Housing to 2040 Strategic Board minutes: March 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
• Fionna Kell, Homes for Scotland
• Callum Chomczuk, National Director (Scotland), Chartered Institute of Housing
• 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
• Grant Campbell, Homeless Network Scotland
• Sean Neill, Director Local Government, Housing and Planning, Scottish Government
• Fiona Simpson, Director Chief Planner
• Lauren McNamara, Deputy Director Housing Emergency Division
• Will Tyler-Greig, Deputy Director More Homes
• Scottish Government Official,  Housing Emergency Division, Scottish Government
• Scottish Government Official,  Housing Emergency Division, Scottish Government
• Scottish Government Official,  Housing Emergency Division, Scottish Government
• Mike Callaghan, Policy Manager, COSLA

Items and actions

Welcome and opening remarks

Cllr Chalmers (Co-Chair) welcomed members to the Housing to 2040 Strategic Board, which was meeting for the third time in its Housing Emergency stance. The meeting would seek to focus on providing a budget update to board members following the discussions that took place at the January board meeting; an update on housing emergency response work; and a spotlight session on partnership working with local authorities.

The Board were asked to consider the draft minute of the January meeting, and the following comments were received:

• Fionna Kell requested that the ask Jane Wood made at the January Board meeting in relation to how we measure an exit from the housing emergency, be reflected in the minutes.
• Gordon MacRae queried the drafting of paragraph 8 of the draft minute as this seemed to set out the opposite to what was said at the meeting.

The Board agreed to clear the minutes, subject to the above two changes being made.

Action

SG officials to revise the draft minutes accordingly and arrange for publication. 

Budget update

The Cabinet Secretary provided an overview of the 2025/26 budget, setting out how the SG has pivoted funding to directly address the housing emergency in a number of ways, for example by:

• Targeting funding on acquisitions in those local authorities facing the most sustained pressures;
• Considering Board feedback on empty homes resource to directly inform the targeted match funding of empty homes officer posts and considering pilot projects;
• Planning to reconsider eligibility criteria for our affordable home ownership schemes to directly address social housing capacity [NB this is an intentionally wide description as format of scheme not yet announced];
• Deploying additional charitable bonds to bring investment into the affordable housing programme, reaching half a billion total investment in this programme.

The Cabinet Secretary also outlined the main funding streams that we will be in the process of delivering from 1 April, including:

• £687.745 million (including £40 million Acquisitions fund) Affordable Housing Supply Programme Capital
• £2 million Resource for the Empty Homes Scheme in 2025/26
• £30 million in Financial Transactions to deliver the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme
• £4 million for Homelessness Prevention Pilots
• £35 million Financial Transactions for Charitable Bonds, and
• £20.9 million Capital Adaptations Funding

On the asks for assurances around multi-year funding, the Cabinet Secretary advised that we cannot make an announcement until after the UK Government Spending Review in June but flagged this remains under active consideration.

Board members asked a number of questions/raised issues in relation to the detail of the 2025/26 budget, including:

• On the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme – what would happen if this years budget was restricted on social housing. The Cabinet Secretary responded that doing so would mean losing the ability to help priority groups in the private rented sector.
• It was asked if the £2bn housing funding announcement made by the UK Government that morning (26 March) would lead to more consequentials for Scotland that could support further acquisition work. The Cabinet Secretary advised that we do not have any further information on this as yet.
• It was asked if RPAs were informed by the Affordable Housing Supply Programme Review and when it will be published. Will Tyler-Greig advised that the review will publish imminently and the RPAs were informed by data sets from previous distributions.
• There was an ask to better understanding the assumptions behind the 2025/26 budget as there were concerns that we will not be on course to meet the 110k target. The Cabinet Secretary acknowledged some of the decisions taken to support the housing emergency response (i.e. focus on acquisitions) will in effect make the 110k target more challenging, but this was the right thing to do to help move us from the current emergency.
• It was flagged that some Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) are stating they don’t have any budget certainty at the moment. Sally Thomas advised that differences at a local level may make this the case, but more detail would be helpful to understand the issues of the RSLs concerned.

Sean Neill committed to coming back to the Board on local authority RPAs and progress at a local level.

The Cabinet Secretary also requested that board members make SG officials aware of any known barriers or problems so that we can take action.

March Housing Emergency Dashboard Update

The Minister for Housing provided board members with an update across the priority areas that make up the Scottish Government’s emergency response:

• Social void property levels have reduced across all of the 5 local authorities experiencing the greatest pressures, with management information from Edinburgh showing that social void levels have been cut by 55% since June 2023. We are now taking this learning to other areas;
• Excellent progress is being made through our work with energy suppliers – with intelligence sharing on long term/historical voids taking place to expedite resolving these and on wider delayed voids;
• The First Minister announcing £15.86m of grant funding from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to City of Edinburgh Council for infrastructure works at Granton Waterfront Phase 1.  This funding will facilitate the delivery of 847 homes including 387 affordable homes; and
• We are moving towards publication of the Housing Investment Taskforce report, along with a Scottish Government response.

The Minister for Housing flagged that significant progress has been made in responding to the 17 asks of the Housing Emergency Coalition over recent months – fully meeting a number of the asks, including:

• Fully reversing the cut to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP);
• Prioritising the building and buying of larger properties specifically for households with children trapped in temporary accommodation; and
• Taking action to address lengthy delays by energy suppliers in replacing or updating meters, so that void social homes can be brought back into use.

Gordon MacRae stated that he would like to see a greater connection in the response work in relation to the direct harm people are experiencing and how we can bring the rights agenda into this work.

John Mills advised that scaling up of new build and acquisitions is required to emerge from the housing emergency, alongside transformational change (referencing work by Professor Ken Gibb). He noted the board needs to look at transformational change as a priority.

Callum Chomczuk enquired if the pause on the Heat in Buildings Bill is due to the focus on the housing emergency response. The Cabinet Secretary advised the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy is currently reviewing the Bill to ensure it achieves its original aims as well as linking to child poverty ambitions.

A discussion then took place on the Stage 2 amendment that has been lodged which would see a requirement to publish a strategy for the private rented sector. The Cabinet Secretary advised it would be useful for the Board to consider this and report back. Callum agreed to speak to John Blackwood regarding this ask.

Steven Henderson asked how we can support local authorities who are experiencing high volumes of asylum seekers who have been granted leave to remain status, following the recent Home Office changes. The Cabinet Secretary advised the SG is closely monitoring the issue and is actively seeking engagement with the Home Office and UKG Ministers, and she would welcome Board members thoughts and suggestions on this challenge.

Action

• Callum Chomczuk to progress discussions with John Blackwood on a Private Rented Sector Strategy.
• Board members to provide thoughts/suggestions on supporting local authorities as they support those granted leave to remain.

COSLA Housing Special Interest Group Update

Cllr Chalmers and Mike Callaghan provided an update on the housing emergency work being undertaken by COSLA’s Special Interest Group on housing. This included a summary of the 18 actions which have been agreed by the Group and confirmation that further medium to long term actions will be developed over the coming weeks to respond to other housing challenges – which will be informed by recommendations from the Scottish Government’s Housing Investment Taskforce, as well as other partners to ensure alignment and coherence with this work.

Gordon MacRae suggested the work of the group explicitly reference the systemic failure of some local authorities to meet statutory housing duties.

The Cabinet Secretary set out that she is keen for COSLA and the SG to work closely to make sure there are no contradictions in our actions and flagged the need for consistency in messaging.

Action

• Board members were invited to provide suggestions on medium to long term actions being developed by COSLA to respond to Scotland's housing challenges.

Spotlight: Housing Emergency – Partnership working with Local Authorities

Frank Martin provided an overview of the work that has been undertaken over the last six months with those local authorities identified as experiencing the greatest homelessness and temporary accommodation pressures - to support a tailored localised response. This includes taking forward work with energy suppliers to resolve longstanding individual cases which have prevented council owned property from being leased to new tenants; supporting work to reduce voids and privately owned empty homes; the acquisition of properties and carefully considering requests on legislation and funding.

Gordon MacRae commented that the five local authorities identified are under the greatest pressures and this will impact their capacity to meet their statutory duties, noting the link to more fundamental structural challenges in the housing system and wider funding pressures.

John Mills advised that across the five local authorities, progress is being made but a more transformational change in relation to housing finance is required to resolve the housing emergency.

Steven Henderson commented that Mid-Market Rent should be seen as an additional resource to tackle homelessness.

Action

• Board members were invited to share reflections and suggestions on how best to disseminate emerging learnings, so that good practice can be shared, adapted and adopted.

Stalled Sites

Fiona Simpson updated members on the Stalled Sites work being led by Planning, Architecture and Regeneration Directorate (PARD), in support of the housing emergency and with the aim of accelerating delivery of homes. The update set out:

• 113 self-selected sites have been mapped and categorised by degree of progress towards build out. We will track progress as we provide interim and final reports.
• Site specific brokerage was offered to 8 authorities covering 10 sites, of which 3 offers have been firmly accepted, others have requested SG involvement at a more appropriate time given the project timelines, whilst some authorities have advised appropriate action is already underway. Care is needed in undertaking brokerage to ensure statutory roles of Ministers and planning authorities are not impacted. A transparent and consistent approach is therefore being taken.
• On the strategic actions, HOPS are convening a discussion with the Heads of Planning and Heads of Housing in the 5 authorities with greatest levels of homelessness. The aim is to consider what further could be done to assist in delivery of more affordable housing.
• Engagement is on-going with a range of agencies, including SEPA, Scottish Water, NatureScot and Transport Scotland, highlighting the significance of their role in addressing the housing emergency. Connections have been made with the Housing Investment Taskforce and discussions are taking place with Scottish Future Trust, the Scottish Government Infrastructure Division and the National Planning Improvement Champion.

Fionna Kell thanked Fiona for this and commented that it has been a good piece of work across all tenures and parties. Sally Thomas endorsed that thanks.

Any other business

No other business was raised by Board members.

Cllr Chalmers thanked members, advised that the next meeting will take place in May and closed the meeting.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​