Housing to 2040 Strategic Board minutes: January 2025

Attendees and apologies

Attendees

• Paul McLennan, MSP and Minister for Housing (Co-Chair)
• Councillor Maureen Chalmers, COSLA Spokesperson for Community Wellbeing
• (Co-Chair)
• Shirley-Anne Somerville, MSP and Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
• Michael Cameron, Chief Executive, Scottish Housing Regulator
• Sally Thomas, Chief Executive, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
• John Mills, Co-Chair, ALACHO
• Jane Wood, Chief Executive, Homes for Scotland
• Callum Chomczuk, National Director (Scotland), Chartered Institute of Housing
• John Blackwood, Chief Executive, Scottish Association of Landlords
• Sean Neill, Director Local Government, Housing and Planning, Scottish Government (SG)
• Gordon McRae, Assistant Director, Shelter Scotland
• Chris Birt, Associate Director for Scotland, Joseph Rowntree Foundation 
• Matt Downie, Chief Executive, Crisis
• Steven Henderson, Chief Executive, Wheatley
• Maggie Brunjes, Chief Executive, Homeless Network Scotland
• Lauren McNamara, Deputy Director for Housing Emergency Response Division
• Will Tyler-Greig, Deputy Director for More Homes
• Scottish Government Official,  Housing Emergency Division, Scottish Government
• Scottish Government Official,  Housing Emergency Division, Scottish Government
• Scottish Government Official,  Homelessness, Scottish Government
• Mike Callaghan, Policy Manager, COSLA

Items and actions

Welcome and opening remarks

Mr McLennan (Co-Chair) welcomed members to the Housing to 2040 Strategic Board, which was meeting for the second time in its Housing Emergency stance. Mr McLennan welcomed four new Board members who will join the Board to support its Housing Emergency work:

• Alison Watson, Shelter Scotland
• Matt Downie, Crisis
• Steven Henderson, Wheatley
• Maggie Brunjes, Homeless Network Scotland

Gordon McRae, Assistant Director, Shelter Scotland, was attending the meeting on behalf of Alison Watson. The minutes for June, August and October 2024 were cleared for publication. Board members agreed to adjust the agenda for the meeting to spend additional time discussing the proposed 2025/26 budget.

Housing Emergency Update

Mr McLennan set the context for the item and highlighted work undertaken since the last Board. In relation to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which had been contributed to the item by members, Ms Somerville explained that the First Minister was clear that government should remain focused on delivering demonstrable progress to support children and families into permanent homes, noting the numbers of families in temporary and homeless accommodation.

Lauren McNamara presented the item and set out that progress had been made against each of the Housing Emergency pillars. Examples included:

• Intervention in delivery by working with a core group of local authorities who have the most systemic homelessness and temporary accommodation issues.
• Engagement with energy suppliers on barriers to bringing voids into use, with ministers chairing a round table. Scottish Power have offered to progress complex and historic cases which will shortly be taken forward.
• Announcement of a Planning Action Plan, with a short life working group on stalled sites chaired by the Chief Planner, focused on taking action to unblock sites. The group has put out a call for data with a deadline of 10 January, and the group will then agree the criteria for the prioritisation of sites.
• Progress on delivery of funding, notably the targeting of £40 million towards acquisitions and voids which is expected to be fully utilised.

Next steps will include in depth workshops with local authorities on homelessness, with an update to be provided at the next Board meeting. Members acknowledged the progress and collaboration and sought to express the importance of continued pace on the planning work to increase housing supply, as well as ensuring workstreams are interlinked.

Calum Chomczuk queried the timetable for publication of 2022-23 and 2023-24 Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) Outturn reports, and the AHSP Programme Review. Will Tyler-Greig confirmed the 2022-23 report would be published in January 2025 and agreed to come back on the AHSP Review.

Sally Thomas referenced the work with utilities companies and asked about supporting senior utility supplier visits to housing associations along with SG officials. Ms Somerville acknowledged the request and said that she would like to use SG convening power to focus on impact and action but that she was open to visits if they achieve this.

Gordon McRae queried the risk of investing too much in one area, asking whether larger families was an area for consideration for utilisation of the £40m on acquisitions when children without permanent homes were as greatest risk of harm. John Mills said higher end property prices would require a targeted approach to support action here. Steven Henderson also referenced the importance of large strategic sites to address the Housing Emergency and welcomed the recent developments regarding Granton, pointing to further projects in Glasgow as having potential. He also referenced rising borrowing costs for local authorities and housing associations.

Jane Wood asked how we measure an exit from the housing emergency, must be considered. Ms Somerville noted the potential consequences of pursuing KPIs linked to specific delivery targets and asked the Board to contribute thoughts under the Budget item. Matt Downie also queried the availability of data on demand, leading to a short discussion about the Housing Need and Demand Assessment and how that was informed.

Regulatory Change

Ms Somerville introduced the item and explained that the legislation tracker was a first draft, inviting Board member comments. Ms Somerville explained that the regulations being taken forward in many cases were there to protect the vulnerable in society, but government was open to looking at issues in a different way or on a potentially different timeline. Ms Somerville invited new comments and views via correspondence to ensure the Board had time to discuss the Budget item. Jane Wood welcomed the inclusion of the item and the pragmatic view.

Action 

• Members to review the paper provided under the regulatory change item and submit comments.

Budget

Ms Somerville introduced the item and invited Board members to inform government thinking on 2025/26 budget allocations in order to deliver the maximum impact in the next financial year, noting that she was keen to be ready to utilise funding from April 1 should the Budget pass in Parliament. Will Tyler-Greig recapped the headline figures announced in the draft budget and pre-committed funding.

Board members expressed a range of views on budget allocation, and asked for more time and notice to consider. Ms Somerville invited further input as soon as possible, acknowledging that some members asked for additional information, but asked the Board for ‘in principle’ steers. Key points were:

• Gordon McRae acknowledged the scale of the decision for government to reverse the previous budget cut to housing and expressed concern in relation to other areas of local authority funding such as on drug and alcohol services, encouraging a holistic view. Gordon endorsed the principal of targeting Capital spend on those experiencing homelessness, recognising that there would need to be a process between SG and COSLA, but encouraging a focus on reducing harm in an emergency context.
• Matt Downie raised concern about increase in reliance on homelessness services which had not been used for some time, and that focus should be on designing homelessness out of the system – querying local authorities’ planning process.
• Jane Wood said she was keen that funding support for SMEs was taken forward to build on challenging sites and brownfield, and that a digital directorate for planning was important. Jane said that new supply was a key issue, rather than just acquisitions.
• Maggie Brunjes wanted to ensure that the groups at the hardest edges were supported, noting that as well as families with children, those with severe multiple disadvantage should be supported. Maggie proposed linking spend to Housing First targets.
• Sally Thomas welcomed the budget reinstatement and noted the need to move quickly, proposing to potentially increase the grant rate.
• Calum Chomczuk said that it was important to make budget decisions based on available data and pointed to rectifying the balance between tenants and taxpayers.
• Chris Birt also preferred collation of additional data and information in order to express a view.
• John Mills referenced his role as ALACHO chair and the Homelessness Task and Finish Group which agreed that increasing acquisitions would be helpful, noting homelessness backlogs.

Action

• Members to submit any final proposals on budget allocation as soon as possible, noting the importance of having plans ready for the new financial year.

Empty Homes Spotlight Discussion

Jess Niven introduced the item, noting that £2m Resource funding had been provisionally announced as part of the 2025/26 Budget and that members were invited to contribute views on proposals, noting that Ministers had indicated an initial preference to continue to fund the work of the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership.

The Board welcomed the paper and were approving of the proposed match funding of empty homes officer posts. Gordon McRae and Ms Somerville expressed a preference that wherever we can we should target funding to those LAs experiencing the most systemic challenges. There was some discussion that EHOs needed more tools to offer perhaps in the form of incentives or grant to bring properties into use.

The Board expressed general approval of the test and learn approach – on the potential Private Sector Leasing proposal it is too early to assess if the scheme is viable but a further update will be provided at the Board in March. John Mills mentioned the Lead Tenancy Scheme as another option worthy of scoping, which the Housing Emergency team will engage on.

Any other business

Adam Krawczyk gave an overview of work to develop a National Performance Framework Outcome on Housing. Jane Wood expressed a view that an outcome should be attached to a specified target, noting that other National Performance Framework outcomes do not have this.

Cllr Chalmers thanked members and closed the meeting, referencing that COSLA would shortly be convening a special interest group on housing and they would share the resulting report.