 20 June, responding to the recently declared housing emergency, the Scottish Government recognise the importance of considering the impact of new regulation on the housing sector.

We have already taken action to reduce such impacts for example by rescheduling work on a new tenure neutral housing standard which we now intend to publish a public consultation on in 2025. We have also heard concerns from local authorities about the impact of introducing homelessness prevention duties at a time when councils are experiencing other pressures, and we are considering this carefully to ensure the implementation schedule balances the intended benefits with deliverability.

As with all new legislation being brought before the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government will be required to undertake a full range of impact assessments, including a Business Regulatory Impact Assessment - where careful consideration on the impact of business and wider investment is examined.

In wider work emerging from the New Deal for Business Group and Investor Panel, the Scottish Government will also bring coherence and focus to how the public sector works to attract investment at scale by convening policy, delivery and regulatory interests across the public sector to create a more ‘investor friendly’ environment and support the delivery of specific, priority investments.

The Scottish Government published our Infrastructure Investment Plan in 2021 which sets out our national infrastructure priorities for Scotland. The Plan recognises the important role that housing plays in developing resilient and sustainable places, supporting economic growth and meeting the diverse economic, social and environmental needs of urban, rural and island areas.

We will continue to work across the Scottish Government and with local and UK Government to respond to the Housing Emergency and to deliver on our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.

The Scottish Government provided local authorities with funding of £8 million per annum between 2019-24 to implement Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans (RRTPs). RRTPs set out each local authority’s five-year plan to transition to rapid rehousing, including through the delivery of Housing First.

In recognition of the positive impact of rapid rehousing for people experiencing homelessness and the challenging context in which RRTPs have been delivered, including a pandemic and cost of living crisis, the Scottish Government provided a one-year extension to this funding in 2024-25.

The Scottish Government evaluates the impact of RRTP funding via annual local authority monitoring returns. Future funding will be considered as part of the Scottish Government’s usual budget setting processes.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of investment in housing to underpin quality, supply and affordability in the private rented sector, and is very clear that continuing to attract private investment is a priority to maintain the vital supply of new homes for rent that our communities need. We want to see a fair, well-managed private rented sector in which investment in quality rented homes for tenants is both viable and welcome.

Given the diversity of rent conditions across Scotland, our Housing Bill allows flexibility for local circumstance to be the guiding factor in applying rent control measures. We recognize this needs to be balanced by certainty where possible.

We are considering the information shared by stakeholders on how to support investor confidence, as we look to ensure that the rent control measures in the Housing (Scotland) Bill support investment in a quality, affordable and thriving PRS.

Ministers will continue to listen to parliamentary and stakeholder views.