The Scottish government have announced that, since the start of the last parliament, over 50,000 affordable homes have been delivered, helping achieve levelling up goals.
Affordable housing is a crucial part of the levelling up plans that all levels of government in the UK are focusing on. With the aim behind the initiative being to reduce levels of regional inequality and improve the standard of living for those in the most deprived areas of the country, it is important that those who are reliant on affordable or social housing are provided with warmth and safety.
Despite challenges faced by the Scottish government, including the lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, they hit their target of 50,000 homes being built during March 2022. Now that they have achieved their goal, they are moving onto their next aim of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. 70% of these will be made available for social rent, and 10% will be in rural and island communities.
Shona Robison, Housing Secretary, said:
“The pandemic showed the value of a good quality home, but it also threw up significant challenges for all those involved in delivering affordable housing over the past two years. I am very pleased that despite that we have reached out 50,000 target and that since 2007 we have delivered 111,750 affordable homes, with over 78,000 of these for social rent.
We have now started progress towards our next target of delivering 111,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which 70% will be for social rent and 10% in remote, rural, and island communities, as part of our ambition to ensure everyone has a warm, safe, affordable place to call home.
Scotland has led the way across the UK with the delivery of affordable homes, but this is just part of our mission to deliver a fairer housing sector. Our Housing to 2040 route map is key to this mission, with priorities including action to tackle high rents in the private sector, improve standards and make homes easier to heat.”
The statistics that were published alongside the Scottish government’s announcement of this achievement show that 9,757 affordable homes were delivered in 2021-2022, which is the highest figure in one single financial year since 2000-2001. In comparison with England and Wales, Scotland have delivered more affordable homes, with 62% more per head of population than England, and 71% more in comparison to Wales.
