Ending homelessness together: annual report to the Scottish Parliament, December 2025

Progress against actions to prioritise settled homes for all

12. Take forward work on the right to adequate housing

13. Complete the delivery of 110,000 affordable homes

14. Encourage the housing sector to bring more empty homes back into use and support local authorities to develop their empty homes services and private rented sector access schemes

15. Reduce the use of temporary accommodation

16. Roll out housing first in Scotland and consider the role of supported housing

17. Maximise housing options for people

• Scottish ministers have committed to introducing a human rights bill in the first year of the next parliamentary session, subject to the outcome of the 2026 Scottish parliamentary election. The bill will seek to incorporate economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to adequate housing, into Scots law within the limits of devolved competence. A discussion paper setting out the Scottish Government’s current thinking on the bill was published on 1 July and will be used to test and refine proposals ahead of decisions to legislate.
• The latest quarterly affordable housing supply programme statistics were published in September 2025 and show that by June 2025, 29,680 homes have been delivered towards the 110,000 affordable homes target, of which 22,910 (77 per cent) are homes for social rent.
• The Scottish Government has committed £2 million in 2025-26 to support work by the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SEHP) to bring empty homes back into use. SEHP is supporting local authorities to expand their empty homes services, providing more capacity for outreach work with private homeowners. The investment is also funding third sector organisations to acquire and return homes to use and enabling the creation of a new compulsory purchase hub to support local authorities to use these powers. In its latest impact report, the SEHP reported that 2,066 properties were brought back to use in 2024-25. Nearly 13,000 homes have been brought back into use since the partnership was formed.
• Many Scottish local authorities operate rent deposit guarantee schemes to facilitate access to the private rented sector (PRS) for homeless households. Homelessness charity Crisis maintains a database of 29 schemes in Scotland that help people overcome barriers to accessing accommodation in the PRS.
• The Scottish Government is investing an extra £2 million in DHPs over 2025-26 and 2026-27 as part of its housing emergency action plan. This funding will enable local authorities to support households to find settled homes in the private rented sector. A further £1 million investment in DHPs in 2025-26 will help eligible households with other housing-related financial hardship.
• Our homelessness statistics 2024-25 show that, compared to last year, the number of households in temporary accommodation (17,240) increased by 6 per cent and the number of children in temporary accommodation (10,180) decreased by 1.7 per cent. There was a small decrease (1 per cent) in homelessness applications in 2024-25. While figures remain too high, they suggest that the housing system can recover with continued investment.
• In 2025-26, we are investing £808 million in the affordable housing supply programme – an increase of £251 million when compared to the 2024-25 budget. This includes £80 million for councils to acquire family homes now to relieve homelessness pressures. Four-fifths of the acquisition funding is targeted at areas with the greatest temporary accommodation challenges.
• We have made a new commitment to invest up to £4.9 billion over the next four years to deliver around 36,000 affordable homes by 2029-30.
• The Scottish Government is currently consulting on proposals to modernise the law on compulsory purchase in Scotland, to make the system simpler, more streamlined and fairer for all parties. Compulsory purchase is a powerful tool which can support a wide range of projects, including bringing empty properties back into use and accelerating the delivery of new homes.
• The Cabinet Secretary for Housing and COSLA’s Community Wellbeing Spokesperson wrote to local authorities in October 2025 asking them to contact every household with children in good quality temporary accommodation to explore if the property is suitable for conversion into the family’s permanent home. The letter included a link to the good practice note on converting temporary accommodation produced by the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers.
• Overall, social landlords allocated 46 per cent of homes to homeless households in 2024-25 (up from 44 per cent in 2023-24).
  • Local authorities increased the proportion of lets to homeless households from 49 per cent to 50 per cent.
  • Registered social landlords increased the proportion of lets to homeless households from 39 per cent to 42 per cent.
• Our homelessness statistics 2024-25 show that 82 per cent of unintentionally homeless households (24,033) secured settled accommodation in 2024-25.
• Investment in rapid rehousing and housing first reduces the need for many forms of temporary accommodation. As part of the housing emergency action plan, we are investing a further £4 million in 2025-26 to expand housing first schemes in Scotland. The plan includes a commitment to provide a further £8 million of rapid rehousing transition plan funding in 2026-27.
• That means that by end March 2027, the Scottish Government will have allocated £84.5 million to local authorities since 2018-19 to assist them with the transition to rapid rehousing and the rollout of housing first.
• The Scottish Government’s latest housing first monitoring report estimated that by 31 March 2025, 2,154 people with the hardest experiences of homelessness had received keys to settled homes, and that 83 per cent of people were still in their housing first tenancies 12 months after entry.
• Homeless Network Scotland published its latest Housing First Annual Check-Up in October 2025. A survey of people with housing first tenancies found that housing first support was working well for 89 per cent of respondents.
• The Scottish Government is considering the recommendations of the supported housing task and finish group and we aim to respond in early 2026.
• Our new homelessness prevention legislation aims to give people at risk of homelessness maximal housing options, including remaining in their current accommodation, renting in the social or private sector or considering other settled forms of housing.