Projected costs of the Scottish Housing Agency: FOI release

Information requested

Information in connection with the announcement that the Scottish Government intends on establishing a new national housing agency. In particular, you requested to know the projected costs for the agency this year and future years, broken down by cost type and year and the projected staffing number of the agency this year and future years, broken down by staff type and year.

Response

On 22 January 2026, the Scottish Government announced its intention to establish a new national housing agency. It confirmed a process to co-design the functions and operating model of the new agency will be led by the Cabinet Secretary for Housing in partnership with local authorities and the Scottish National Investment Bank over the coming months. An update will be made to parliament in March on the design and operating model of More Homes Scotland. We estimate that initial start-up costs will be around £2 million from 2026-27 to 2028-28 when we expect the agency to be operational.

We have produced initial high‑level projections of the agency’s running costs and staffing requirements once it is fully operational. However, these projections depend on a number of key decisions that have not yet been taken regarding the agency’s functions and operating model. These decisions will be informed through the planned co‑design process. Until this work is complete, we cannot provide reliable or detailed projections of the agency’s costs by cost type and year, nor can we provide accurate staffing estimates for future years. We are therefore unable to supply the specific information you have requested at this stage.

​​​​​​​As the requested information relates to the formulation and development of government policy, it is exempt from disclosure under section 29(1)(a) of FOISA. Before deciding to withhold this information from disclosure, section 2(1) of FOISA requires us to consider 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 this exemption except insofar as providing our estimation of the initial start-up costs from 2026-27 to 2028-28, when we expect the agency to be operational. This is because the projections cannot be reasonably relied on until key decisions are made regarding the functions and operating model of the new agency. Sharing the projections before these key decisions are taken would prejudice the policy development process. Delivery costs of the new agency will be determined in the design process, reported to Parliament and otherwise made publicly available in due course. While our estimation of the initial start-up costs may also need to be substantially revised, we have decided that the public interest lies on balance in favour of disclosure as this information is already in the public domain.

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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.