Shelter Scotland welcomes housing emergency action plan - but does not meet scale of challenges
Posted 03 Sep 2025
On Tuesday, 2 August, the Cabinet Secretary for Housing announced a housing emergency action plan in Parliament. This came after Shelter Scotland shared key findings from new Affordable Housing Needs research.
The research, commissioned by Shelter Scotland, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland, shows:
• Scotland needs to deliver 15,693 affordable homes each year in the next Parliament.
• That’s a total of 78,465 homes over five years.
The full report will be published later this month.
Following the announcement, Shelter Scotland Director Alison Watson said:
“There is much to welcome in today’s action plan, but it falls short on delivering the new social homes needed to stop homelessness rising.
“Ahead of today’s statement we called for the Scottish Government to do three main things to end Scotland’s housing emergency:
1.Build the social and affordable homes needed to stop homelessness rising - research published today shows that would take 15,693 homes a year, double this year’s plan for 8,000.
2. Increase funding to local councils to stop the unlawful refusal to accommodate people experiencing homelessness.
3.Prioritise lifting children out of unsuitable temporary accommodation.
“Màiri McAllan has been listening and there is much to welcome in today’s statement about more money for councils, speeding up buying larger homes for families, protections for people experiencing domestic violence and a strong statement to reject racist calls to dilute the legal housing rights that protect us all, no matter where we have come from.
“However, the devil will be in the detail. There is no confirmation of new money to build the extra homes needed. There is no clarification about if the new money for buying homes is new money or money previously earmarked for new build. There was no mention as to whether the Scottish Government remain committed to their 110,000 affordable home target by 2032.
“We must face up to the fact that failing to deliver the 15,693 homes Scotland needs per year means that more people will be homeless. Our fear is that today’s plan, while containing many good things, ultimately falls short of doing enough to stop homelessness rising and fixing the broken and biased housing system.”