Scotland has a housing emergency with record levels of homelessness. There’s not enough affordable homes, of the right type. Lack of supply means house prices and private rents have gone through the roof. For the past 40 years governments of all types have favoured a privatised housing system.
We sold off council homes and didn’t replace them and left housing to the market. New social housebuilding was slashed in the 1970s and almost ground to a halt in the following decades.
We urgently need social homes to replace the thousands sold off under Right to Buy. While social housebuilding in Scotland has outstripped the rest of the UK, it’s not enough and new starts are falling.
Councils spend £160m per year on record levels of temporary accommodation. Investing in social housing will save money and end misery and combat child poverty. It will alleviate the social care crisis, which is connected. With an ageing population we must improve the join-up between housing and social care.