Ministers must bring forward plan to tackle housing emergency, MSPs say

The Scottish Government must develop a national plan to tackle the housing emergency, MSPs have said.

Holyrood’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee said such a plan must include clear milestones and outcomes to ensure progress is made on tackling the crisis.

It comes one year after ministers declared a national housing emergency, recognising a shortage of homes and pressure on homelessness services.

Social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said that in the last year the government had invested in affordable housing and the number of households in temporary accommodation had reduced in 12 council areas.

The housing committee’s call is one of ten recommendations included in its latest report following a year-long inquiry.

Other recommendations include urging ministers to complete a review of the affordable housebuilding target, create an implementation plan for the Housing to 2040 strategy, and consider opportunities for increasing social investment in housing.

Convener Ariane Burgess said the level of homelessness “remains dangerously high” and there was a “systemic failure” among councils to meet statutory duties.

She said: “During this inquiry, we heard that the housing emergency was years, even decades, in the making and was therefore both predictable and preventable.

“We can’t afford to be complacent. The Scottish Government must work with the wider housing sector to take urgent collective action to address the emergency and ensure all its departments and policies are having a measurable, clear and positive impact.”

Ministers are expected to respond to the committee’s report within the next two months.

Marking the year since parliament voted to declare the housing emergency, Somerville said: “As a result of our actions, an estimated more than 2,600 households with children have been helped into affordable housing in the year up to December 2024.

“We have delivered 136,000 affordable homes, with 97,000 of those for social rent, between 2007 and the end of December 2024.

“We are also working to identify and turn around empty private and social homes and encouraging more funding streams into the sector through our housing investment taskforce.

“It is encouraging that we are seeing a reduction in families in temporary accommodation in some local authority areas. However, we know there is more to do which is why we have increased the affordable housing budget for this financial year by £200m to £768mn.

“In the longer term we will also introduce homelessness prevention measures and a system of long-term rent controls in our Housing Bill.”