Affordable homes grants, loans and bonds data: FOI release

Information requested

1) A table of all grants, loans and bonds issued by or on behalf of the Scottish Government for the purposes of building affordable homes. Please provide this including the amount of money paid out in the last 6 financial years, to whom they were paid and what repayments are due and when for each of these. Where they were for grants please indicate what the conditions of such grants were. This should include money paid to the likes of Allia Social Impact Investments based in Cambridge who have been paid more than £400 million in the past 6 years.

2) With regards to moneys paid out to Allia Social Impacts Investments, what is the reason for using this charitable organisation rather than managing the funding directly as many of the recipients of money from Allia also appear to be receiving grants and loans directly from the Scottish Government.

3)The details of the number of homes completed by year which were subsidised or paid for by the grants, bonds, loans from the Scottish Government and whether the Scottish Government holds any charge over any of the value of these homes.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing all the information requested in Question 1 and Question 3 would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Affordable Housing Supply Programme funding is across 32 local authorities and is awarded to over 150 developing Registered Social Landlords, other eligible organisations and individuals annually. To collate the information you have requested would require searching over 5,000 individual project records.

Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, if your central query is in relation to Charitable Bonds funding, you may wish to specify that. We have, however, provided an answer to all of your questions.

Question 1:

It is estimated that the cost of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested in relation to all grants loans and bonds paid out in the last 6 financial years for the purposes of building affordable housing would exceed the £600 upper cost limit. We are, however, able to provide the following information.

The Affordable Housing Supply Programme supports a range of mechanisms including new build, rehabilitation and acquisitions.

We publish annual out-turn reports that can be accessed here: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot. It may also be helpful to know that we publish details on the number of approvals, starts and completions on a quarterly basis and these are available at Housing statistics - gov.scot.

Approvals for the Rural & Islands Housing Fund are published here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/rural-housing-projects-list-of-approvals/

We would highlight that differing conditions can be attached to grant offers depending on the types of project being funded, and that these conditions can be adjusted over time. An example of the conditions attached to offers of grant issued to Registered Social Landlords at tender stage to deliver new build affordable housing projects (which were introduced in late October 2024) is included with this release. We would note grant is not paid out until evidence of certified works is provided.

Noting your specific request in relation to Allia Social Impact Investments (Allia SII), the Scottish Government has invested £412m in bonds issued by Allia SII to Registered Social Landlords in the last 6 financial years for the purpose of delivering new affordable housing.

Also included with this release is an example of the conditions attached to Charitable Bond donation offers during financial year 2024-25.

Question 2:

Allia C&C (a social-enterprise finance intermediary in the Allia Group that is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority), was appointed to deliver the Scottish Government’s current Charitable Bond programme (which runs from 2022 to 2026) through an open procurement process.

Outsourcing the management of the loan portfolio, borrower credit assessment and programme administration to a Financial Conduct Authority registered contractor with the skills and IT platform required to manage the loan book effectively, requires significantly less Scottish Government staffing time allocated to the Charitable Bonds programme.

Allia C&C receives arrangement fees from the Registered Social Landlord borrowers under the programme, which means there is no direct cost to the Scottish Government.

Question 3:

As with Question 1, it is estimated that the cost of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested in relation to the number of homes completed by year which were subsidised or paid for by the grants, bonds, loans from the Scottish Government would exceed the £600 upper cost limit on the basis that it would require interrogation of the same information and is therefore interconnected.

As above, some of the information you have requested will be available in the Affordable Housing Supply programme annual out-turn reports, which can be accessed here: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot

Where a home was subsidised or paid for by the grants, bonds, loans from the Scottish Government, the Scottish Government holds no charge over any values of these homes.

In addition to grants, bonds and loans the Scottish Government also provides support to help individuals to buy a new home through shared equity schemes. The Scottish Government will hold a charge over these properties under a shared equity agreement.

More information on shared ownership is published here: Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) - Homeowners - gov.scot

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500486835 - Information released - Documents

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