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

Progress against actions to respond quickly and effectively whenever homelessness happens

18. Support local authorities with their efforts to reduce the use of unsuitable accommodation

19. Consult on options to legally enforce the temporary accommodation standards framework

20. Support local winter planning, including efforts by partners to end the use of night shelter and dormitory-style provision

21. Improve housing outcomes for people at the hard edges

22. Prevent homelessness for those with no recourse to public funds

23. Learn from recent initiatives and set out a broader range of accommodation options in crisis situations

24. Revise legislative arrangements for intentionality and amend intentionality definition to focus more closely on ‘deliberate manipulation’

• The Scottish Government is making over £15 billion available to councils in 2025-26 to deliver a range of services, including homelessness services.
• Local authorities are expected to comply with both the Unsuitable Accommodation Order and with the standards in the Scottish Government’s temporary accommodation standards framework until it is legally enforceable. We know, however, that the demand for homelessness services in some areas is making it difficult for councils to meet their statutory duties.
• As part of the next phase of work to ensure that temporary accommodation is of good quality and meets households’ needs, the Scottish Government published a consultation on the legal enforcement of the temporary accommodation standards framework on 22 October 2025. Responses to the consultation will inform next steps, including how the Scottish Housing Regulator will assess landlords’ performance on meeting the standards.
• The housing emergency action plan includes a range of actions to help reduce the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation such as hostels, hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation:
  • we are funding pilot projects in 2025-26, including private sector leasing schemes, where private landlords lease their properties to the council for use as suitable temporary accommodation;
  • we have doubled our investment in the acquisitions programme from £40 million to £80 million in 2025-26, with supported targeted at those councils with the greatest temporary accommodation pressures;
  • we will raise the standard of all rented accommodation by bringing Awaab’s Law into force, starting with tackling damp and mould, from March 2026.
• We continue to champion efforts to end the use of night shelter provision. In 2024-25, the Scottish Government provided funding of £144,504 to third sector partners towards the operation of a rapid rehousing welcome centre in Edinburgh and £87,141 to ensure supportive measures were in place to support people at risk of or experiencing rough sleeping in Glasgow.
  • During 2024-25, Bethany Christian Trust supported 618 people at the rapid rehousing welcome centre in Edinburgh. Outcomes were captured for 55 per cent of guests, 99 per cent of whom moved on to a positive destination.
  • Glasgow City Mission employed six housing settlement officers to work intensively with guests in temporary hotel and B&B accommodation in Glasgow, supporting 619 people. Glasgow City Mission also provided emergency hotel rooms which prevented 233 people from sleeping rough.
• The Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research at Heriot-Watt University published an article in the International Journal of Homelessness in August 2025, Beyond Shelters: Unpacking Global Lessons from Scotland's Journey Towards Housing Justice, setting out the lessons that can be drawn from Scotland’s bold approach to ending the use of shelters.
• Scottish Government officials meet regularly with representatives of homelessness organisations across Scotland to evaluate the extent of rough sleeping in the areas where it is concentrated. In 2024-25, we provided £74,000 of funding to third sector organisations in Dundee, Fife, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth and Kinross for ‘personalised budgets’ so that frontline staff could meet the immediate needs of people at risk of or experiencing rough sleeping.
• We recently announced an extra £100,000 to expand this scheme in 2025-26 and better support people at the hard edges of homelessness.
• We provide annual funding to Homeless Network Scotland to facilitate Fair Way Scotland^[1].
• The Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research at Heriot-Watt University is undertaking a three-year evaluation of Fair Way Scotland, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The final report is due to be published later this year. Over the first two years of operation, Fair Way partners have supported 1,973 people in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
• The Scottish Government and COSLA are working together to refresh the workplan for the joint ending destitution together strategy, which aims to prevent and mitigate destitution for people with no recourse to public funds.
• The Scottish Government amended the Housing (Scotland) Bill, now an Act, to ensure that no-one threatened with homelessness will face an intentionality test. We will consult on the use of the intentionality test in homelessness assessments before May 2026 and, subject to the outcome of the consultation, Scottish ministers may then take action to modify, repeal or replace the intentionality provisions.