More homes

We are working to increase the number of homes across Scotland so that everyone has a good quality home that they can afford and that meets their needs.

We will spend over £3.3 billion to deliver 50,000 affordable homes, of which 35,000 will be for social rent, by March 2021. This builds on the achievement of exceeding our previous target to deliver 30,000 affordable homes by 2016.

Actions

We are working on developing a vision for how our homes and communities should look and feel in 2040. The Housing Beyond 2021 paper aims to help inform discussions on the future of housing.  In May 2019 we published our stakeholder engagement report in response to consultation which took place between September and November 2018.

Under the 'More Homes Scotland' approach, we are increasing the supply of homes through:

• the Housing and Planning Delivery Framework, which brings planning and housing requirements closer together, making them easier and quicker to take forward
• the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP)
• the Housing Infrastructure Fund
• the Rural and Islands Housing Funds
• the Building Scotland Fund (see specific housing criteria)
• the use of innovative financing models such as Build-to-Rent, as well as government guarantees and loans, which let us maximise funds available to build affordable housing
• bringing empty homes back into use
• providing a range of grants and loans

Related information:

• home buying, which includes schemes such as the Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) and Help to Buy (Scotland)
• social housing
• the Centre for Housing Market Analysis provides support to local authorities and others to aid the strategic planning of housing in Scotland
• offsite construction
• our Housing and Regeneration Programmes (HARP), a web-based system to store consistent and accurate information about our housing and regeneration programmes

Background

In 2016 we launched the More Homes Scotland approach. It involves:

• investing more public and private money in housing
• getting land ready for housing
• making sure we plan for new housing effectively

We published a More Homes Scotland progress update in March 2017. This was further updated in March 2018.

In 2015 we published a Joint Housing Delivery Plan for Scotland that sets out our priorities for the next five years and in 2011, we published Homes Fit for the 21st Century, which set out our housing vision and strategy for the decade to 2020.

Bills and legislation

• Housing (Scotland) Act 2006
• Housing (Scotland) Act 2001
• Local Government Finance (Unoccupied Properties etc.) (Scotland) Act 2012

Contact

Email: morehomes@gov.scot

Telephone: 0300 244 4000

Post:
Scottish Government
Housing and Social Justice Directorate
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ