Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group minutes: February 2026

Attendees and apologies

• Màiri McAllan MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Housing (chair)
• Cllr Maureen Chalmers, Community Wellbeing Spokesperson, COSLA
• Aaliya Seyal, CEO, Legal Services Agency
• Alison Watson, Director, Shelter Scotland
• Annabel Pidgeon, Policy Manager, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
• John Mills, Assocation of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers
• Kate Polson, CEO, Rock Trust
• Lorraine McGrath, CEO Simon Community Scotland
• Maggie Brunjes, CEO, Homelessness Network Scotland
• Matthew Downie, Chief Executive, Crisis UK
• Michelle Major, Change Team facilitator, Homelessness Network Scotland
• Ruth Robin, Healthcare Improvement Scotland
• Shea Moran, Programme coordinator, Aff the Streets
• Mike Callaghan, Convention Of Scottish Local Authorities

Also in attendance 

• Matt Elsby, Deputy Director, Better Homes, SG
• Janine Kellett, Head of Homelessness Unit, SG
• Karen Grieve, Homelessness Team Leader, SG
• Andrew Wield, Housing Affordability Team Leader, SG
• Angela McPhail, Homelessness Prevention Team Leader, SG
• Ebba Svantesson, Homelessness Policy Manager, SG
• Dawn Milne, Homelessness Policy Manager, SG
• Carrie Duggan, Homelessness Policy Officer, SG
• Frank Martin, Housing Emergency Team, SG
• Billy McKenzie, Unit Head, Asylum and Refugee Integration, SG
• Adam Krawczyk, Senior Analyst, Housing, Homelessness & Regeneration Analysis, SG
• Christopher Inverarity, Private Secretary, SG

Apologies

• Richard Meade, CEO, SFHA
• Angela Keith, Society Of Local Authority Chief Executives
• Suzanne Thomas, Change Lead

Items and actions

Introduction and matters arising 

The Cabinet Secretary welcomed HPSG members. An update was provided on the development of More Homes Scotland, and the Government will update Parliament in March on the first phase of the programme.

Alison Watson welcomed the progress made around the Temporary Accommodation (TA) Standards and Awaab’s Law but was concerned the latter may not extend protections to children living in temporary accommodation. The Cabinet Secretary emphasised the Government’s expectation that all accommodation must be suitable, including full compliance with damp and mould standards. Janine Kellett advised (having taken advice from colleagues who lead on this policy) that the regulations apply to private residential tenancies, Scottish secure tenancies and short Scottish secure tenancies (as covered by the Repairing and Right to Repair Scheme) and that officials would follow up with Shelter Scotland to consider how protections could be applied to temporary accommodation that is not provided by a SSST.

Homelessness statistics

The Cabinet Secretary highlighted that the latest data underlines the scale of the challenge but that positive progress has been made in 11 and 18 councils on reducing the use of Temporary Accommodation and the number of children in Temporary Accommodation respectively. It was noted that the figures cover the period before the introduction of Housing Emergency Action Plan and that Home Office policy is continuing to have a substantial impact on Scotland’s homelessness landscape.

Other issues discussed included the percentage of social lets made to homeless households, the use of section 5 referrals by councils to RSLs – Annabel Pidgeon offered to share SFHA research on section 5 referrals with HPSG members – a focus on prevention work, greater use of the private rented sector (PRS), and an increase in flipping activity.

Action

• Annabel to share SFHA’s research on section 5 referrals.

Housing related aspects of the 2026-27 budget

The Cabinet Secretary emphasised that increased investment is essential to delivering more affordable housing. Updates on Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) were provided, alongside support for RRTPs and Housing First and an additional £4m for homelessness prevention. Janine offered to share slides on the homelessness budget with HPSG members.

The new housing agency was welcomed by HPSG members, who made suggestions including learning from the Welsh model, opportunities to engage health and social care early in service design of More Homes Scotland, and welcoming the rural and island commitment as part of a regional approach to the agency. Clarity was sought on the extent to which More Homes Scotland will be overseeing the AHSP and what other funding streams will be included.

Cllr Chalmers welcomed the increase in the fund to leave for people affected by domestic abuse. She mentioned Blantyre Life, an intermediate care service designed to help people with long term health conditions stay out of hospital, and to support their return home when leaving hospital. The Cabinet Secretary and HPSG members expressed interest in visiting.

Action

• Janine to share slides on the Homelessness Budget 2026-27 with HPSG members [NB these were shared with the minutes].
• SG officials to coordinate a visit to Blantyre Life with Cllr Chalmers.

No Recourse to Public Funds (NPRF)/Fair Way Scotland evaluation

Maggie Brunjes introduced the Fair Way Scotland (FWS) evaluation,. The aim of the partnership is to deliver a system that prevents destitution and a number of new recommendations were made for the SG and COSLA.

The Cabinet Secretary thanked Maggie and FWS for their work,. The direct link between numbers and spend underlines the need for better engagement with the Home Office to better understand the trajectory and allow governments to plan.

It was suggested that it would be most cost effective to have preventative policy in place from the outset, and the COSLA guidance Foreword | Migration Scotland was referenced as helpful in setting out migrants’ rights and entitlements.

Homelessness prevention pilots and the HPSG’s role in overseeing the implementation of the new duties

Angela McPhail gave a brief overview of the 15 homelessness prevention pilots in addition to the more detailed paper shared with members in advance. The pilots are intended as learning exercises to identify what works, what doesn’t work and why to inform cultural and organisational changes to training, resourcing and infrastructure.

Members welcomed the pilots and the progress made. Additional comments included that testing the ‘act’ element of the pilots is important, that the original vision of ask and act was to help people who fall through the cracks or are hidden in existing systems, and that – rather than asking if the person is at risk of homelessness – the question should be what do you need and how can we support you with that.

Angela then set out a proposal for overseeing implementation of the ask and act duties. It was suggested that responsibility should sit upstream, and that a strategic lead forum will be set up with representation from relevant bodies, which can feed back to HPSG. Angela confirmed the Change Team’s input would be welcome on the strategic forum. Matt Downie proposed a new round of ministerial level engagement to ensure continued buy-in from the top.

Non-legislative solutions to refugee homelessness

The Cabinet Secretary told members that the Scottish Government was facing increasing calls to make legislative changes to local connection and priority need but reaffirmed that she is not minded to roll back the rights of people in Scotland. She is not convinced that such changes would have a practical effect and, even if a right of referral back to the rest of the UK were created, it is unclear how such a mechanism would operate in practice, and there is a risk that people remain in Scotland and become destitute.

The Cabinet Secretary summarised the non-legislative approaches are considered including targeted funding to the local authorities most affected, regional approaches to accommodating households and increasing the use of the private rented sector when discharging homelessness duties.

The Cabinet Secretary and First Minister’s commitment to progressive housing rights and tackling misconceptions around local connection were welcomed, and comparisons were made to the issues facing Ukrainian displaced people. As time for full discussion was constrained, the Cabinet Secretary asked HPSG members to feed in further ideas for non-legislative measures that will alleviate refugee homelessness.

Action

• HPSG members to forward suggestions on non-legislative measures to address refugee homelessness to SG officials.

AOB

The Cabinet Secretary thanked the team for producing the stocktake of recent homelessness policy developments, which has been circulated to members, asking for any comments on this to be fed back to officials.

The Cabinet Secretary concluded the meeting by formally thanking Ruth Robin for her time on the group, acknowledging the enormous contribution she has made to HPSG and to thank her for the links she has made between health and housing.

Action

• HPSG members to feedback any comments on the policy stocktake to officials.