Housing companies contracted to deliver social sector properties: FOI release

Information requested

a) Full details of all of the housing companies that the Government have contracted to deliver any social sector properties whether that be new builds, repossession of empty homes and/or otherwise, in the last three years.

b) The total amount of Government funding that went to each of these companies in the last three years – broken down by the amount that went to each company.

Response

I enclose a copy of the information (ANNEX A) which we clarified that we could provide on 24 April 2019. The attached spreadsheet contains the details of affordable housing units approved between 1 April 2016 and 31 December 2018 (the date of the latest published Official Housing Statistics) through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) where we have details of the main contractor. The Scottish Government, for the majority of homes delivered, does not contract directly with these organisations to deliver affordable housing as we provide funding to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and Local Authorities (LAs) who then enter into contracts with developers and housebuilders.

It should be noted that the attached list does not cover all affordable units approved through the AHSP in that time as contractor information is not mandatory, we can only provide it for the instances where it has been provided to us as part of the funding application process.

It should also be noted that the AHSP provides funding for delivery of affordable housing which includes social rented homes, homes for mid-market rent and low cost home ownership.

We are unable to provide information on the funding received by those contractors because, as mentioned above, we do not contract directly with them – Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and Local Authorities (LAs) are the bodies entering into the contract. Scottish Government funding only covers a proportion of the cost of an affordable housing project and can be spread over a number of years.

Whilst our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide information on projects approved between 1 January 2019 and 31 March 2019 because an exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies as we intend to publish approvals made within that period in June which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned.

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FOI-19-00844 Annex A

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4 page PDF

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