CIH Scotland responds to Programme for Government

In today's Programme for Government announcement, First Minister John Swinney talked about the need for a radical reshaping of public services, to focus on prevention and early intervention. We agree fully with this approach and the housing sector has demonstrated time and time again the value of prevention.

Investing in homes and housing services improves people's health and wellbeing, keeps people out of hospital and residential care and allows people to live independently in communities for longer. Stable housing helps people to put down roots, build social connections and develop resilience. It improves people's lives and it saves money.

We welcome the government's commitment to tackle violence against women and girls, and for funding to support third sector services and the Fund to Leave. Social landlords are well placed to support survivors of domestic abuse, but only if they have the resources to embed meaningful change.

We also welcome the commitment to introduce the heat in buildings bill, which was delayed during the last parliamentary term. A robust bill is essential to provide certainty for housing providers, tenants and owners and for industry to build the skills and capacity needed to deliver energy efficiency measures and clean heating systems.

While the First Minister repeated the Scottish government's commitment to deliver 110,000 social and affordable homes by 2032, he provided little detail of how these new homes will be delivered. This follows mounting evidence that the government is falling significantly behind its own target and even further behind the target of 15,693 homes per year set out in the research we published with Shelter Scotland and SFHA.

CIH Scotland director Gillian McLees said: “The commitments announced today represent an important opportunity to respond to the housing challenges facing communities across Scotland. However, the success of the Programme for Government will be determined not by ambition alone, but the detail that sits behind the plan. We will welcome further information and detail, to provide confidence that progress can be achieved at the pace and scale required.”

As the professional body for housing professionals CIH Scotland looks forward to working closely with the Scottish Government, local authorities, housing associations and other partners to support delivery of homes.